By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Humanity should feel ashamed it can
wage war, kill the innocent, bomb cities and prevent food and medicine from
reaching survivors, Pope Francis said.
“There is no god of war,” he said.
Violence and division are the work of the devil who
“wants to kill everyone,” and that is why people need to come
together and pray for peace, united in the conviction that “God is a God
of peace,” he said Sept. 20, a world day of prayer for peace.
Just a few hours before heading to an interreligious
gathering in the Italian town of Assisi, Pope Francis dedicated his homily to
peace during morning Mass in the chapel of his residence. The pope and some 450
religious leaders from around the world were marking the 30th anniversary of
the first interreligious meeting and prayer for peace organized by St. John
Paul II in 1986.
Men and women representing the world’s religions were
going to Assisi, “not to put on a show, but simply to pray and pray for
peace,” Pope Francis said in his morning homily.
The world is at war and suffering, and no one can remain
indifferent to that, he said, quoting the last verse of the day’s first reading
from the Book of Proverbs: “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself also call and not be heard.”
“If we today shut our ear to the cry of these people
who suffer being bombed, who suffer exploitation by arms traffickers, it could
be that when it’s our turn no one will respond to us,” he said.
Perhaps “we don’t see” war personally or
“we get frightened” by an act of terrorism, he said. But none of that
can compare to what is happening in some parts of the world “where day and
night, the bombs fall and fall … killing children, the elderly, men and
women.”
War, in fact, really isn’t that far away at all, he
added. “War touches everyone” because “war begins in the
heart.”
The pope prayed that God would “give us peace in our
heart, eliminate every urge for avarice, greediness, conflict.” He prayed
that people’s hearts would be the hearts of men and women of peace and that
they would be able to see beyond religious differences “because we are all
children of God.”
While he and the leaders were praying in Assisi, he asked
that everyone pray and “feel shame. Shame for this: that human beings, our
brothers and sisters, are capable of doing this,” of killing and wounding
others and carrying out bombing campaigns that prevent the delivery of needed
food and medicine. Think of the children and elderly, he said, who are
“starving and ill.”
The Assisi peace day, he said, is a day of prayer,
penance and “weeping for peace,” a day to hear the cry of the poor,
which opens the heart to mercy and love, and “saves us from
self-centeredness.”
– – –
Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.