It's still the same bad world out there

CHANGE: You have sent text greetings to everybody who matters. You have delivered gifts to dear ones. You have been generous in giving tips and alms, and cheerful in your countenance despite the stress. You have rid the refrigerator of expired items and cleaned the closets. You have thrown out the garbage. Your mind, hopefully, has been cleared of the cobwebs of negative thoughts. You have armed yourself with iron-clad resolutions.

You think you are ready for 2010? What awaits you? Tomorrow, first working day of the new year, will see the start of the test of how different, how better, will be the next 362 days.

Like a drunk shaking off a hangover, you will notice that the world out there is still more or less the same. While you may have resolved to change, it seems the rest of mankind has not.

Is a new year really upon us? Maybe. But any change will have to start with you and me, and the rest, hopefully, will follow.

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PATH TO PEACE: Men have roamed the earth in search of peace, but sometimes end up locked in war and conflict. How come?

(What follows is a rewrite of a Zenit news item out of Rome last Jan. 1, the annual observance of the World Day of Peace.)

Peace begins when we look at one another as persons, regardless of race, nationality, language or religion, Pope Benedict XVI said in a homily last Friday at St. Peter’s. But, he reminds us, this is only possible when God dwells in our hearts.

Celebrating Mass for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, the Pontiff also offered reflections on the depth of the human face.

“To meditate on the mystery of the face of God and man is a privileged path that leads to peace,” the Pope suggested. “This (peace) begins by looking upon others with respect, recognizing in the face of the other a person, regardless of the color of his skin, his nationality, his language or his religion.”

“But who, if not God, can guarantee (that we see) what we could call the ‘depth’ of the face of the person?” he continued. “Only if we have God in our hearts are we in a condition to detect in the face of others a brother in humanity — not a means, but an end, not a rival or an enemy, but another ‘I.’

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RESONANCE: The Holy Father said: “Our perception of the world and, in particular, of our peers, essentially depends on the presence within us of the Spirit of God.”

“It is a type of ‘resonance’: One who has an empty heart does not perceive anything more than flat images, lacking depth. But, the more we are inhabited by God, the more sensitive we are to his presence in those who surround us — in all creatures, and especially in other people.”

But the Pope acknowledged that the “human face, marked by the harshness of life and evil” sometimes struggles to be an “epiphany of God.”

“To recognize and respect each other for what we truly are, that is, brothers,” he said, “it is even more necessary to make reference to the face of a common Father, who loves us all, despite our limits and errors.”

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GOD’S FACE: Benedict XVI’s homily was a reflection on the face of God and the faces of man, which he proposed as a key for understanding the issue of peace in the world.

“The face is the expression of the person, par excellence,” he suggested. “It is what makes him recognizable and where he shows sentiments, thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

He continued, “By nature, God is invisible. Nevertheless, the Bible also applies this image to him. … The whole of biblical history can be read as a progressive unveiling of the face of God, up to the point of his full revelation in Jesus Christ.”

Referring to Mary’s title as Mother of God, the Pontiff explained that “the face of God has taken a human face, allowing himself to be seen and recognized in the son of the Virgin Mary.”

“A mother has a very special relationship — unique and exclusive in every way — with a newborn,” the Pope said. “The first face that a child sees is that of his mother, and this gaze is decisive for his relationship with life, with himself, with others, with God. It is decisive as well so that he can become a ‘child of peace.’”

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LAUGHING TOGETHER: Benedict XVI stressed the importance of being educated in respect for those who are different starting in childhood.

He renewed his call to “invest in education, establishing the objective — beyond the necessary transmission of technical-scientific notions — of a broader and deeper ‘ecological responsibility,’ based in respect for the person and his fundamental rights and duties.”

“Today it is ever more common to have the experience of classrooms made up of children of various nationalities, though also when this doesn’t occur, their faces are a prophecy of the humanity that we are called to form: a family of families and peoples.”

These children, he said, “despite their differences, cry and laugh in the same way; they have the same needs; they communicate spontaneously; they play together….”

“The faces of children are like a reflection of the vision of God for the World,” the Pope said. “Why then wipe away their smiles? Why poison their hearts?”

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