"God will call to account those who have not sought peace.""It is Christ who welcomes, who listens. It is Christ who forgives"."Let us not tire of praying for peace," says Arab Christian in Nazareth.In recent days, the ".Pope Francis' Message for the 58th World Day of Peace", to be celebrated on January 1, 2025, and the "Message of the Permanent Episcopal Council of the Italian Episcopal Conference" for the 47th National Day for Life, set for next February 2.
Both documents-although with different impact in terms of the public to whom they are addressed and the "weight" of those who promote them-are framed in the imminent Jubilee Year and, precisely for this reason, present direct calls to hope and responsibility towards others and towards the future. Starting from respect for life and the construction of peace, which are the central ideas of both texts, society can finally regain confidence in itself.
The hope that gives justice and peace
In his message for the World Day of Peace, the Pope insists on the urgency of listening to the "desperate cry for help" that arises from social, environmental and economic injustices, as he had already underlined in the Bull of Convocation of the Holy Year. "Breaking the chains of injustice" becomes an imperative, with an invitation for cultural and structural change that recognizes shared responsibility for the common good.
In this context, Francis proposes concrete gestures of reconciliation: the cancellation of international debt, the abolition of the death penalty and the creation of a world fund to fight hunger and climate change. In this way, peace is the fruit of a "disarmed heart" - an expression so dear to his predecessor St. John XXIII - capable of acknowledging debts to God and to one's neighbor, but also of forgiving and building bridges.
"Love and truth shall meet, justice and peace shall kiss," the Pontiff stressed, referring to Psalm 85, indicating that true peace is never a mere compromise, but the result of an inner disarmament that overcomes selfishness and consequently opens to hope.
Life as hope made flesh
In the message of the Italian bishops, the theme of hope resonates in the appeal to transmit life as an act of trust in the future. In the face of the "great slaughter of innocents" caused by wars, migrations and hunger, but also by the declining birth rate and abortion, the Italian Bishops' Conference denounces the logic of utilitarianism that devalues human life. "Every new life is hope made flesh," the Message affirms, urging a "social alliance" that promotes pro-birth policies and support for families, against the culture of death and cynicism.
The Bishops also recall the need to overcome the mentality that reduces abortion to a right, underlining how the defense of nascent life is closely linked to the defense of every human right. Here too, the Jubilee becomes an occasion to begin anew with "new beginnings": forgiveness, justice and hope as divine gifts for a world that looks to the future with confidence.
A single horizon
As the Pope reminds us, "peace comes not only with the end of war, but with the beginning of a new world"; a world in which life is welcomed as a gift and justice is lived as mutual responsibility.
The "culture of life" invoked by the Italian bishops and the "unarmed heart" promoted by the Pontiff represent, therefore, the two sides of the same coin: a humanity reconciled with God and with itself, capable of giving future prospects to the new generations. And everyone is called not to remain a spectator, but to make a personal commitment through concrete gestures that can respond to the thirst for hope that the world is crying out for.
