Pope urges Oriental Churches to continue courageous
witness
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| Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Basilica of St Mary Major to mark the centenary of the foundation of the Pontifical Oriental Institute.- AFP |
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday celebrated Mass in
the Basilica of St Mary Major to mark the centenary of the foundation of
the Pontifical Oriental
Institute and the Congregation for Eastern Churches. In his
homily the pope encouraged all Christians of the Oriental Churches to continue
with their courageous witness, despite the dramatic persecutions that they
suffer.
Recalling the establishment of the Institute by Benedict XV
in 1917, during the First World War, Pope Francis said that today we are living
though another “piecemeal” world war. When we see the persecution and worrying
exodus of Christians, he said, just like the people of the Old Testament, we
cry out “Why?”
Persecution of Christians
In today’s reading from the prophet Malachi, the pope
continued, we read about those who turn away from God and do evil, yet they go
unpunished. In the same way today, he said, we see unscrupulous people who
destroy others in order to pursue their own ends and we ask God, “Why?”
We find the answer in the verses of Malachi, Pope Francis
said, as we read about the way God listens to his people and records their
suffering in a ‘book of memories’.
Pray and trust in the Lord
Pointing to the words from St Luke’s Gospel, the pope said
if we pray and trust in the Lord, we know that “everyone who asks, receives;
those who seek, find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened”.
But do we really know how to pray, to knock on the door of
God’s heart, the pope asked? The Gospel reminds us that if we, sinners, know how
to give good gifts to our children, how much more will your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
God's gift of the Holy Spirit
The Spirit is God’s great gift to us, Pope Francis
concluded, so let us learn how to knock courageously on the door of God’s
heart. May courageous prayer inspire and sustain your service to the Church, he
told the Oriental Church leaders, so that it may bear fruit which does not
wither and die.
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