Cardinal Tobin: Peace as Gift and Task
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Vol. 7. No. 1
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
As Pope Leo XIV has reminded us on several occasions, the first words Christ spoke to his Apostles after he rose from the dead were: “Peace be with you.” (Jn 20:19). What he gave as a gift after his Resurrection, he left as a task after his Ascension: The Apostles, with the help of the Holy Spirit, were to communicate Christ’s peace to others. Therefore, authentic peace is both a gift from God and a task that we who are His witnesses must carry out.
How can peace be both a gift and a task at the same time? Perhaps a simple analogy can help us understand.
Our teeth were given to us without our consent. They are a gift, a built-in part of our human nature. Under normal circumstances, they will simply grow in on their own. But those same teeth, which we initially received as a gift, cannot be maintained in good health without our cooperation. If we do not take their maintenance as a task, then what was initially given to us as a gift can decay and rot, becoming a source of great pain! If that happens, then good dental health can only be restored through drastic, sometimes painful, and inevitably costly measures.
The same is true of the moral blueprint of the universe, and the peace that is the fruit of living according to its logic. It is given to us as a gift and a task. As a gift, the moral blueprint for peace has been written by God into human nature. In the Incarnation of the Son, the seed of peace has been planted in human history. In the giving of the Holy Spirit, the energy for peace is constantly renewed.
But these gifts, which provide the foundation for building a culture of peace, are also given to us as a task. If we do not cultivate these gifts, then our relationships — with God and each other, with our inmost selves and with the world — will rot and decay and become for us a source of great pain. Then, as we know all too well, peace can only be restored through drastic and costly measures, if at all.
In his 2007 Message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Benedict XVI quoted Saint Augustine, saying, “God created us without our aid; but he did not choose to save us without our aid. Consequently, all human beings have the duty to cultivate an awareness of this twofold aspect of gift and task.” This is the creative tension that exists between God’s freely given gifts to us and the tasks we must perform in order to maintain, nurture, and develop all God’s gifts.
Pope Leo frequently quotes Saint Augustine, the patron saint of his Augustinian Order. During his Angelus message on August 10, 2025, the Holy Father quoted the Bishop of Hippo (see below), saying:
“If you gave a pound of coppers and received a pound of silver, or a pound of silver and received one of gold, you would be delighted at your luck. What you give will certainly be transformed; it isn’t gold, it isn’t silver, but eternal life that will come your way” (Sermon 390, 2, PL 39, 1706). And he explains why: “It will be transformed, because you yourself will be transformed (ibid).
The stewardship responsibility that we who have been baptized in Christ have to carry out is to cooperate with God’s grace in the transformation of His gifts. This is our task. Without help, it would be impossible for us weak and fearful sinners to assume the role of peacemakers and unifiers in a warring and divided world. But Pope Leo encourages us to be bold and courageous, always trusting in the Lord: “Wherever we are, in the family, parish, school or workplace, we should try not to miss any opportunity to act with love.”
The only way we are going to get peace is if we turn to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and ask him for it. If we desire peace, we must be willing to work for it. And if we are willing to work for peace, that means we must be willing, first and foremost, to pray for peace. In the words of Pope Saint John Paul II, “To pray is to enter into the action of God upon history: He, the sovereign actor of history, has wished to make people His collaborators.” God has given us the gifts of peace and unity. It’s our responsibility to pray, and then work, to nurture and grow these precious gifts.
Accordingly, each of us should begin and end the day in prayer for peace. During the day, we should work for peace and unity—in our hearts and minds, in our families and communities, in our nation, and among all the peoples of the world.
While peace is a gift from God, we are never dispensed from the responsibility for seeking it and endeavoring to establish it by individual and community effort throughout history. God’s gift of peace is therefore also at all times a human conquest and achievement, since it is offered to us so that we may accept it freely and put it progressively into operation by our creative will.
As our beloved Pope Francis once said, it is our privilege and our sacred duty to work for peace “in our homes, our families, our schools and communities. Peace in all those places where war never seems to end. Peace for those faces which have known nothing but pain.”
I invite all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, to become peacemakers and witnesses to our unity in Christ, especially during this Jubilee of Hope — not only in the great and heroic acts that make headlines, but in the many small and mostly unnoticed acts that make up the fabric of daily living. After all, the Lord Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Mt. 5: 9)
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Catechism of the Catholic Church Second Edition, 1997
Libreria Editrice Vaticana III. Safeguarding Peace
Peace
By recalling the commandment, “You shall not kill,” our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral. (#2302)
Anger is a desire for revenge. “To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit,” but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution “to correct vices and maintain justice.” If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, “Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.”
Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (#2303)
Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is “the tranquility of order.” Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity. (#2304)
Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic “Prince of Peace.” By the blood of his Cross, “in his own person he killed the hostility,” he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. “He is our peace.” He has declared: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” (#2305)
Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death. (#2306)
(A selection from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Safeguarding Peace)
A Message from Pope Leo XIV: In the one Christ, we are one
Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites us to consider how we will invest the treasure that is our life (cf. Lk 12:32-48). He says: “Sell your possessions and give alms” (v. 33).
He exhorts us not to keep to ourselves the gifts that God has given us, but rather to use them generously for the good of others, especially those most in need of our help. It is not simply a matter of sharing the material goods we have, but putting our skills, time, love, presence and compassion at the service of others. In short, everything in God’s plan that makes each of us a priceless and unrepeatable good, a living and breathing asset, must be cultivated and invested in order to grow. Otherwise, these gifts dry up and diminish in value, or they end up being taken away by those who, like thieves, snatch them up as something simply to be consumed.
The gift of God that we are is not made to be used in such a manner. We need space, freedom and relationships in order to come to fulfillment and express ourselves. We need love, which alone transforms and ennobles every aspect of our existence, making us more and more like God. It is not by chance that Jesus pronounces these words while he is on the road to Jerusalem, where he will offer himself on the cross for our salvation.
The works of mercy are the most secure and profitable bank where we can entrust the treasure of our existence, because there, as the Gospel teaches us, with “two small copper coins” even the poor widow becomes the richest person in the world (cf. Mk 12:41-44).
In this regard, Saint Augustine says: “If you gave a pound of coppers and received a pound of silver, or a pound of silver and received one of gold, you would be delighted at your luck. What you give will certainly be transformed; it isn’t gold, it isn’t silver, but eternal life that will come your way” (Sermon 390, 2, PL 39, 1706). And he explains why: “It will be transformed, because you yourself will be transformed” (ibid).
To understand what he means by this, we can think of a mother who embraces her children: is she not the most beautiful and richest person in the world? Or a boyfriend and girlfriend, when they are together: do they not feel like king and queen? We could think of many other examples.
Therefore, wherever we are, in the family, parish, school or workplace, we should try not to miss any opportunity to act with love. This is the type of vigilance that Jesus asks of us: to grow in the habit of being attentive, ready and sensitive to one another, just as he is with us in every moment.
Sisters and brothers, let us entrust to Mary this desire and responsibility: may she, the Morning Star, help us to be the “watchmen” of mercy and peace in a world marked by many divisions. Saint John Paul II taught us this (cf. Vigil of Prayer for the 15th World Youth Day, 19 August 2000). And in a beautiful way, so did the young people who came to Rome for the Jubilee.
(Angelus Message of Pope Leo XIV, Sunday, August 10, 2025)
My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying in the words of Saint John Paul II in the Vigil of Prayer for the 15th World Youth Day on August 19, 2000, as referenced above by Pope Leo XIV:
May Mary most holy, the Virgin who said “yes” to God throughout her whole life, may Saints Peter and Paul and all the Saints who have lighted the Church’s journey down the ages, keep you always faithful to this holy resolve! Amen.