PEACE, A GIFT TO BE INVOKED, A TASK TO BE CARRIED OUT

VATICAN CITY, JAN 1, 2007 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI presided at a Eucharistic celebration for the Solemnity of Holy Mary Mother of God and the 40th World Day of Peace, which has as its theme this year: "The Human Person, the Heart of Peace."

  "Apart from her maternity, today we also highlight Mary's virginity," said the Holy Father in his homily. "These are two attributes that are always proclaimed together and inseparably, because they complement and qualify one another. Mary is a mother, but a virgin mother. If we overlook one aspect or the other we do not fully understand the mystery of Mary as she is presented in the Gospels."

  Going on to refer to the theme of the World Day of Peace, the Holy Father said that "all human beings - precisely because created in the image and likeness of God, without distinction of race, culture or religion - are clothed in the same personal dignity. For this reason they must be respected, and no reason can ever justify their being used at whim, as if they were objects.

  "Faced with the unfortunately ever present threats to peace," he added, "faced with situations of injustice and violence that continue in various parts of the earth, faced with the persistence of armed conflicts often forgotten by public opinion, faced with the danger of terrorism that disturbs the serenity of peoples, it is even more necessary to work together for peace. Peace, as I recalled in my Message, is 'both gift and task,' a gift to invoke with prayer, a task to carry out with tireless courage."

  The Holy Father's thoughts then turned to the Holy Land where Jesus was born. "How can we not implore with insistent prayers that that region may, as soon as possible, achieve the day of peace," he said, "the day in which the current conflict, that has gone on for too many years, is definitively resolved. A peace agreement, in order to last, must be founded upon the dignity and rights of each person.

  "My hope, that I express before the representatives of nations here present, is that the international community may unite its efforts so as to build, in the name of God, a world in which the essential rights of man are respected by everyone. For this to happen it is necessary that the foundation of such rights be recognized, not just in simple human agreements, but in 'man's very nature and his inalienable dignity as a person created by God.'

  "The Holy Father went on: "If, in fact, the constituent elements of human dignity are entrusted to changeable human opinions, then human rights, though solemnly proclaimed, will end up as weak and variously interpretable."

  Benedict XVI entrusted the new year to the Mother of God, a year "we receive from the hands of God as a precious 'talent' to invest, as a providential opportunity to contribute to the realization of the Kingdom of God."
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