Second Sunday in Ordinary time Year C 16/01/2022 Jn 2,1-11
Pope Francis’ message for Peace Sunday: "Great social challenges and peace processes necessarily call for dialogue between the keepers of memory — the elderly — and those who move history forward — the young." He adds that education must be viewed as an investment rather than an expenditure and that it is vital for "promoting integral human development." Such investments, he says, "make individuals more free and more responsible. They are essential for the defence and promotion of peace." Greater educational training, he continues, will help facilitate more "dignified employment opportunities" in the labour market, which will help counter the rise of violence and organized crime around the globe. Pope Francis acknowledges the myriad of ways in which COVID has disrupted human relationships, economic opportunities and exacerbated inequalities. Church and world leaders alike, along with all people of goodwill, he pleads, must "walk together with courage and creativity on the path of intergenerational dialogue, education and work." As always, Pope Francis appeals to governments across the world to put the human person "at the centre" of all political, social and economic activity.
Making all things new was evident in Jesus’ life. Water is not only good it is essential, Jesus takes what is good and makes it into something new, enriches it. Paul writes about the gifts with which we are blessed, noting that we are better at some rather than others. But gifts need other people to find their fulfilment, implying we can only find true fulfilment with others. Pope Francis recognises that each person is a gift. Acknowledging this, we will each use our particular gifts to acknowledge and affirm the gifts in others. Using our gifts for the benefit of others is the best way to work for peace. Without peace, injustice, violence, cruelty and abuse have free rein, people have little value except as tools for the powerful to be used and discarded as they wish.
William Blake:
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
all pray in their distress,
and to these virtues of delight
return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
is God our Father dear;
and Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
is man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart,
pity, a human face;
and Love, the human form divine;
and Peace, the human dress.
Then every man, of every clime,
that prays in his distress,
prays to the human form divine:
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form,
in heathen, Turk, or Jew.
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell,
there God is dwelling too.