Pope at Vespers urges Christians to pray, proclaim and
serve together
(Vatican Radio) Authentic reconciliation between Christians
will only be achieved when we can acknowledge each other’s gifts and learn from
one another with humility. That was Pope Francis’ message to representatives of
all the different Christian Churches gathered in the Basilica of St Paul
Outside the Walls on Wednesday afternoon. The Pope was leading Vespers for the
solemnity of the Conversion of St Paul and the close of the annual week of prayer
for Christian unity.
In his homily Pope Francis reflected on the
theme for this year’s week of prayer, which is ‘Reconciliation: the
love of Christ compels us’. Reconciliation, he said, is a gift from Christ.
Prior to any human effort by believers who strive to overcome their divisions,
he said, reconciliation is God’s gift given freely to each one of us.
“How do we proclaim this Gospel of reconciliation today
after centuries of division?”, the Pope asked. St Paul himself makes clear that
reconciliation requires sacrifice and a revolution of our way of living, he
said. Just as Jesus laid down his life for us, so we are called to lay down our
lives, by living no longer for ourselves and our own interests, but living
instead for Christ and in Christ.
Leave behind isolation and self-absorption
For Christians of every confession, the Pope said, this is
an invitation not to be caught up with programmes and plans, not to be obsessed
with contemporary fashions, but to be focused on the Cross where we can
“discover our programme of life”. The Cross invites us to leave behind all
isolation and self-absorption which prevents us from seeing how the Holy Spirit
is at work outside our familiar surroundings.
Joint Reformation commemorations "a remarkable
achievement"
While looking back can be helpful and necessary to purify
our memory, the Pope said, being fixated on the past and the memory of wrongs
done can paralyze us and prevent us from living in the present. Pope Francis
recalled in particular the fact that Catholics and Lutherans are today joining
in commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, something
he described as “a remarkable achievement”.
Pray, proclaim and serve together
Greeting especially Metropolitan Gennadios, representing the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and Archbishop David Moxon, representing the Anglican
Communion, Pope Francis urged all those present to take advantage of every
occasion to pray together, to proclaim together and to love and serve together,
especially those who are the poorest and most neglected in our midst.
Please find below the full English text of Pope Francis’
homily at Vespers for the Conversion of St Paul
Encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus radically
transformed the life of Saint Paul. Henceforth, for him, the meaning of life
would no longer consist in trusting in his own ability to observe the Law
strictly, but rather in cleaving with his whole being to the gracious and
unmerited love of God: to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Paul experienced
the inbreaking of a new life, life in the Spirit. By the power of the risen
Lord, he came to know forgiveness, confidence and consolation. Nor could Paul
keep this newness to himself. He was compelled by grace to proclaim the good
news of the love and reconciliation that God offers fully in Christ to all
humanity.
For the Apostle of the Gentiles, reconciliation with God,
whose ambassador he became (cf. 2 Cor 5:20), is a gift from Christ. This is
evident in the text of the Second Letter to the Corinthians which inspired the
theme of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: “Reconciliation – The
Love of Christ Compels Us” (cf. 2 Cor 5:14-20). “The love of Christ”: this is
not our love for Christ, but rather Christ’s love for us. Nor is the
reconciliation to which we are compelled simply our own initiative. Before all
else it is the reconciliation that God offers us in Christ. Prior to any human
effort on the part of believers who strive to overcome their divisions, it is
God’s free gift. As a result of this gift, each person, forgiven and loved, is
called in turn to proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation in word and deed, to
live and bear witness to a reconciled life.
Today, in the light of this, we can ask: How do we proclaim
this Gospel of reconciliation after centuries of division? Paul himself helps
us to find the way. He makes clear that reconciliation in Christ requires
sacrifice. Jesus gave his life by dying for all. Similarly, ambassadors of
reconciliation are called, in his name, to lay down their lives, to live no
more for themselves but for Christ who died and was raised for them (cf. 2 Cor
5:14-15). As Jesus teaches, it is only when we lose our lives for love of him
that we truly save them (cf. Lk 9:24). This was the revolution experienced by
Paul, but it is, and always has been, the Christian revolution. We live no
longer for ourselves, for our own interests and “image”, but in the image of
Christ, for him and following him, with his love and in his love.
For the Church, for every Christian confession, this is an
invitation not to be caught up with programmes, plans and advantages, not to
look to the prospects and fashions of the moment, but rather to find the way by
constantly looking to the Lord’s cross. For there we discover our programme of
life. It is an invitation to leave behind every form of isolation, to overcome
all those temptations to self-absorption that prevent us from perceiving how
the Holy Spirit is at work outside our familiar surroundings. Authentic
reconciliation between Christians will only be achieved when we can acknowledge
each other’s gifts and learn from one another, with humility and docility,
without waiting for the others to learn first.
If we experience this dying to ourselves for Jesus’ sake,
our old way of life will be a thing of the past and, like Saint Paul, we will
pass over to a new form of life and fellowship. With Paul, we will be able to
say: “the old has passed away” (2 Cor 5:17).
To look back is helpful, and indeed necessary, to purify our
memory, but to be fixated on the past, lingering over the memory of wrongs done
and endured, and judging in merely human terms, can paralyze us and prevent us
from living in the present. The word of God encourages us to draw strength from
memory and to recall the good things the Lord has given us. But it also asks us
to leave the past behind in order to follow Jesus today and to live a new life
in him. Let us allow him, who makes all things new (cf. Rev 21:5), to unveil
before our eyes a new future, open to the hope that does not disappoint, a
future in which divisions can be overcome and believers, renewed in love, will
be fully and visibly one.
This year, in our journey on the road to unity, we recall in
a special way the fifth centenary of the Protestant Reformation. The fact that
Catholics and Lutherans can nowadays join in commemorating an event that
divided Christians, and can do so with hope, placing the emphasis on Jesus and
his work of atonement, is a remarkable achievement, thanks to God and prayer,
and the result of fifty years of growing mutual knowledge and ecumenical
dialogue.
As we implore from God the gift of reconciliation with him
and with one another, I extend cordial and fraternal greetings to His Eminence
Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to
His Grace David Moxon, the personal representative in Rome of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and to all the representatives of the various Churches and
Ecclesial Communities gathered here. I am especially pleased to greet the
members of the joint Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic
Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and to offer my good wishes for the
fruitfulness of the plenary session taking place in these days. I also greet
the students of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, who are visiting Rome to
deepen their knowledge of the Catholic Church, and the Orthodox and Eastern
Orthodox young people studying in Rome thanks to the scholarships provided by
the Committee for Cultural Collaboration with Orthodox Churches, based in the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. To the superiors and staff of
this Dicastery I express my esteem and gratitude.
Dear brothers and sisters, our prayer for Christian unity is
a sharing in Jesus’ own prayer to the Father, on the eve of his passion, “that
they may all be one” (Jn 17:21). May we never tire of asking God for this gift.
With patient and trusting hope that the Father will grant all Christians the
gift of full visible communion, let us press forward in our journey of
reconciliation and dialogue, encouraged by the heroic witness of our many
brothers and sisters, past and present, who were one in suffering for the name
of Jesus. May we take advantage of every occasion that Providence offers us to
pray together, to proclaim together, and together to love and serve, especially
those who are the most poor and neglected in our midst.
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