Today the Church celebrates “Peace Sunday”- an invitation at the start of each new year to rededicate ourselves to the mission given to us by Christ himself to build peace in our world and our own community. How urgently we need to do this – every day the news shows us how broken and traumatised our world/country/city is by violence. Pope Francis often described this as a “world war fought in instalments.” Think Ukraine, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, Sudan... Think inner city knife crime/drugs/gangs

In his first World Peace Day message Pope Leo reflects deeply on how promoting/building peace is at the heart of the Church’s mission. He writes: “Peace is a principle that guides and defines our choices. Even in places where only rubble remains, and despair seems inevitable, we still find people who have not forgotten peace. Just as on the evening of Easter Jesus entered the place where his disciples were gathered in fear and discouragement, so too the peace of the Risen Christ continues to pass through doors and barriers in the voices and faces of his witnesses. This gift enables us to remember goodness, to recognise it as victorious, to choose it again, and to do so together.”

This weekend we have a 2nd collection to support the work of Pax Christi, the international Catholic movement for Peace. Pax Christi was itself born out of the experience of war as it was founded by a French woman, Martha Dortel-Claudot, in France in 1945 to pray for reconciliation between the people of France & Germany. Today Pax Christi works in over 50 countries: a network of Christians inspired to work for peace, reconciliation and nonviolent change. In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist proclaims Jesus as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world”. Jesus himself lived in violent, brutal times but he transformed the world not through more violence but through the power of his unconditional love. This is our mission – to follow Jesus’ command to love our enemies and so to respond to evil with good and so break the chain of hatred, injustice, violence and war.

New Year blessings & prayers, Fr Richard, Fr Ephrem & all the parish team
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