On 27 October the Church marked the 25th anniversary of that historic meeting when Blessed John Paul II assembled the heads and representatives of Christian churches, ecclesial communities and world religions in Assisi, the city of Saint Francis, with the intention of praying and fasting for peace. On that occasion the Holy Father noted: “Peace needs to be built on justice, truth, freedom and love”. He also declared that “religions have the necessary function of helping to dispose human hearts, so that true peace can be fostered and preserved”.
The five addresses that were given on the ‘Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World’, all tried to answer the pivotal question that spurred the meeting to be convoked and organized. Who are the pilgrims of truth and peace?
For the secretary-general of the World Council of Churches, Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, these prophetic pilgrims are the young people. Saint Francis can show them the way since “he surrendered his life to God.
“His passion for the goodness of creation and example of radical daring for peace show the significance of faith and the courage of young people. What Francis accomplished as a young man in his twenties is a salutary reminder of the important role that young people need to and can play both in the faith communities and in wider society.”
Hence, “we need the vision and the courage of young people for the necessary changes. We see how young people lead processes of democratisation and peace in many countries today… We elders standing here need to work together for peace between generations and to give young people throughout the world real hope for the future”.
In his speech Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, stated that the representatives of different religious traditions are instrumental for peace in our conflict-torn world. “We come from different religious traditions and from various parts of the world to renew and strengthen a quest for the truth that each of us, out of our own tradition, is ceaselessly committed to. We come also to bear witness to the great power of religion for good, and to renew a common commitment to building peace, to reconciling those in conflict and to bringing man back into harmony with creation.”
The same thought was expressed by both the general secretary of the International Conference of Islamic Scholars, Kyai Haji Hasyimmuzadi, as well as by Rabbi David Rosen. The latter said: “Our duties as religious communities are to bring freedom to all believers to truly comprehend their fates and reduce their misunderstanding of religions that leads social conflict among humanity.” For Rabbi Rosen, duty needs to be articulated into that singular admiration of God’s work for peace in the heart and mind of every human being. “However what men and women of faith seek and for which they strive ‘to ascend to the mountain of the Lord’, is the appreciation of peace as the sublime expression of Divine Will and the Divine Image in which every human person is created.”
Ultimately, according to Pope Benedict XVI, agnostics are the “‘pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace’. … They take away from militant atheists the false certainty by which these claim to know that there is no God and they invite them to leave polemics aside and to become seekers who do not give up hope in the existence of truth and in the possibility and necessity of living by it. But they also challenge the followers of religions not to consider God as their own property, as if he belonged to them, in such a way that they feel vindicated in using force against others. These people are seeking the truth, they are seeking the true God, whose image is frequently concealed in the religions because of the ways in which they are often practised. … So all their struggling and questioning is in part an appeal to believers to purify their faith, so that God, the true God, becomes accessible.”
Are we pilgrims of truth and peace for those around us?
Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann