Pope Benedict proclaims his 3rd message for the World Day of Peace
With arguably few exceptions in history,when a Pope speaks about peace, the world hardly blinks.
But for the third time in his pontificate, Pope Benedict has again formally addressed the question of world peace. Released on December 11 and entitled "The Human Family, a Community of Peace,” this was his third “message” for the traditional January 1 World Day of Peace. It was the 41st time a Roman Pontiff had published such a document, a tradition begun by Pope Paul VI on December 8, 1967.
With arguably few exceptions in history,when a Pope speaks about peace, the world hardly blinks.But for the third time in his pontificate, Pope Benedict has again formally addressed the question of world peace. Released on December 11 and entitled "The Human Family, a Community of Peace,” this was his third “message” for the traditional January 1 World Day of Peace. It was the 41st time a Roman Pontiff had published such a document, a tradition begun by Pope Paul VI on December 8, 1967.
And like so many times in the past forty-one years, this year’s message—with the exception of a few hundred Catholic websites and periodicals—was hardly picked up by the media, lost like a shout into the proverbial wind.
Careful observers of this year’s message and the two previous ones will note, however, that Benedict is not shouting. They will further note that, while all three messages point to the great threats to world peace (nuclear arms proliferation, economic inequality, civil wars in Africa, violence in the Middle East—but also abortion, birth control, same-sex marriage by the way), his message, in reality, is a thinly veiled apologia for human reason, and a call for humanity to embrace belief in a universal natural moral law.
Is this just so much pontifical naïveté? Can Benedict possibly not understand how quaint these messages sound every year? Well, if we can set our skepticism aside for just a moment, we might begin to see that there’s a method to Benedict’s madness here.
It all begins with the fact that Benedict has been talking for the past three years about “grammar.” His 2006 message led with a notion of peace derived from St. Augustine’s The City of God. In Book XIX, Augustine defines peace as the tranquility of order.[1]
“By this,” explains Benedict, “[Augustine] meant a situation which ultimately enables the truth about man to be fully respected and realized.” Peace, explains Benedict —peace of all sorts, from the harmony of one’s own feelings, judgments and actions, to harmony between persons and nations—is the result of fidelity to that transcendent order established by the Creator which constitutes a moral law which he terms a “grammar of dialogue.”
This notion of “moral grammar” is from John Paul II. In his 1995 address to the United Nations John Paul asserted:
“By this,” explains Benedict, “[Augustine] meant a situation which ultimately enables the truth about man to be fully respected and realized.” Peace, explains Benedict —peace of all sorts, from the harmony of one’s own feelings, judgments and actions, to harmony between persons and nations—is the result of fidelity to that transcendent order established by the Creator which constitutes a moral law which he terms a “grammar of dialogue.”
This notion of “moral grammar” is from John Paul II. In his 1995 address to the United Nations John Paul asserted:
[T]here is a moral logic which is built into human life and which makes possible dialogue between individuals and peoples. If we want a century of violent coercion to be succeeded by a century of persuasion, we must find a way to discuss the human future intelligibly. The universal moral law written on the human heart is precisely that kind of "grammar" which is needed if the world is to engage this discussion of its future (n. 3).
Benedict continued with this strand of thought in his 2007 message. There, he referred to this “grammar” as “the body of rules for individual action and the reciprocal relationships of persons in accordance with justice and solidarity”, and as “inscribed on human consciences, in which the wise plan of God is reflected.”
This grammar, this set of principles is the work ultimately of divine Reason, of the divine Logos, who—as Benedict had insisted some months earlier at the University of Regensburg—is the ground and source of the intelligibility and meaning-fullness of both the outer cosmos and the inner cosmos of our very human nature.
Through and through, from the depth of our consciences, to the depths of the universe, all of reality is “dripping with logos” as the philosopher Louis Durpré has expressed it.[2] Persons, cultures, art, technology, are all caught up within a fabric of meaning, endowed with a God-given order.
This order—as understood by Augustine and Pope Benedict—can become the basis of a harmony of human persons living in a common pursuit of the genuine goods that fulfill us as human beings in the communities we form. That order becomes a reality when we live in docility to the moral norms which arise from the interior guidance of human reason, when this is allowed to have full sway over our choices and actions, unburdened by vice and passions.
These norms, grounded in human reason and consequently in our shared human nature, constitute a moral law—a “grammar”—whose ultimate ground and source is the Author of that very human nature.
It is Benedict’s contention that universal “respect” for this “grammar” can become the basis of genuine peace, both individually and within and between human communities:
This grammar, this set of principles is the work ultimately of divine Reason, of the divine Logos, who—as Benedict had insisted some months earlier at the University of Regensburg—is the ground and source of the intelligibility and meaning-fullness of both the outer cosmos and the inner cosmos of our very human nature.
Through and through, from the depth of our consciences, to the depths of the universe, all of reality is “dripping with logos” as the philosopher Louis Durpré has expressed it.[2] Persons, cultures, art, technology, are all caught up within a fabric of meaning, endowed with a God-given order.
This order—as understood by Augustine and Pope Benedict—can become the basis of a harmony of human persons living in a common pursuit of the genuine goods that fulfill us as human beings in the communities we form. That order becomes a reality when we live in docility to the moral norms which arise from the interior guidance of human reason, when this is allowed to have full sway over our choices and actions, unburdened by vice and passions.
These norms, grounded in human reason and consequently in our shared human nature, constitute a moral law—a “grammar”—whose ultimate ground and source is the Author of that very human nature.
It is Benedict’s contention that universal “respect” for this “grammar” can become the basis of genuine peace, both individually and within and between human communities:
From this standpoint, the norms of the natural law should not be viewed as externally imposed decrees, as restraints upon human freedom. Rather, they should be welcomed as a call to carry out faithfully the universal divine plan inscribed in the nature of human beings. Guided by these norms, all peoples —within their respective cultures—can draw near to the greatest mystery, which is the mystery of God. Today too, recognition and respect for natural law represents the foundation for a dialogue between the followers of the different religions and between believers and non-believers. As a great point of convergence, this is also a fundamental presupposition for authentic peace.
In his 2008 message, Benedict continues in the same line of reasoning. “Mankind is not lawless,” affirms the Pope:
Knowledge of the natural moral norm is not inaccessible to those who, in reflecting on themselves and their destiny, strive to understand the inner logic of the deepest inclinations present in their being. Albeit not without hesitation and doubt, they are capable of discovering, at least in its essential lines, this common moral law which, over and above cultural differences, enables human beings to come to a common understanding regarding the most important aspects of good and evil, justice and injustice.
In Benedict’s view, if there is any hope for an enduring world peace, it is to be found in a renewed respect for the natural moral law. Of course, to say that the very notion of natural law continues to be met with skepticism in contemporary academia and jurisprudence is putting it mildly.
Next week, we’ll have a look at contemporary opposition to the notion of natural law—at that storm of opposing currents of thought into which Benedict is trying to speak.
Let me conclude by noting that fifteen centuries ago, another Benedict—the saint from Nursia in Italy, and founder of western monasticism—in his book of norms for monastic life, laid down a twelve-step plan for attaining the virtue of humility. He likened each step to a rung of a ladder that connects heaven and earth (recalling the image of Jacob’s ladder in Gen. 28: 10-22). “The eleventh step is arrived at,” explains the saint, “when a monk speaks gently, without jests, simply, seriously… rationally and softly.”
We need have no doubt that our contemporary Benedict has reached this 11th step. His patient insistence—speaking softly and rationally—about reason, human nature, and the natural law, albeit against a gale of opposed ideologies, may not be the exercise in naiveté that it seems. He remembers perfectly well how His predecessor ushered in a cultural revolution of untold proportions by proclaiming the truth about the human person at the Gdansk shipyards in June of 1979. Benedict’s humble persistence may yet prove to be just the ticket we need for the kind of cultural renewal we all pray for in this New Year.
***
Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. is Executive Director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person.
Next week, we’ll have a look at contemporary opposition to the notion of natural law—at that storm of opposing currents of thought into which Benedict is trying to speak.
Let me conclude by noting that fifteen centuries ago, another Benedict—the saint from Nursia in Italy, and founder of western monasticism—in his book of norms for monastic life, laid down a twelve-step plan for attaining the virtue of humility. He likened each step to a rung of a ladder that connects heaven and earth (recalling the image of Jacob’s ladder in Gen. 28: 10-22). “The eleventh step is arrived at,” explains the saint, “when a monk speaks gently, without jests, simply, seriously… rationally and softly.”
We need have no doubt that our contemporary Benedict has reached this 11th step. His patient insistence—speaking softly and rationally—about reason, human nature, and the natural law, albeit against a gale of opposed ideologies, may not be the exercise in naiveté that it seems. He remembers perfectly well how His predecessor ushered in a cultural revolution of untold proportions by proclaiming the truth about the human person at the Gdansk shipyards in June of 1979. Benedict’s humble persistence may yet prove to be just the ticket we need for the kind of cultural renewal we all pray for in this New Year.
***
Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. is Executive Director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person.
Copyright © 2008 The Westchester Institute for Ethics & the Human Person
[1] “The peace of the body then consists in the duly proportioned arrangement of its parts. The peace of the irrational soul is the harmonious repose of the appetites, and that of the rational soul the harmony of knowledge and action. The peace of body and soul is the well-ordered and harmonious life and health of the living creature. Peace between man and God is the well-ordered obedience of faith to eternal law. Peace between man and man is well-ordered concord. Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey. Civil peace is a similar concord among the citizens. The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order” (Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XIX, 13, available at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120119.htm).
[2] "If there is one belief Greek thinkers shared, it must be the conviction that both the essence of the real and our knowledge of it consists ultimately of form. Basically this means that it belongs to the essence of the real to appear, rather than to hide, and to appear in an orderly way" (Louis Dupré, Passage to Modernity, 18).
