8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
on those who do evil things.
1 Peter 3:8-12 (The Message Translation)
There is no peace without a passionate love for peace. There is no peace without a relentless determination to achieve peace.
Peace awaits its prophets. Together, we have filled our eyes with visions of peace: visions that release energies for a new language of peace and for new gestures of peace. These gestures will shatter the fatal chains of division, whether inherited from history or spawned by modern ideologies.
Peace awaits its builders. Let us reach out to our brothers and sisters and encourage them to build peace on the four pillars of truth, justice, love, and freedom.
Peace is a workshop open to all, not just to specialists, savants, and strategists. Peace is a universal responsibility: it comes about through a thousand small acts in daily life. By their customary way of living with others, people choose for or against peace. We entrust the cause of peace, especially to the young. May young people help free history from the wrong paths.
Peace rests with individuals and nations alike. Nations can ground peacemaking in the belief that human dignity is sacred and all people are equal. We urge national leaders and international organizations to establish dialogue wherever peace is threatened or broken, and support their difficult efforts to preserve or restore it. We again call on the United Nations to fulfill its full universal mission of peace.
In response to my appeal from Lyon, France, on the feast of Saint Francis, which Catholics celebrate today, we hope the weapons have fallen silent, and attacks have ceased. This would be prayer’s first significant result. Many worldwide have echoed the appeal, especially those suffering from war and its consequences.
It is vital to choose peace and the means to achieve it. Peace is fragile and demands constant, intensive care. Along this path, we shall move forward with confidence and renewed resolve, for people have never had more means to build true peace than they do today. Humanity has entered an era of greater solidarity and a growing hunger for social justice. This is our chance—and our task. Prayer helps us face it.
Excerpted from the words of His Holiness, Saint Pope John Paul II
Pastoral Visit to Perugia and Assisi
Basilica of Saint Francis, 27 October 1986
Read the Vatican text
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