publish Here is the Holy Father's homily delivered during the recitation of Second Vespers on the Solemnity of the Conversion of St. Paul at the end of the week of prayer for Christian unity.
Dear brothers and sisters, united in fraternal
liturgical assembly, the Feast of the Conversion of Paul, we conclude today the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I would like to greet you with affection and, in particular, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, el'Arciprete of this basilica, Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, with the Abbot and the Community of the monks, who are hosting us. I also extend my cordial greeting to the Cardinals present, the Bishops and all the representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the city, gathered here.
Not many months have passed since we finished the year dedicated to St. Paul, who has given us the opportunity to develop his extraordinary work as a preacher of the Gospel, and, as we pointed out the theme for the Week of Prayer for 'Christian unity - "You are witnesses of this" (Luke 24:48) - our call to be missionaries of the Gospel. Paul, while preserving a living and intense memory of his past as a persecutor of Christians, the Apostle does not hesitate to call. In support of that title, there is for him to meet the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus, which was also the beginning of a tireless missionary activity, which will spend all his energy to proclaim Christ to all nations that he had personally met. So Paul, a persecutor of the Church, he himself becomes the victim of persecution on account of the Gospel to which he gave testimony: "Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned ... Journeys, in dangers from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from Gentiles, danger in the city, in perils in the wilderness, danger at sea, dangers among false brothers; inconvenience and hardship, through many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and nakedness. Besides all this, my daily pressure, concern for all the churches "(2 Cor 11,24-25.26-28). The testimony of Paul reaches the climax in his martyrdom when, not far from here, will test his faith in Christ that conquers death.
The dynamics of this experience is the same Paul that we find in the Gospel we just heard. The disciples of Emmaus, upon recognizing the risen Lord, return to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together with others. The Risen Christ appears to them, comforts them, wins their fears, their doubts, they are made to the diner and open their hearts to understand the Scriptures, remembering what had happened and which will form the core of the Christian. Jesus says: "Thus it is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name would be preached to all nations repentance and forgiveness of sins, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24.46-47). These are the events which bear witness of the first disciples of the first hour and then, believers in Christ in every age and every place. It 'important, however, point out that this witness, then as now, was born from the encounter with the Risen Lord feeds on the constant relationship with Him, is animated by deep Only to Him who has experience of hearing the Christ present and alive - "Look at my hands and my feet, it's me" (Lk 24.39 ) -, to sit at table with him, face to hear it because the burning of the heart, can be your witness! For this, Jesus promises his disciples and to each of us a powerful support from a new presence, the Holy Spirit, gift of the risen Christ, who guides us into all truth: "Behold, I send him on you that the promise of my Father "(Luke 24:49). The Eleven spend all his life to preach the good news of the death and Resurrection of the Lord, and almost all sealed their testimony with the blood of martyrdom, like a seed that produced a bumper harvest.
The choice of theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year, the invitation, that is, a common witness of the risen Christ according to the mandate that He has entrusted to his disciples is tied to the memory of the hundredth anniversary Missionary Conference of Edinburgh in Scotland, which is seen by many as a defining event for the birth of the modern ecumenical movement. In the summer of 1910, met in the Scottish capital over a thousand missionaries belonging to different branches of Protestantism and Anglicanism, who joined a host Orthodox to reflect together on the need to achieve the union to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ credibly. In fact, it is the desire to proclaim Christ to others and to bring to the world his message of reconciliation to experience the contradiction of the division of Christians. How can they, in fact, the unbelievers to accept the Gospel if Christians, although they all appeal to the same Christ, are at odds with each other? Moreover, as we know, the Master himself, at the end of the Last Supper, had prayed to the Father for his disciples: "Let all be one ... so that the world may believe" (Jn 17:21). The communion and unity of the disciples of Christ is therefore particularly important condition for greater credibility and effectiveness of their testimony.
For a century after the event in Edinburgh, the intuition of those brave precursors is still very current. In a world marked by religious indifference, and even by a growing aversion to the Christian faith, we need a new, intense work of evangelization, not only among people who have never known the Gospel, but also in those which Christianity has spread and is part of their history. There are, unfortunately, issues that separate us from each other and that we hope will be overcome through prayer and dialogue, but there is a central content of the message of Christ that we proclaim together: the fatherhood of God, Christ's victory over sin and death through His cross and resurrection, in confidence ' transforming action of the Spirit. While we are on the path toward full communion, are called to offer a common witness in the face of increasingly complex challenges of our time, such as secularization and indifference, relativism and hedonism, the delicate ethical issues concerning the beginning and the end of life, the limits of science and technology, dialogue with other religious traditions. There are also other areas where we from now to give a common witness: the preservation of creation, the promotion of the common good and peace, defense of the centrality of the human person, the commitment to overcome the miseries of our time, such as hunger, poverty, the 'illiteracy, the unequal distribution of goods.
commitment to Christian unity is not the duty of some, or activities ancillary to the life of the Church. Everyone is called to make his contribution to accomplish those steps that lead to full communion among all the disciples of Christ, never forgetting that it is above all a gift of God to be invoked constantly. Indeed, the force that promotes unity and mission flows from the fruitful and exciting with the Risen Lord, as happened to St. Paul on the road to Damascus and to the eleven and the other disciples gathered in Jerusalem. The Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, make sure that as soon as possible to fulfill the wish of His Son: "That all may be one ... so that the world may believe" (Jn 17:21).
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