Three of the Pope's teachings stand out in January, with three words that deserve to be written in capital letters: Peace, Word and Mercy. They correspond to the message for the workshop of peace, the first day of the year, the celebration of the Sunday of the Word, and the world-wide workshop of the sick.

Let us summarise the Holy Father's teachings on these three occasions.

The road to peace: dialogue, Education and work

The message for the 55th World Peace workshop (1-I-2022) was entitled: Dialogue between generations, Education and work: tools for building lasting peace.

Paul VI already affirmed that the road to peace had a new name: the development integral of man and of all peoples (cf. encyclical Populorum Progressio, 1967, n. 76).

However, even today, Francis warns, wars, pandemic diseases, environmental degradation, etc., have not succeeded in changing "an economic model which is based more on individualism than on sharing in solidarity" (n. 1 of Francis' message), without listening to "the cry of the poor and of the earth".

At the same time, the Bishop of Rome reminds us that peace-building is something that concerns us all, even personally: "Everyone can collaborate in building a more peaceful world: starting from our own hearts and relationships in the family, in society and with the environment, to relations between peoples and between states".

It proposes three ways to build lasting peace: "Dialogue between the generations as a basis for the realisation of shared projects. Secondly, the Education as a factor of freedom, responsibility and development. And finally, work for the full realisation of human dignity". Three paths, by the way, very much "walked" by the current successor of Peter.

Neither individualism, selfish indifference nor violent protest are solutions. The current health crisis has brought, along with the loneliness of the elderly, the feeling of helplessness and the lack of a common ideal for the future, also the lack of trust. But we have also seen wonderful examples of solidarity. Dialogue is necessary. And "dialogue means to listen to each other, to confront each other, to agreement and to walk together" (n. 2). This is possible by uniting the experience of the elders with the dynamism of the young. But it requires our will, the will of all of us, to go beyond the immediate interests, the patches or quick fixes, in favour of shared and sustainable projects. Trees can only bear fruit from their roots. And those roots are strengthened by Education and work.

"It is the Education" - remarks Peter's successor - "that provides the grammar for dialogue between the generations, and it is in the experience of the work that men and women of different generations find themselves helping each other, exchanging knowledge, experience and skills for the common good" (ibid.).

It is therefore regrettable that, while military spending is increasing, budgets for education and Education have decreased considerably in recent years, even though they are the best investment, because they are "the instructions of a cohesive, civil society, capable of generating hope, wealth and progress" (ibid., 3).

A change of financial strategies in relation to Education is therefore necessary, together with the promotion of a "culture of care" (cf. encyclical Laudato si', 231). What the Pope says here is important: such a culture can be the common language for a dialogue that breaks down barriers and builds bridges. For, as he has said on other occasions, "a country grows when its diverse cultural riches dialogue constructively: popular culture, university culture, youth culture, artistic culture, technological culture, economic culture, the culture of the family and of the media speech" (Encyclical Fratelli tutti, n. 199).

It is necessary, Francis proposes, to forge a new cultural paradigm through "a global educational pact" that involves everyone and promotes an integral ecology according to a model of peace, development and sustainability, centred on fraternity and on the alliance between human beings and their environment (cfr. Video message to the Global Compact on Education. Together to Look Beyond, 15-X-2020). Thus, at the same time, young people will be able to take their rightful place in the world of education. work

The work builds and maintains peace because it is both an expression of self and a commitment to partnership with others. The status labour market has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Especially those who live on precarious jobs, such as many migrants, have been left unprotected in a climate of insecurity. And all this can only be responded to by promoting a dignified work . "We must join ideas and efforts to create the conditions and invent solutions, so that every human being of working age has the opportunity to contribute with his or her own work to the life of the family and of society" (Pope's message, n. 4).

This means challenge for everyone: for workers and employers, for the state and institutions, for civil society and consumers. Above all for politics, which is called to seek the right balance between economic freedom and social justice. And - Pope Bergoglio points out - "all those who work in this field, beginning with Catholic workers and entrepreneurs, can find sure guidance in the Church's social doctrine" (ibid.).

On 23 January, the Word of God Sunday, instituted by Pope Francis for the third Sunday in Ordinary Time, was celebrated. In his homily the Pope highlighted two aspects.

-The revealing Word of God.

First, the Word reveals God: "It reveals God's face to us", says Francis, "as the One who makes himself position of our poverty and is concerned about our destiny. Not as a tyrant shut away in heaven, nor as a cold, unperturbed observer, a neutral and indifferent God. He is the "God with us", Word made flesh, who takes sides on our behalf and is involved and committed to our pain, the "Loving Spirit" of man.

As a qualified spokesman for that Word in the Church, the Pope addresses his listeners, each one of us, personally: "He is a God who is close, compassionate and tender, who wants to relieve you of the burdens that crush you, who wants to warm the cold of your winters, who wants to illuminate your dark days, who wants to sustain your uncertain steps. And he does so with his Word, with which he speaks to you to rekindle hope amidst the ashes of your fears, to make you find joy in the labyrinths of your sadness, to fill the bitterness of your loneliness with hope. He makes you walk, not in a labyrinth, but along the way, to meet him every day".

And so Francis asks us whether we carry in our hearts and transmit in the Church this true "image" of God, wrapped in the trust, mercy and joy of faith. Or if, on the contrary, we see him and show him in a rigorous way, wrapped in fear, as a false idol that neither financial aid nor financial aid to anyone.

-The Word puts us in a healthy crisis.

Secondly, the Word brings us to man. When we understand that God is compassionate and merciful, we overcome the temptation of a cold and external religiosity, which does not touch or transform life. "The Word impels us to go out of ourselves to set out on the way to meeting of our brothers and sisters with the only humble strength of God's liberating love".

This is what Jesus did and said in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he revealed that "He is sent to go to the meeting of the poor - which is all of us - and set them free". He did not come to submit a set of rules but to free us from the chains that imprison our souls. "In this way he reveals to us what is the worship that pleases God most: to make us position of our neighbour.

The Word puts in crisis those justifications of ours that always make what does not work depend on the other or on others". And the Pope does not speak of theories: "How much pain we feel when we see our brothers and sisters dying at sea because they are not allowed to disembark".

He goes on to plunge the sword into the soul: "The Word of God invites us to come out into the open, not to hide behind the complexity of problems, behind 'there is nothing to be done' or 'what can I do' or 'it's their problem or his'. He exhorts us to act, to unite the worship of God and the care of man".

In addition to rigidity, which for Francis is typical of modern Pelagianism, every "angelic" or disincarnated "spirituality", typical of the neo-Gnostic movements, is also opposed to the Word of God. The Pope describes it graphically: "A spirituality that puts us 'in orbit' without taking care of our brothers and sisters".

The fruits of the Word of God are quite different: "The Word who became flesh (cf. Jn 1:14) wants to become incarnate in us. It does not distance us from life, but introduces us to life, to everyday situations, to listening to the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, to the cry of the poor, to the violence and injustices that wound society and the planet, so that we may not be indifferent Christians, but working Christians, creative Christians, prophetic Christians".

The Word of God is not a dead letter, but spirit and life. In the words of Madeleine Delbrêl (a French mystic who worked in working-class environments in Paris, died in 1964 and is currently in the process of beatification), Francis says that "the conditions for listening to the Word of the Lord are those of our 'today': the circumstances of our daily lives and the needs of our neighbours".

All this commits us, the Pope points out, first of all to put the Word of God at the centre of pastoral care, to listen to it and from there to listen to and attend to the needs of others.

Finally, in his message for the 30th World Day of the Sick workshop (11 February 2022), Peter's successor echoes the words of the Gospel: "Be merciful as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36). And he invites us concretely to "be at the side of those who suffer on a path of charity".

Francis asks us to be "merciful like the Father", whose mercy "has in itself both the dimension of fatherhood and motherhood (cf. Is 49:15), because He cares for us with the strength of a father and the tenderness of a mother, always ready to give us new life in the Holy Spirit".

The Pope goes on to ask why Jesus, "the Father's mercy", took special care of the sick to the point that this care, together with the advertisement of faith, was part of the mission statement of the apostles (cf. Lk 9:2).

This time he responds by quoting E. Lévinas: "Pain isolates completely and from this absolute isolation arises the call to the other, the invocation of the other" (An Ethics of Suffering, Paris 1994, pp. 133-135). And the Pope evokes so many sick people who have suffered in the loneliness of the pandemic.

This is particularly relevant for healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, technicians from laboratory, patient assistants, and many volunteers), "whose service at the side of the sick, carried out with love and skill, transcends the limits of the profession to become a mission statement".

He adds, as if speaking to each and every one: "Your hands, which touch the suffering flesh of Christ, can be a sign of the merciful hands of the Father", and he invites them to be aware of the great dignity of this profession and the responsibility it entails. They touch the suffering flesh of Christ.

Appreciating the great progress of medical science, both in treatment and in research and rehabilitation, the Pope recalls a fundamental principle. We cannot forget that "the sick person is always more important than his illness, and for this reason every therapeutic approach cannot fail to listen to the patient, his story, his anguish and his fears. Even when it is not possible to cure, it is always possible to care, it is always possible to comfort, it is always possible to make people feel a closeness that sample cares for the person rather than for their pathology". It is therefore to be hoped that the professional training will enable health workers to know how to listen to and relate to the sick person.

Francis underlines the importance of Catholic health centres and institutions: "At a time when the throwaway culture is widespread and life is not always recognised as having the dignity to be welcomed and lived, these Structures, as houses of mercy, can be an example in the protection and care of every existence, even the most fragile, from conception to its natural end".

For so many reasons, the Pope concludes with reference letter to the pastoral care of health, even though visiting the sick is an invitation that Christ makes to all his disciples: "I was sick and you visited me" (Mt 25:36).