BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Leading prayers before a huge crowd in Bogotá, the capital, Pope Francis on Thursday urged Colombians to avoid “the thirst for revenge” and finally accept peace, whose arrival last year ended a half-century of war but left the country bitterly divided.

The pope, offering his first public Mass during a six-day visit to Colombia, couched the country’s long, often halting road toward an end to its conflict in biblical terms, comparing it to the frustrations of Jesus’ followers as they fished the Sea of Galilee.

“The command to cast nets is directed not only at Simon Peter,” said Francis, but also to “those in your homeland who have first of all seen what is most urgent, those who have taken up peace initiatives.”

The pope’s visit comes at a crucial time for the peace accord, approved last December, between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the acronym FARC. The peace deal was signed over the objections of voters who felt the agreement was too easy on the fighters, who were allowed to enter politics in exchange for laying down arms.