Pope to Finnish Ecumenical
Delegation: standing together as baptized Christians
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| Pope Francis with the Finnish Ecumenical Delegation (Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis receives an ecumenical delegation from Finland,
and recalls the importance of hospitality as part of our shared witness of
faith in daily life.
By Vatican News
Meeting in the Vatican with an ecumenical delegation from
Finland on Friday, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of journeying in
communion of faith “so as to encourage one another and to strengthen one
another in Christian discipleship”.
The Feast of Saint Henrik
The group was in Rome as part of a customary ecumenical
pilgrimage celebrating the feast of Saint Henrik, believed to have been an
English-born Bishop of Uppsala who was martyred in the mid-12th century.
He is venerated by Catholics and Lutherans, as well as several Protestant
Churches and the Anglican Community.
Baptism and bearing common burdens
Reminding those present of how this past Sunday we celebrated
the Baptism of Jesus, Pope Francis recalled our own baptism. “A Christian is
someone who can give thanks for his or her baptism, and this gratitude unites
us within the community of all the baptized”, he said.
The Pope also referred to the Report of the
Catholic-Lutheran dialogue group for Sweden and Finland, entitled Justification
in the Life of the Church, which observes that “as members of one and the
same mystical body of Christ, Christians are bound to one another and must bear
one another’s burdens”.
Hospitality and Christian Unity
Pope Francis then looked ahead to the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity that begins on Saturday, with the theme “They showed us unusual
kindness”. The words are those of the Apostle Paul, and refer “to the
inhabitants of the island of Malta, who received him, together with hundreds of
shipwrecked people, with hospitality”, explained the Pope.
“As baptized Christians, we believe that Christ wishes to
meet us precisely in those who are – whether literally or figuratively –
shipwrecked in life”, said Pope Francis. “Those who show hospitality grow
richer, not poorer. Whoever gives, receives in return. For the humanity
we show to others makes us in a mysterious way partakers in the goodness of the
God who became man”.
Journeying and standing together
Pope Francis confirmed how “we are journeying together in
the community of all the baptized”. The gratitude that Christians give for
their baptism “links and expands our hearts”, he said, it “opens them to our
neighbour, who is not an adversary but our beloved brother, our beloved
sister”.
“The community of all the baptized is not a mere ‘standing
beside one another’, and certainly not a ‘standing against one other’”,
concluded the Pope, “but wants to become an ever fuller ‘standing together’”.
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