At 5:30pm today (local time in Rome), inside the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls, the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the celebration of Second Vespers for the Solemnity of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle, at the conclusion of the 51st Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which has had the theme: Your hand is powerful, Lord (cf Exodus 15:1-21).
Taking part in the celebration were representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial communities present in Rome.
At the conclusion of Vespers, before imparting the Apostolic blessing, His Eminence, Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Unity among Christians offered a few words of gratitude to the Holy Father.
The reading taken from the book of Exodus speaks to us of Moses and of Mary, brother and sister, who begin a hymn of praise to God on the shores of the Red Sea, together with the community that God had freed in Egypt. They sing about their joy because in those waters, God had saved them from an enemy who had tried to destroy them. Moses himself had previously been saved from the water and his sister had witnessed the event. The Pharaoh had in fact ordered: Throw into the Nile every male child who is born (Ex 1:22). Meanwhile, having found the basket containing the child among the reeds in the Nile, Pharaoh's daughter had called him Moses, for she said: I took him from the water! (Ex 2:10). The story of the rescue of Moses from the water therefore prefigures a greater rescue - that of all the people - which God accomplished when they walked through the Red Sea, and the waters flowed back upon their enemies.
Many of the ancient Fathers understood this liberating passage as an image of Baptism. Our sins have been drowned by God in the living waters of Baptism. Much more than Egypt, sin threatened to make us slaves forever, but the power of divine love overwhelmed sin. Saint Augustine (Sermon 223E) interpreted the Red Sea, where Israel saw the salvation of God, as an anticipatory sign of the blood of the crucified Christ, a font of salvation. All of us Christians have passed through the waters of Baptism, and the grace of the Sacrament has destroyed our enemies: sin and death. Coming forth from the waters, we have achieved the freedom of children; we have emerged as a people, as a community of brothers and sisters who have been saved, like fellow citizens with the saints and part of the family of God (Eph 2:19). We share a fundamental experience: the grace of God, his mercy which has the power to save us. And precisely because God has achieved this victory in us, we can sing his praises together.
In life, we experience God's tenderness, which in our daily lives, lovingly saves us from sin, fear and anguish. These precious experiences must be retained in our hearts and in our memories. But, as it was for Moses, our individual experiences are tied to an even greater story, the story of the salvation of God's people. We see it in the song intoned by the Israelites. It begins with an individual story: My strength and my song is the Lord, he has been my salvation (Ex 15:2). But later it becomes a narrative of salvation for all people: With your love, you guided this people who you redeemed (Ex 15:13). Those who sing this song have realized that they are not alone on the banks of the Red Sea, but that they are surrounded by brothers and sisters who have received the same grace and proclaim the same praises.
Even Saint Paul, whose conversion we celebrate today, experienced the power of grace which called him to become, not a persecutor but an apostle of Christ. The grace of God also led him to seek communion with other Christians, immediately: first in Damascus and later in Jerusalem (cf Acts 9:19, 26-27). This is our experience as believers. As we grow in the spiritual life, we understand more and more the fact that grace is given to us together with others and that it is meant to be shared with others. In this way, when I offer thanks to God for what he has done in me, I find that I do not sing alone, because other brothers and sisters join in my song of praise.
Various Christian confessions have had this same experience. In the last century, we finally understood the truth that we stand together on the shores of the Red Sea. In Baptism, we have been saved and the grateful song of praise which other brothers and sisters sing, belongs to us as well, because this song is also ours. When we say that we recognize the Baptism of other Christians and other traditions, we confess that they too have received forgiveness from the Lord and his grace that is at work within them. And we welcome their worship as an authentic expression of praise for what God has done. Therefore, we want to pray together, uniting our voices even more. Even if differences should separate us, we recognize the fact that we belong to the people of the redeemed, the family of brothers and sisters who are loved by the same Father.
Following their liberation, the chosen people undertook a long and difficult journey through the desert. They often wavered, but they drew strength from the memory of God's saving work and his presence which is always close to us. Christians today also encounter many difficulties along our journey; we are surrounded by so many spiritual deserts which cause hope and joy to dry up. On the way, there are also serious dangers which put life at risk: how many of our brothers and sisters today are suffering persecution for the name of Jesus! When their blood is shed, even if they belong to different Confessions, they too become witnesses to faith, martyrs, united in the bond of baptismal grace. Still, together with friends from other religious traditions, Christians today face challenges that demean human dignity: they flee from situations of conflict and suffering; they are victims of human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery; they suffer hardships and hunger, in a world that is increasingly rich in means but poor in love, where inequalities continue to increase. But like the Israelites in the Exodus, Christians are called together to keep the memory of all that God has accomplished in them. By reviving this memory, we can support one another and face every challenge with courage and hope, armed only with Jesus and with the sweet power of his gospel.
Brothers and sisters, with hearts full of joy for having sung together today a hymn of praise to the Father, through Christ our Saviour and in the Spirit that gives life, I want to extend warm greetings to all of you: to His Eminence, Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch; to His Grace, Bernard Ntahoturi, personal representative in Rome of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and to all the representatives and members of various Christian confessions who are gathered here. I am pleased to greet the ecumenical delegation from Finland, who I had the pleasure of meeting this morning. I also greet the students from the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, who are visiting in Rome in order to deepen their knowledge of the Catholic Church, and the young Oriental Orthodox men and women who are studying here thanks to the generosity of the Committee of Cultural Collaboration and the Orthodox Churches who are working with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Together, we have given thanks to God for all that he has done in our lives and in our communities. Today, let us present to him our needs and the needs of the world, trusting that He, in his faithful love, will continue to save and accompany his people along their journey.
(Original text in Italian)
(Video of the Vespers celebration)
At the conclusion of Vespers, before imparting his Apostolic blessing, the Holy Father offered the following unscripted words of greeting to the Lutheran pastor who is preparing to leave Rome:
Our brother, the Lutheran pastor in Rome, is leaving us after ten years in order to begin other work in Hamburg, and I asked him to come and also to give us all his blessing.
(Blessing)
Taking part in the celebration were representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial communities present in Rome.
At the conclusion of Vespers, before imparting the Apostolic blessing, His Eminence, Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Unity among Christians offered a few words of gratitude to the Holy Father.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for Second Vespers on the
Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle
The reading taken from the book of Exodus speaks to us of Moses and of Mary, brother and sister, who begin a hymn of praise to God on the shores of the Red Sea, together with the community that God had freed in Egypt. They sing about their joy because in those waters, God had saved them from an enemy who had tried to destroy them. Moses himself had previously been saved from the water and his sister had witnessed the event. The Pharaoh had in fact ordered: Throw into the Nile every male child who is born (Ex 1:22). Meanwhile, having found the basket containing the child among the reeds in the Nile, Pharaoh's daughter had called him Moses, for she said: I took him from the water! (Ex 2:10). The story of the rescue of Moses from the water therefore prefigures a greater rescue - that of all the people - which God accomplished when they walked through the Red Sea, and the waters flowed back upon their enemies.
Many of the ancient Fathers understood this liberating passage as an image of Baptism. Our sins have been drowned by God in the living waters of Baptism. Much more than Egypt, sin threatened to make us slaves forever, but the power of divine love overwhelmed sin. Saint Augustine (Sermon 223E) interpreted the Red Sea, where Israel saw the salvation of God, as an anticipatory sign of the blood of the crucified Christ, a font of salvation. All of us Christians have passed through the waters of Baptism, and the grace of the Sacrament has destroyed our enemies: sin and death. Coming forth from the waters, we have achieved the freedom of children; we have emerged as a people, as a community of brothers and sisters who have been saved, like fellow citizens with the saints and part of the family of God (Eph 2:19). We share a fundamental experience: the grace of God, his mercy which has the power to save us. And precisely because God has achieved this victory in us, we can sing his praises together.
In life, we experience God's tenderness, which in our daily lives, lovingly saves us from sin, fear and anguish. These precious experiences must be retained in our hearts and in our memories. But, as it was for Moses, our individual experiences are tied to an even greater story, the story of the salvation of God's people. We see it in the song intoned by the Israelites. It begins with an individual story: My strength and my song is the Lord, he has been my salvation (Ex 15:2). But later it becomes a narrative of salvation for all people: With your love, you guided this people who you redeemed (Ex 15:13). Those who sing this song have realized that they are not alone on the banks of the Red Sea, but that they are surrounded by brothers and sisters who have received the same grace and proclaim the same praises.
Even Saint Paul, whose conversion we celebrate today, experienced the power of grace which called him to become, not a persecutor but an apostle of Christ. The grace of God also led him to seek communion with other Christians, immediately: first in Damascus and later in Jerusalem (cf Acts 9:19, 26-27). This is our experience as believers. As we grow in the spiritual life, we understand more and more the fact that grace is given to us together with others and that it is meant to be shared with others. In this way, when I offer thanks to God for what he has done in me, I find that I do not sing alone, because other brothers and sisters join in my song of praise.
Various Christian confessions have had this same experience. In the last century, we finally understood the truth that we stand together on the shores of the Red Sea. In Baptism, we have been saved and the grateful song of praise which other brothers and sisters sing, belongs to us as well, because this song is also ours. When we say that we recognize the Baptism of other Christians and other traditions, we confess that they too have received forgiveness from the Lord and his grace that is at work within them. And we welcome their worship as an authentic expression of praise for what God has done. Therefore, we want to pray together, uniting our voices even more. Even if differences should separate us, we recognize the fact that we belong to the people of the redeemed, the family of brothers and sisters who are loved by the same Father.
Following their liberation, the chosen people undertook a long and difficult journey through the desert. They often wavered, but they drew strength from the memory of God's saving work and his presence which is always close to us. Christians today also encounter many difficulties along our journey; we are surrounded by so many spiritual deserts which cause hope and joy to dry up. On the way, there are also serious dangers which put life at risk: how many of our brothers and sisters today are suffering persecution for the name of Jesus! When their blood is shed, even if they belong to different Confessions, they too become witnesses to faith, martyrs, united in the bond of baptismal grace. Still, together with friends from other religious traditions, Christians today face challenges that demean human dignity: they flee from situations of conflict and suffering; they are victims of human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery; they suffer hardships and hunger, in a world that is increasingly rich in means but poor in love, where inequalities continue to increase. But like the Israelites in the Exodus, Christians are called together to keep the memory of all that God has accomplished in them. By reviving this memory, we can support one another and face every challenge with courage and hope, armed only with Jesus and with the sweet power of his gospel.
Brothers and sisters, with hearts full of joy for having sung together today a hymn of praise to the Father, through Christ our Saviour and in the Spirit that gives life, I want to extend warm greetings to all of you: to His Eminence, Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch; to His Grace, Bernard Ntahoturi, personal representative in Rome of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and to all the representatives and members of various Christian confessions who are gathered here. I am pleased to greet the ecumenical delegation from Finland, who I had the pleasure of meeting this morning. I also greet the students from the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, who are visiting in Rome in order to deepen their knowledge of the Catholic Church, and the young Oriental Orthodox men and women who are studying here thanks to the generosity of the Committee of Cultural Collaboration and the Orthodox Churches who are working with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Together, we have given thanks to God for all that he has done in our lives and in our communities. Today, let us present to him our needs and the needs of the world, trusting that He, in his faithful love, will continue to save and accompany his people along their journey.
(Original text in Italian)
(Video of the Vespers celebration)
At the conclusion of Vespers, before imparting his Apostolic blessing, the Holy Father offered the following unscripted words of greeting to the Lutheran pastor who is preparing to leave Rome:
Our brother, the Lutheran pastor in Rome, is leaving us after ten years in order to begin other work in Hamburg, and I asked him to come and also to give us all his blessing.
(Blessing)
No comments:
Post a Comment