Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his reflection on the Gospel of January 1, 2025, entitled: “May we build peace with Mary and Jesus”

***

Numbers 6:22-27: “They will call upon my name and I will bless them”

Psalm 66: “Have mercy on us, Lord, and bless us”

Galatians 4:4-7: “God sent his Son, born of a woman”

St. Luke 2:16-21: “They found Mary and Joseph and the child. When eight days were over, they named him Jesus”

It is the first day of the year. We are giving ourselves a new gift: God’s time is made small so that we can take it on and participate in his story. We begin a new year, and as the liturgy of this day proclaims, we do so with the blessing and presence of God in our lives. The task will be to discover that loving and provident face of God that is made manifest at every moment.

This year 2025 is marked as a Holy Year and the Pope invites us to this world day of peace saying: “At the beginning of this new year that the heavenly Father gives us, a jubilee time dedicated to hope, I direct my most sincere wish for peace to every woman and man, in particular to those who feel prostrated by their own existential condition, condemned by their own errors, crushed by the judgment of others, and who can no longer see any perspective for their own life. To all of you, hope and peace, because this is a Year of grace that comes from the Heart of the Redeemer.”

There are those who look with pessimism at the year that begins and are already sowing doubts and fears… the true disciple of Jesus, without losing sight of reality, will have to sow hope and healthy optimism to write the first words in this brand-new book that we are about to release. This day is marked by many celebrations that would like to encourage us to gain strength and hope. We celebrate the world day for peace, and it is one of the areas where we will have to work hard and with faith in the Lord. Pope Francis in his message makes us reflect that there will be no peace if there is slavery, of any slavery that is involved, and in our midst there are many slaveries. He asks us: “May 2025 be a year in which peace grows. That real and lasting peace, which does not stop at the objections of contracts or at the tables of human commitments.”

Bearing in mind this year’s motto: “Forgive us our trespasses and grant us peace,” he tells us: “Let us seek true peace, which is given by God to a disarmed heart: a heart that does not insist on calculating what is mine and what is yours; a heart that dissipates selfishness in the readiness to go out to meet others; a heart that does not hesitate to recognize itself as a debtor to God and is therefore willing to forgive the debts that oppress its neighbor; a heart that overcomes discouragement about the future with the hope that every person is a good for this world.” In the current context, it is more necessary than ever for the Word of God to be a source of reconciliation, liberation and peace. We can anchor ourselves in it to fight to find paths that help us build true peace. Christ is our peace and can tear down the walls of hatred. It is true that the year begins with serious conflicts, with tensions and aggressions… but it is also true that we have our gaze fixed on Christ who can give us true peace. There are those who have wanted to use religion as a basis for their conflicts, but the true image of God will always lead us to discover in the other a brother and to seek to build a world, a home for all. Today, let us renew this great commitment to build peace in our towns, in our homes and in our own person. As a model of struggle, of listening to the Word and of true dedication, today the Church presents to us Mary, Mother of God. It is Mary, the little one, who with her committed “yes” assumes the responsibility of giving life to Jesus and presenting him in the flesh to all men. May she also accompany us today and help us discover the face of Jesus, to give a yes that commits us to present today also that same face of Jesus to our world, so discouraged and sad. May, with Mary, with Jesus, we build peace.

Happy 2025