MANILA, Dec. 31, 2012—As the New Year heralds a new beginning, it is also a time that brings people to wish for a better future and a safer world to live in.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, in a New Year message said that hope for a better future is what precisely every New Year stirs up in the hearts of people.
Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle
“The New Year is an appropriate time to reawaken our desire for a better future, for new beginnings, and for a world that could afford us the achievement of our dreams,” he said.
But he also stressed that “all this could be fulfilled only in peace and through peace.”
The beginning of the New Year or January 1 is traditionally celebrated by the Catholic Church as World Day of Peace.
Tagle said that for Christians, “peace is primarily God’s gift [as] God created everything in love and willed that diverse creatures live in harmony with one another.”
“When sin disrupted the concord enjoyed by human beings with God, with each other and with creation, God relentlessly pursued His design for universal peace, culminating in the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace,” he furthered.
He also said that it is “through the Holy Spirit [that] we are constantly recreated in Christ’s peace.”
The cardinal said that as we should be thankful to God “for opening for us the door to peace”, we also have to fulfill our “responsibility to enter that door.”
“God’s is the gift, ours is the mission of building peace,” he said.
“I share the dream of all Filipinos for peace and harmony in all aspects of our lives. We know, however, that peace can only be promoted by peacemakers, by people whose minds, consciences, attitudes and styles of life are devoid of self-interest,” said Tagle.
He said peacemakers only seek the “common good” as they “spread honesty, respect and friendship”, further urging everyone to pray for peace and live as true peacemakers. (CBCPNews)
