Vocations and peace

Pope Benedict XVI gave the Church two important messages this week.

This past Sunday was World Day of Prayer for Vocations, and during his Regina Coeli address the Holy Father spoke of the importance of vocations and how vital it is that young men and women be attentive to God’s call. He said:

We are afraid to listen to the voice of the Lord because we believe it can detract from our freedom. The truth is that each of us is the fruit of love; the love of our parents, of course, but also and more profoundly the love of God. ... When we become aware of this our lives change; they become a response to that love which is greater than any other, and thus our freedom is fully realised.

Pope Benedict also sent a message to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences for their Eighteenth Plenary Session, which met in Rome this past week. The Holy Father lauded the Academy for choosing to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Blessed John XXIII’s Encyclical Pacem in Terris, which was very important to the Church’s social doctrine. He focused on forgiveness in particular, writing:

The notion of forgiveness needs to find its way into international discourse on conflict resolution, so as to transform the sterile language of mutual recrimination which leads nowhere. If the human creature is made in the image of God, a God of justice who is “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), then these qualities need to be reflected in the conduct of human affairs.

These two messages don’t seem to connect. But in both cases, Pope Benedict XVI shows that a better understanding of God’s love can help us to better live out God’s call—specifically in our own vocations and generally in our love for others.