Working for Peace

That is the title of the Lenten message Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino has written for all Venezuelan Catholics to reflect on in these days. I will summarize some of its main points; you can find the full text at www.arquidiocesisdecaracas.com. It will be read publicly in all the parishes of Caracas on March 10 and 11, and in the classrooms of Catholic schools. All of us Catholics must Work for Peace, because ALL Venezuelans are crying out for Peace, calm and tranquility… We are made for Peace, and we cannot be happy living any other way.

So we must make good use of this season of Lent, which the Cardinal describes as a time of grace and salvation before Holy Week, in which we prepare to celebrate with renewed hearts the sublime events of the passion, death and glorious resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Sunday readings, he says, invite us to contemplate Jesus Christ, to deepen our faith in him, and to welcome the Father’s urgent invitation: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mk 9:7).

In Lent especially, the Cardinal continues, God invites us to be converted, that is, to change our attitude, to live our faith better, and to improve our relationship with God and with others, reviewing our lives in the light of the Word of God, which is the word of eternal life and happiness: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28). He asks us to examine our consciences to see whether we truly keep that Word, which clearly requires following Jesus Christ and keeping the Ten Commandments. This Lent, he notes, the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference invites us especially to live the commandment of love of neighbor and, specifically, to work for peace, one of Christ’s fundamental demands, since in the Beatitudes he tells us: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). That call, he says, is particularly urgent in Venezuela and in Caracas, where in recent years a current of violence, hatred and selfishness has taken hold, showing itself in the aggressiveness of daily life and, alarmingly, in rising insecurity and murderous crime, sometimes with a cruelty never before seen among us. State institutions must certainly fulfill their duty to protect our personal safety and property, he adds, but all Venezuelans are called to set aside every kind of violence.

That is why, the message explains, the Venezuelan bishops chose life and peace as the theme of this year’s Share campaign (Campaña Compartir 2012). We must strive to promote and defend life, work for peace, and educate children and young people for peace, each of us trying to be a builder of peace in our families, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces, and in social and political life. Working for peace, he reminds us, requires living in truth and love, practicing justice and promoting freedom. In this election year in particular, he says, all Venezuelans, and especially Catholics, must make a greater effort to banish from our conduct everything contrary to peace: selfishness and indifference, anger and resentment, disrespect for others, verbal violence, political aggression, physical attacks and so on. Instead we are called to be kind and respectful, generous and tolerant, to help those in need, and to foster calm and harmony wherever we are.

And here the Cardinal points to a key for achieving Peace: working for peace in a world full of violence requires God’s help. So we must draw closer to God by intensifying our religious and spiritual life: fervent prayer and Sunday Mass; generosity and charity toward those in need; and penance and sacrifice to master our bad inclinations, offering our lives to God in union with the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He asks us to put aside every kind of sin, to take part in the religious practices of Lent, and to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.

I hope all of us Catholics will follow this timely call and contribute our grain of sand to building a country that is crying out for PEACE for EVERYONE, because we are ALL brothers and sisters, ALL children of God in this wonderful Land of Grace, and we must behave accordingly.