ONLY THOSE WHO LIVE WHAT THEY PROFESS CAN HOPE TO BE HEARD

VATICAN CITY, JUN 10, 2000 (VIS) - At 6:30 this evening, the vigil of Pentecost, the Pope presided at the Eucharist in St. Peter's Square. During the Jubilee Year, on the occasion of this solemnity, the Church is celebrating the "Day of Reflection and Prayer On the Duties of Catholics Towards Other Men: Announcing Christ, Witnessing and Dialogue."

With the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, John Paul II recalled in his homily, "began the double witness: that of the Holy Spirit and that of the Apostles. The witness of the Spirit is divine in itself: it proceeds from the depth of the Trinitarian mystery. The witness of the Apostles is human: it transmits, in the light of revelation, their experience of living next to Jesus."

"What is decisive for the efficacy of proclamation," affirmed the Holy Father, "is a witness that is lived. Only a believer who lives what he professes with his lips, has the hope of being heard." When it is not possible to explicitly announce Jesus Christ, "the witness of a respectful, chaste life, detached from riches and free in the face of the powers of this world, in a word, the witness of holiness, even if offered in silence, can reveal all its strength of conviction."

Furthermore, he added, "it is clear that firmness in witnessing to Christ with the strength of the Holy Spirit does not impede one from collaborating in service to mankind with those belonging to other religions. ... If the children of the Church will know how to remain open to the action of the Holy Spirit, He will help them to communicate, in a way that respects other religious convictions, the one and universal message of salvation in Christ."

Pope John Paul gave thanks to God for "the witness of the first community in Jerusalem which, through generations of martyrs and confessors, became throughout the centuries the legacy of countless men and women through the world."

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