S. John Paul II Homil. 377


APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE TO BANGLADESH, SINGAPORE, FIJI ISLANDS,

NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA AND SEYCHELLES

Canberra (Australia), 24 November 1986



378 "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings . . .".

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

1. These are Jesus’ words at the beginning of his saving mission. He returned to the synagogue at Nazareth where he had been brought up, and there he proclaimed these same words that we have heard in today’s Liturgy. Then he added: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing". It is at the beginning of his public life and of the messianic mission for which he had come into the world.

And from then on Jesus continues to preach the Good News, a message of salvation and radical Christian freedom offered through the grace of God: "good news to the poor . . . release to the captives . . . recovering of sight to the blind . . . freedom for the oppressed . . . the acceptable year of the Lord".

2. Christ’s messianic mission, proclaimed that day at Nazareth, does not stop. It continues to be communicated through the Church. It has taken root among the peoples and nations of every continent.

In the name of that mission the Successor of Peter has come today to the capital city of Australia. Like my predecessor Paul VI, who, sixteen years ago, was the first Pope to visit Australia, I come as a pilgrim of faith. It is appropriate that this pilgrimage should begin in Canberra, the national capital and itself a symbol of this young and vigorous society.

In the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I come before you, my brothers and sisters in Australia. While everything around us speaks of newness, I am very much aware of the great antiquity of this land and of its indigenous people whose origins stretch back beyond recorded history. At the beginning of my stay with you I express my respect and esteem for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples, and I assure them of my friendship.

I greet the bishops – especially you, Archbishop Carroll – and all the priests, religious and lay people who are here and who represent at this Eucharistic celebration the entire Church in this land. I express my heartfelt union in prayer with the members of all the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities. I greet the distinguished representatives of Australia’s public life. And in this assembly I embrace the entire country: the young and the old, the weak and the strong, those who believe and those whose hearts are weighed down by doubt. I embrace you all and offer you to our heavenly Father.

3. The explorers who set forth from Europe with such courage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had already suspected the existence of a great land mass in the South. Some of them called this unknown land "The South Land of the Holy Spirit". The early navigators plotted the course of their southern voyages by the brilliant stars. They rejoiced to see in the night sky a constellation with five points of light in the shape of a cross. The Southern Cross not only shines above you in the sky; it stands as your national symbol, everywhere visible on your flag. It is a constant reminder to people of faith that the Cross of Christ is at the heart of our earthly existence and guarantees our heavenly destiny. The Holy Spirit and the Cross both recall that the saving death of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are present in the very heart of our human history, and consequently in the history of Australia.

It was the power of the Holy Spirit that sustained the Christian people in the early days of the colony, and kept them faithful to the traditions of their faith. And it was the impelling love of Christ, seen most clearly on the Cross, that moved the first chaplains and priests to minister to convicts and free settlers alike with such courage and endurance, often in great isolation and loneliness. It was the Holy Spirit, bringing understanding across the barriers of division and suspicion, that stirred the heart of the first Anglican chaplain, the Reverend Richard Johnson, to welcome a group of Spanish priests visiting Sydney in 1793 with, in their own words, "kindness and humility, and a simplicity that was truly evangelical".

Heroic witnesses of Christ like love from those early years, whose memory and example should never be forgotten, are Archbishop John Bede Polding, Caroline Chisholm and Mother Mary MacKillop. They too were moved with compassion by what they saw around them. Selflessly they served Christ in the convicts, in distressed and unprotected women, the Aboriginal women, and the scattered flock of the interior. The Christian pioneers of the nineteenth century truly shared the sufferings of Christ and experienced the power of his Resurrection. They sacrificed and laboured hard, in those frugal days before there was the abundance that Australia has now come to enjoy, to build churches and schools, so that the truth of Christ would be taught, handed on and lived in this land.

379 These outstanding people of faith loved Mary the Mother of God with a special devotion, and found in her example of faith and humble service the strength to persevere and remain faithful. Father Therry placed the original Saint Mary’s in Sydney, the mother church of Australia, under the protection of Mary as Our Lady Help of Christians. In 1847, my predecessor Pius IX named her the spiritual Patroness of Australia.

4. Like the great throng of witnesses who have gone before us, we must not lose sight of Jesus. The challenge to follow him today is not quite what the pioneers faced yesterday. But the means to genuine discipleship and witness remain the same for every generation: the surpassing knowledge and love of Christ.

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus say to the Apostles: "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms . . . And when I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and will take you to myself".

Jesus – the One whom the Father has anointed and sent into the world – leads us back to "the Father’s house". This phrase speaks to us about the final dimension of our human destiny. The Gospel message of the saving Death and Resurrection of Christ leading to eternal life reveals the true meaning of our existence. It helps us to understand what is really at stake in human life. Jesus’ words – "that where I am you may be also" – are the definitive challenge and the ultimate meaning of our human endeavours.

Rightly, the Apostle Thomas expresses the anxiety which we all feel when we meditate on what Jesus is saving. He asks: "How can we know the way?". And it is precisely in answer to this question that Jesus expresses the full meaning of his messianic role: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life". These are the words chosen as the theme of my visit to Australia. It is appropriate that during this liturgical celebration we reflect on their meaning for our lives.

5. Jesus is our Way. The way of Jesus through life was not one of his own choosing but the one the Father had chosen for him. He followed it unswervingly and humbly, even to death on the Cross. In so doing, Jesus became the way for us. Only loving acceptance like his leads to the Father. We follow the way that is Jesus when, like him, we let the Father lead us back to himself by the paths that he knows are best for us. Our lives begin in this world of time, but their destination is eternity. "Our homeland is in heaven", and "we look for things that are in heaven where Christ is". To live as though this visible and transitory world were all we have is to lose our way.

We are pilgrims progressing from time to eternity, and our goal is the Father himself. He constantly calls us beyond what is familiar and comfortable to new paths of faith and trust. As we draw nearer, he sometimes seems to draw away, but only because he is a mysterious God whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not our ways. Like Abraham, we must go forward, not knowing where we are being led. Like Abraham, and Jesus after him, we must constantly turn towards the Father, who is faithful, and trust him. Moment by moment, if we respond to the Father’s love, he will bring us unerringly, through Jesus, to himself.

6. Jesus is our Truth. He himself stated that everything he said he had learned from his Father. "The Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak". And since the Father’s word is truth, Jesus speaks the truth. In fact Jesus is the truth. For he is everything the Father has to say: he is the Father’s Word. Only he can restore true sight to our distorted vision so that we can see and know God, ourselves and our world in truth. In the truth that is Jesus we know God as a Father of infinite love and mercy. We know all people as the Father’s very own children "to whom he has been pleased to give the kingdom", that is, his very self. In Jesus, we see all the Father’s children called into a wonderful unity and peace: "no longer Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, but all one in Christ". Only in the truth that is Jesus can we hope to acknowledge, defend and promote the dignity, freedom and integral well-being of the human person.

7. Finally, Jesus is our Life. By emptying himself on the Cross he received the fullness of the Father’s gift: "All that I have is yours, and all you have is mine". Lifted up on the Cross before the world, Jesus is filled with life by the Father and raised up to be the source of life for all who believe in him. Life is always the Father’s gift, and those who receive it must reverence all life, especially human life in all stages of its development, and abhor all violence against it.

In the Eucharist, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is present, given up in death and raised to life; he is present as the source of life for those who come to him. "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me". In this Eucharist which we are celebrating in the capital of Australia, Jesus our Way, our Truth and our Life offers himself to the Father for the salvation of the world. He takes to himself our hopes and our joys, our sufferings and anxieties, and in return he gives us the strength to follow his Way, to live by his Truth, and to experience his Life. This is his gift to the Australian people!

8. This Mass is being offered for peace and justice. We recognize, in other words, that Jesus leads us to the Father’s house along paths which pass through a world that needs redemption – a world profoundly disturbed by the effects of selfishness, violence and sin. Humbly, then, we ask God’s blessings of peace and justice for our selves and for the entire human family. We cannot forget the people far away from us. We cannot forget our brothers and sisters who are suffering and need our help – wherever they may be.

380 In this International Year of Peace, many appeals have been made, many initiatives have been proposed, and people almost everywhere have expressed their desire for peace. At Assisi recently I joined with the representatives of different Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities, as well as representatives of non-Christian religions, in order to implore this great gift from God. We cannot doubt that it is his will that people should live in peace. Yet we are aware – in the words of Paul VI – that "true peace must be founded on justice, upon a sense of the intangible dignity of man, upon the recognition of an abiding and happy equality between individuals, upon the basic principle of human brotherhood, that is, of the respect and love due to each human being, because he is human".

It is here that we fail. Justice is so often lacking between individuals, between groups, and nations, and blocs of nations.

In contrast, Christ’s messianic mission is one of peace and justice. He came " to bring good tidings . . . to bind up the brokenhearted . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . . to comfort all who mourn . . .". Peace can develop only where the requirements of universal justice are fulfilled.

Dear brothers and sisters: let us ask Christ, "the Way, the Truth and the Life", to teach us the path of peace and justice. Let us ask him to convince us that our common humanity requires solidarity among us, and love and respect for human life everywhere.

9. Let us also pray that, through the service of the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter, the whole Church in Australia will be united ever more closely with Christ, "the Way, the Truth and the Life".

As the Letter to the Galatians reminds us: "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ . . . you are all one in Christ Jesus . . . In Christ Jesus you are all children of God, through faith". Together we are on the way to the Father’s house.

Look, dear people of Australia, and behold this vast continent of yours! It is your home! The place of your joys and your pains, your endeavours and your hopes! And for all of you, Australians, the Way to the Father’s house passes through this land.

Jesus Christ is the Way!

And he is your Truth and your Life! "Jesus Christ . . . yesterday, today and for ever!". Amen.

APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE TO BANGLADESH, SINGAPORE, FIJI ISLANDS,

NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA AND SEYCHELLES

Christchurch (New Zealand), 24 November 1986



"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen".

381 Dear Brothers and Sisters, dear Friends,

1. My thanks to you for coming to take part in this act of prayer; how fitting that it should be my first encounter with the Christian people in Christchurch. With great pleasure I join with leaders of the Catholic Church and other Christian Communions in New Zealand, with the Mayor and Mayoress of Christchurch, with representatives from Samoa, and especially with the Maori people, who have already welcomed me here so warmly. With Bishop Hanrahan and with Bishop Ashby, who have done so much for good relations among Christians, I rejoice at this occasion which speaks so vividly of the desire of New Zealand Christians, especially of you who are present here today, for that unity which our Lord wills for his followers.

2. New Zealand has always been a place of new beginnings. Your ancestors came here to make a better life in a land of opportunity. You yourselves have faced problems with vigour and have tried to find solutions. In this spirit you have faced the divisions among Christians. You have entered into dialogue, collaborated in projects for justice, peace and human well-being, and you have sought to devise suitable means to enable the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities to work and pray together for full unity.

Jesus Christ came to "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad". This is the design of God - that the human family should be one. It was Christ’s work on the Cross to bring together the broken fragments of humanity. The Church was founded by Christ as an instrument for this purpose. It is precisely in the Church that, through the Holy Spirit, the recomposition of broken humanity is to be carried on. The Church herself is the beginning of the incorporation of all peoples into Jesus Christ as one Lord, and she is the sign of God’s whole purpose. She is united in herself in order to bring about the unity, peace, and reconciliation which are a foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

3. Such unity can only be the gift of God. It is much more than a federation, a working arrangement, a means of enabling the followers of Jesus Christ to do certain things together. "The promise we have from God is the promise of the unity which is the essence of himself". It is a unity which is nothing less than a sharing in that communion which is the inner life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a unity in the profession of the apostolic faith. It is a unity in that sacramental life whereby Jesus Christ touches human lives with his salvation and maintains the communion of believers in one visible body. It is also a unity with the visible teaching authority of the Church, which in God’s design necessarily expresses her inner communion. Only a deeply interior yet fully visible unity such as this could be adequate for Christ’s mission to knit together the connective tissue of humanity torn apart by sin.

4. As we meet here today we can rejoice that despite the still serious divisions between us, a real communion, limited though it is, does bind us together. We can call one another brothers and sisters, for we call on Jesus Christ as our one Lord, are baptized in his name, and already share many of his saving gifts.

Yet in honesty we also have to acknowledge that real differences between us make our communion incomplete. It is a communion that still falls short of "that unity which Jesus Christ wanted to bestow on all those to whom he has given new birth in one body". This is the measure of our ecumenical task. It is this which calls forth our persevering efforts of theological dialogue. Since the unity which Christ will for his Church is a unity in faith, we cannot settle for less. We must work for it by the process of honest dialogue sustained by prayer, without compromising the truth; by facing up to the demands of the teachings of Jesus Christ; and by refusing to settle for a minimal form of Christianity, always seeking to do the truth in love.

5. Here in New Zealand you have experienced the strength of the commitment which the Catholic Church brings to the ecumenical movement, a commitment which I assure you is irreversible. At the same time I am aware that the Catholic participation makes new demands of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities taking part in the ecumenical movement. For we come to it with those Catholic principles of ecumenism formulated in the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism. We are convinced that the goal is not simply partnership; it is nothing less than the fullness of communion in a visible, organic unity. The ecumenical way cannot be one of reduction. It is rather a journey of growth into the fullness of Christ, the fullness of unity. It is a journey in which the Churches and Ecclesial Communities taking part must have a genuine respect for one another and for their gifts and traditions, helping each other towards that unity in faith which alone can enable us to be one Church and to share in one Eucharist.

This is the goal of our dialogue and theological reflection, our common study of the Scripture, our collaboration in upholding justice and peace and serving human needs, our common witness, and our prayer together.

It is a goal which cannot be reached without fervent prayer, penance, and conversion of heart. For in the end it is not we who will bring about the unity of all Christians; we can only prepare ourselves to cooperate with what God is doing in order to bring it about.

Because so much has been done here in New Zealand to bring Christians together, and because there is such a strong desire for closer communion, I have taken the occasion of our prayer, and the dedication of the Chapel of Unity in this Cathedral, to speak to you about some central issues of the ecumenical task. Be strong and faithful in giving your best energies to it. knowing that he who has begun this good work can "bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ". Amen.

APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE TO BANGLADESH, SINGAPORE, FIJI ISLANDS,

NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA AND SEYCHELLES

382
Christchurch (New Zealand)

Lancaster Park, 24 November 1986




"Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever".

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

1. We are here today to praise the King of heaven, the God of grace, the everlasting King. I give thanks to God the Father that we gather here the day after the feast of Christ the King to praise him "who gently bears us ", "who is swift to bless".

Today I have the great joy of celebrating this liturgy with you - the clergy, religious and laity of the Diocese of Christchurch and the Diocese of Dunedin, together with representatives from the southern half of the Archdiocese of Wellington. I offer warm greetings to my brother bishops, particularly Bishop Hanrahan of Christchurch and his predecessor Bishop Ashby, and Bishop Boyle of Dunedin. And I greet most cordially all my brothers and sisters in the peace and love of Christ.

I know that next year the Diocese of Christchurch will celebrate its first centenary and that the Diocese of Dunedin is already into its second century. Everywhere there are clear signs of how God’s loving providence has blessed you so richly, and I join you in giving praise to the Triune God for his great goodness to you here in southern New Zealand. Today during this Eucharist we keep before our eyes and in our hearts the French, Irish and English missionaries, especially of the Society of Mary, who evangelized these lands. We give thanks for them and for the fruits of their labours in the Church: the parishes, schools, hospitals; and even more the priests and religious who offer their lives to Christ; and the Christian families and zealous faithful who build up the Church in daily living.

2. The praise we offer God is always made through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Way to the Father. He is the One who teaches us how are to live so that we may be pleasing to the Father. He teaches us to conduct ourselves as "children of our Father in Heaven". We do this by following the command of Jesus: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you . . . Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect".

Today in Christchurch, Jesus puts these words, this challenge to you and to me. The standard that is set before us is not merely to give to each one his due. The standard for the followers of Jesus Christ is "to be perfect" as God himself is perfect.

In the Ancient Near East, codes of retaliation were developed to protect people against injustice by guaranteeing retribution to those who had been wronged. The Jewish law refined these norms in order to protect against excessive vindictiveness in redressing injustices. But Christ takes these very laws and goes beyond them. He challenges his hearers and all of us to seek a deeper and richer justice by becoming perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, by making his justice, his mercy, his righteousness the measure and the standard of our own. To us and to all the world a new justice is given, the justice of God, the justice that is to be born in the hearts of all God’s children who follow the example and the call of Christ.

In the psalm which we have just sung, we find a veiled reference to Jesus who establishes God’s reign of righteousness for us. Even as the Psalmist prayed for a king who would embody all the righteousness that God alone would give, so we today pray that the righteousness that Christ established may reign on this earth. Yes, it is God’s justice that we seek, his rule that we seek because "He will defend the poorest, he will save the children of those in need". Today we turn to him and ask for his justice, that he "may rule us rightly" and that this may be for us "the message of peace".

383 3. Dear people of New Zealand: you are living in a part of the world which seems to be a kind of paradise, a region which cannot be surpassed for its natural beauty. Throughout the whole area, you have two main cultures existing together in your society. On the one hand, there is the Polynesian culture - a culture which is often described as oral, land-based and communal. On the other hand, there is the culture which has come with European settlers, with the science and technology, the commerce and enterprise that marks Western Europe. The presence of these two roots of your civilization gives you a great, even a un1que, opportunity. For you can show in this land how these two cultures can work together with other cultures. And all of this can be done in the spirit of harmony and justice, with love and with the righteousness which the Psalmist prayed for and which our Lord taught us.

Yours is the nobel task of understanding and evaluating all the many elements of your civilization. Yours is the opportunity of fostering the best in your traditions, and of refining and purifying those aspects which require it. You face the challenge of ensuring that your separate cultures continue to exist together and that they complement each other. The Maori people have maintained their identity in this land. The peoples coming from Europe, and more recently from Asia, have not come to a desert. They have come to a land already marked by a rich and ancient heritage, as a unique and essential element of the identity of this country. The Maori people in turn are challenged to welcome new settlers and to learn to live in harmony with those who have come from far away to make here a new home for themselves.

All of you are invited to share this land in peace and in mutual respect. You do this by recognizing the common bond of being members of one human family, created in the image of God and called to see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. In this way, each culture is given the chance to contribute its talents and resources for the good of all. When you build a just society upon the foundation of mutual respect and fraternal love, then, justice is shown to be the path to peace.

4. This is not, however, easily achieved. It requires that you be open to the Holy Spirit "poured on you from above". It means that you "give to anyone who asks" and "do not turn away" from those in need.

What a wonderful perspective this is! How blessed is your nation if it makes justice and compassion the way for its future! If, however, there are attitudes among you of racial and cultural superiority, exploitation or discrimination, such attitudes will obstruct justice. They will destroy harmony and peace. For true peace begins in the human heart, and it takes root when the heart has been cleansed and renewed by the mercy of God.

The Sacrament of Penance is the privileged means for this cleansing and renewal to take place. It is truly the Sacrament of peace. In our contemporary world, we can easily be deceived by an illusion of sinlessness, by the loss of a sense of sin which runs directly contrary to the Gospel. Saint John counters this error very openly when he says: "If we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth".

As followers of Christ, we can never forget that fundamental truth which Saint Paul insisted upon when he wrote: "Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners". Jesus is the Prince of peace precisely because he conquered sin, that sin of the world which turns brother against brother, sister against sister, and which is the great destroyer of harmony and peace

When we go to Confession, when we bring our sins to Christ in the Sacrament of Penance, we meet our Saviour in one of the most personal encounters available to us on earth. He receives us with gentleness and mercy and grants us the pardon we seek. He grants us the grace of conversion and renews our minds and hearts with his light and peace. In this way, he prepares us to be peacemakers in the world.

He who "reconciled all to the Father" is brother and Lord of all. He calls us to replace hostilities with friendship. He calls us to have sensitive respect for each other’s customs and practices. Instead of misunderstanding, mistrust and even hatred - which in the past may have divided peoples and poisoned societies - he asks us to forgive as our heavenly Father has forgiven us. With strong faith in the Lord, and through the practice of God’s justice towards one another, we can travel together along the path that leads to peace.

5. With a sense of God’s mercy, and in a spirit of fraternal love and mutual respect, New Zealand will grow in strength and harmony. Thus you will be able to face up to the problems that beset modern societies and communities in transition: the problems of unemployment and shifts in the labour market, the question of new markets for New Zealand’s products, the models of education and the social needs of the people, especially the poor. All these and other questions can be resolved because you have within you the harmony that is born of reconciliation with God, which bears fruit in justice and truth. Justice between individuals, and in all the interlocking relationships of modern society, is an indispensable requirement for achieving such peaceful harmony. Accordingly, as I said in the Message for the World Day of Peace this year: "If social justice is the means to move towards a peace for all peoples, then it means that we see peace as the indivisible fruit of just and honest relations on every level - social, economic, cultural and ethical - of human life on this earth".

This social justice, this sense of human solidarity, must be experienced in the home, in the families of this country. It must be expressed in the lives of your communities, your towns and cities, and thus become the way of life for your nation. In this way you travel together, eager to promote true justice for everyone. In this eagerness for justice you will find the path of peace.

384 6. You will also discover the role New Zealand can play in the Pacific and in the world. Today we are becoming increasingly aware of the interdependence of all peoples and nations. The social and economic problems of one country have an impact far beyond that country’s borders. The fruits and achievements of more advanced nations give rise to a greater responsibility towards citizens of poorer and needier nations.

My predecessor John XXIII, with truly prophetic vision, emphasized this point twenty-five years ago. In his famous Encyclical "Mater et Magistra", he wrote: "The solidarity which binds all people together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another, and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist".

Peace in the world can never be won so long as injustice controls the relationships among peoples, and social and economic imbalances are allowed to continue. The antidote to these problems consists in building a justice that incorporates the ideals of social solidarity and that patterns itself on the righteousness of God.

The Fathers at the Second Vatican Council expressed it this way: " Peace cannot be obtained on earth unless personal values are safeguarded and people freely and trustingly share with one another their spiritual riches and their talents. A firm determination to respect other individuals and peoples and their dignity, and the assiduous practice of human solidarity, are absolutely necessary for building peace. Hence peace is likewise the fruit of love, which goes beyond what justice can provide".

Dear friends gathered with me here today to praise the Lord: let us respond to Christ’s call to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect so that we may truly be "children of our Father in heaven". Let us help each other for we are fellow pilgrims on the path of justice. Let us walk that "extra mile" with one another and "give to anyone who asks", so that he or she may not be turned away, but may find in each of us a true brother or sister. So will it be that the justice we practise with one another will become the path to the peace we all yearn for.

Now we can see that the vision of Isaiah begins to come true. Righteousness and peace will spring forth in this land and in this whole area of the world. For here "justice will come to live, and integrity". This "integrity will bring peace" . . . and you "will live in a peaceful home, in safe houses, in quiet dwellings". Your justice, born of the desire "to be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect", will "give lasting security" to you and to all whose lives are touched by your love.

S. John Paul II Homil. 377