• Home
• >
• News & Events
• >
• News Articles
• >
• 2024
• >
• December
• >
• 12/30 Embrace Forgiveness
• >

News Articles

Embrace Forgiveness

December 30, 2024

(Photo courtesy of Tonata Lolesio)

From the Office for Social Ministry

“We would do well simply to stop for a moment, at the beginning of this year, to think of the mercy with which God constantly forgives our sins and forgives our every debt, so that our hearts may overflow with hope and peace.” Pope Francis on the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2025

At the beginning of the 2025 Jubilee year of Hope, Pope Francis delivered a message titled “Forgive Us Our Trespasses: Grant Us Your Peace” for the World Day for Peace which calls all to participate in establishing God’s liberating justice in the world. “The celebration of the Jubilee spurs us to make a number of changes in order to confront the present state of injustice and inequality by reminding ourselves that the goods of the earth are meant not for a privileged few, but for everyone.” The Pope’s New Years Day provocative peace message urged all to hear the desperate plea for help and forgiveness rising from many parts of the world, “a plea that God never fails to hear.”  

The Pope Francis points out that, in teaching us to pray the Our Father, Jesus begins by asking the Father to “forgive our debts or trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is how forgiveness, hope and peace are connected. “In order to forgive others their trespasses and to offer them hope, we need for our own lives to be filled with that same hope, the fruit of our experience of God’s mercy. Hope, the Pope beautifully describes “overflows in generosity; it is free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, is unconcerned with gain, but aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage.”

The Holy Father repeats a fundamental theme from Fratelli Tutti that “the cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility.” This is the way Our Holy Father says “We will be able to rediscover once for all that we need one another and are indebted one to another.”

The papal Jubilee year message for the 2025 World Day for Peace makes some specific global proposals: 1)work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South in this world--an appeal for solidarity but above all for justice 2) redirect a percentage money used for armaments to be used for a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in poor countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change; 3)  eliminate the death penalty which not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.

Pope Francis' message and proposals for the 2025 World Day of Peace align deeply with the Hawaiian practices of ho‘oponopono and the themes of the Makahiki season. Ho‘oponopono, a cultural practice of forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoring harmony, resonates with the Pope's call to “disarm our hearts” embrace forgiveness, and address systemic injustices with compassion and shared responsibility. Similarly, the Makahiki season, a time for renewal, gratitude, and the redistribution of resources, mirrors the Jubilee Year’s emphasis on justice, equity, and caring for all—particularly the vulnerable and the earth. Here in Hawaii as we celebrate the holidays with ‘ohana and enjoy the beauty of our islands, let us make time to make peace with our brothers and sisters, share aloha with others outside our circle of comfort and do our best to care for the ‘aina, our common home.

In his World Day for Peace message, Pope Francis includes a compelling personal proposal for all. “Only a disarmed heart can yield peace and hope for the future. Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such as a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed. Peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible.”  The Pope concluded his World Day for Peace message with a prayer to begin this Jubilee Year. “Forgive us our trespasses, Lord, as we forgive those who trespass against us. In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace, the peace that you alone can give to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart, to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters, to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you, and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor. Opening our disarmed hearts to our brothers and sisters, we will restore God's justice on earth and we will move forward to achieve the goal of peace.” For more on these first 2025 Jubilee Year papal messages, please visit the Vatican’s www.humandevelopment.va   Mahalo, and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!