Excerpts of Mgr. Samuel Kléda’s homily on the World Day of Prayers for Peace
Dear brothers and sisters,
On this first day of 2013, we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and we are praying for peace in the world, in our country and in our families, for this first day is particularly dedicated to praying for peace.
All these ecclesial events of great importance invite us to deepen our encounter with our Master, Jesus Christ. And it is within this backdrop that we set out in quest for peace in 2013. We first turn to the Virgin Mary, our Mother in heaven. She alone bears the unique title of the Mother of God, and it is on this account that we honour her today. It is not on her merit that God lavished her with so many graces, it is because of the love that He had for her, and Mary, from the beginning and in all her life, obeyed God’s will.
The Virgin Mary, Mother of God, shows us today the path of peace, the peace that she received through her obedience to God’s will. She is at the centre of the Incarnation mystery; she received the Prince of Peace in her midst; the evangelist St. Luke recounts that she meditated, in her heart, all the events concerning her son; and St. Paul wrote: “God sent his son, he was born of a woman- to make us His sons. Sent by God, the Spirit of His son is in our hearts and it is what makes us cry out, Abba, Father!
United in her son, she experienced the happiness of being the Mother of the Prince of Peace. Tradition gave her the title of Theotokos, “she who delivered God”. It is for this reason that we greet her with the words, “Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for us”. Greeting the Virgin Mary in this way, is to recognise that Mary’s son is true God and true Man. The Virgin Mary therefore gives us peace in our hearts; she never ceases to manifest to us her children, her love, her tenderness and her motherly kindness.
In this regard, we are never going to be attentive enough to the act that was accomplished by our first missionaries: to dedicate this land, on which they had just set foot, to the virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, so that she should watch over it. Let her then show us the path of true peace, which we are all aspiring to today!
“Happy are the peace makers, this is the theme that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has chosen for the 2013 World Day of Peace. He used one of the beatitudes (Mt. 5, 1-12). True peace, which is the fullness of life, cannot be realised out of God’s plan for life. It is in this light that Jesus Christ has made us to be peace makers. After his resurrection, the first message to his disciples was a message of peace: “Peace be with you.” Through this he instituted peace for all men on earth. The apostle Paul identifies true peace with God and His Son: “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1Cor. 14, 33). “For He Himself is our peace” (Eph. 2, 14).
Peace therefore seeks Man’s total fulfilment. It is in this light that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI insists particularly in his message on the respect of human dignity, and the respect of all aspects of human life: “Peace concerns the integrity of the human person and calls for the involvement of all. It is peace with God, by living according to His will. It is internal peace with oneself and external peace with one’s neighbours and all creation.” This very suggestive title, given to the conclusion of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical letter, throws new light on the peace that we need today: “Development is the new name for peace.”
It is today more urgent than ever before to study the things that can endanger peace in our country and address them to find solutions to them. Among the things that endanger peace we can first mention social inequality. Let us agree at this level, with the Conciliary Fathers, who indicated the real danger that this represents to peace in a country: “ In order to build up peace above all the causes of discord among (peoples), especially injustice, which foment wars must be rooted out. Not a few of these causes come from excessive economic inequalities and from putting off the steps needed to remedy them. Other causes of discord, however, have their source in the desire to dominate and in a contempt for people. And, if we look for deeper causes, we find them in human envy, distrust, pride, and other egotistical passions.” (Gaudium et Spes, 83).
Many Cameroonians in our towns cannot eat to their fill, are not employed, especially the youth; and cannot treat themselves when they are sick. How many parents cannot send their children to school today as a result of financial difficulties? Certain segments in our society are becoming poorer and poorer. We consider this a scandal as Cameroon has vast riches. It is admissible to witness the impoverishment of part of a good segment of the Cameroonian population.
It is also necessary to admit that the economic situation of our country is declining year after year. How can we understand that in our towns, water and electricity are in acute shortage, fifty years after Independence? The same problems are being experienced in many other sectors. If the state of Cameroon is unable to provide water and electricity to the population, there is every reason to start asking serious questions about the management of public life.
Cameroonians know the causes of this decline which is not due to the absence of riches; it is not due either to the lack of well trained technicians or a qualified manpower. Cameroon’s illness is moral; this ill has destroyed the consciences of many Cameroonians? Many can no longer distinguish evil from good and vice versa. These people have lost a sense of evil. This is how St. Paul describes the faithful of Ephesus who had adopted the same lifestyle: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ep 4, 17-19).
When a person’s thoughts are darkened, his heart is smeared, his moral sense destroyed, it loses the sense of the human person and only seeks its own proper interests to the detriment of others. The main reason behind this situation comes from the fact that many do not believe in God. St. Paul explains that: “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disqualified for every good work (Titus 1, 15-16).
The evil that is devouring our country is corruption. This plague is the biggest gangrene in any society and constitutes a well lubricated setback to development in our country. Some Cameroonians have gotten to a level where to exploit their brothers, to steal and to swindle billions of francs from the State coffers has become an intelligent and brave act. The more it seems efforts are being made to fight this plague, the more it spreads and reaches all sectors of public life in our country. This situation has only increased the suffering of a many Cameroonians –the poorest and the most disadvantaged.