As our world faces another year, we still are aware of the negative aspects that so many people are daily continuing to deal with: racism, terrorism and more so, of brutality and violence. Like us RNDMs, I’m sure that your Christmas Prayer was for world peace – even in this Holy Year, the cry goes forth for HOPE. The Holy Door is open now for reconciliation, but for who? Listening to “Where is the Love” sung by Black Eyed Peas, written way back in 2003, we are still in a world of struggle:
“People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurt and you hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach?
Or would you turn the other cheek?
Father, Father, Father help us.
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love?”
(Lyrics@Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, 2003 – Image: YouTube, March 2024.)
Throughout the verses of this song, we hear of a world in pain, struggling with hatred and desperation, and even as we face 2025, nothing seems to have changed. I ask myself were am I in all of this? Who am I praying for as l approach another New Year? As I watched Pope Francis knock that Holy Door at the beginning of the Church’s Holy Year, I could see determination in his expression for this year to be a turning time for us – certainly for those who need change. It may not be how we see it – but as an inner peace that may enter into the hearts of those who really don’t know anything else other than fighting back, seeking recompense – that they find some other way to put aside the vitriol that really keeps such violence passing from one decade to another. As Pilgrims of Hope, this could actually begin with you and me – as St Paul writes: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Kept the commandments – “You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is fulfilling the law.” (Rom 13: 8-10) This will hopefully help to change our world and for the next generation to seek only one thing – to answer that question: “Where is the love?”
Rose Mary Harbinson, RNDM