Vatican
City, 18 May 2013 (VIS) – Today and yesterday, events for ecclesial
movements of new lay communities and associations to reflect on the
theme “I Believe! Increase our Faith!” were held in Rome as part
of the Year of Faith. Over 120,000 people were gathered in St. Peter's
Square this afternoon when the Pope arrived at 5:30pm and, after
greeting the pilgrims, initiated the Pentecost Vigil.
After
the opening welcome by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, the image of
the Virgin Mary Salus Populi Romani was brought in a procession to
the centre of the square and then enthroned. After a series of
readings, songs, and testimonials, Pope Francis answered four
questions asked by representatives of the movements. Following are
the questions with a summary of the Holy Father's answers.
Q:
“How were you able to achieve certainty of faith in your life, and
what path can you indicate to us so that each one of us can overcome
our fragility of faith?”
A:
“I have had the good fortune to grow up in a family where the faith
was lived in a simple and concrete manner ... The first proclamation
is in the home, within the family, right? And this makes me think of
the love of so many mothers and so many grandmothers in the
transmission of the faith. … We do not find our faith in the
abstract, no! It is always a person who preaches it to us, who tells
us who Jesus is, who gives us the faith, who gives us the first
announcement. … But there is a very important day for me: September
21, 1953. I was almost 17. It was the 'Students' Day'.... Before
going to the festival, I went to my parish and met a priest I did not
know, but I felt the need to confess. … After confession I felt
that something had changed. I was not the same. I felt a voice call
me: I was convinced that I had to become a priest. This experience of
faith is important. We say that we must seek God, go to him to ask
for forgiveness ... but when we go, He is already waiting for us. He
is the first one there! ... And this creates wonder in the hearts of
those who do not believe, and this is how faith grows! With an
encounter with a Person, with an encounter with the Lord.”
Regarding
fragility: “Fragility’s biggest enemy curiously enough, is fear.
But do not be afraid! We are weak, we know it but He is stronger! If
you are with him, then there is no problem! A child is fragile—I
see many today—but they are with their fathers and their mothers so
they are safe! We too are safe with the Lord; we are secure. Faith
grows with the Lord, out of the very hands of the Lord.”
Q:
The second question concerned the challenge of evangelization and
what the movements should do to put the task have been called to into
practice.
A:
“I will say just three words. First: Jesus. … If we move forward
with planning and other things, beautiful things indeed, but without
Jesus, then something is wrong. Jesus is the most important thing. …
The second word is prayer. Look at the face of God, but above all ...
know that you are being looked at in return. … And third,
'witness'. … the faith can only be communicated through witness and
that is through love. Not with our ideas, but by living the Gospel in
our own lives, which the Holy Spirit brings to life within us. …
Not so much speaking, but speaking through the way you live: the
consistency of your life … which means living Christianity as an
encounter with Jesus that leads me towards others and not as a social
fact. Socially this how we are. Are we Christians? Wrapped up in
ourselves? No, not that. Witness!”
Q:
The third question was how to live as “a poor Church, for the
poor”.
A:
“First of all, the main contribution we can make is to live the
Gospel. The Church is not a political movement or a well-organized
structure: That is not her. … The Church is the 'salt of the
earth, the light of the world’. She is called to make the leaven of
the Kingdom of God present in society and do it first by witness, her
witness of fraternal love, solidarity … When you hear some say that
solidarity is not a value, that it's a 'basic attitude' that needs to
disappear ... this is wrong! … Moments of crisis, such as the one
we are experiencing ... are not only an economic crisis, not a
cultural crisis. It is a crisis of humanity: it is humanity that is
in crisis. And what can be destroyed is mankind! But mankind is the
image of God!”
“In
this time of crisis we can't just worry about ourselves, can't get
wrapped up in loneliness or discouragement … Please do not get
locked away in yourselves! That is a danger: locking ourselves away
inside our parish, among our friends, in our movement, with people
who think the same way we do ... But you know what is happening? When
the Church becomes closed up in itself it gets sick. ,,, The Church
must go out from herself. Where? Towards the boundaries of existence,
whatever those might be, but get out. Faith is an encounter with
Jesus and we must do the same as Jesus, meet others. .… We have to
bring about encounter. We have to make our faith a 'culture of
encounter' and of friendship, a culture wherein we find brothers and
sisters, where we can talk even with those who do not think like us,
even with those with which have a different faith … Everyone has
something in common with us: they are made in the image of God! …
We must go out to meet with everyone without negotiating about the
faith we belong to.”
“And
another important point: we must go out to meet the poor. … Today,
imagine, all the children who don't have something to eat is not
news. This is serious. We cannot stay calm! We cannot become
starch-pressed Christians, those Christians who are too highly
educated, who speak of theological issues over tea, calmly. No! We
must become courageous Christians and go out in search of those who
are the flesh of Christ. … Poverty, for us Christians, is not a
sociological or philosophical or cultural category. No. It is a
theological category. I would say, perhaps, the first category,
because God, the Son of God, humbled himself, became poor to walk
along the road with us. This is our poverty: the poverty of the flesh
of Christ; the poverty that has brought us the Son of God with his
Incarnation.”
Q:
The fourth question was: How can we help our brothers and sisters if
there is little we can do to change the socio-political climate they
are living under?
A:
“Two virtues are needed to proclaim the Gospel: courage and
patience. They are in the Church of patience. They suffer and there
are more martyrs today than in the early centuries of the Church. …
It should be noted that many times these conflicts do not have a
religious origin. Often there are other causes of a social and
political nature and unfortunately, religious affiliations are used
like fuel to the fire. A Christian must always know how to respond to
evil with good, although it is often difficult. We must try to make
them feel—these brothers and sisters of ours—that we are deeply
united ... to their situation, that we know that they are Christians
who have 'entered a state of patience'. … they experience the
limits, the very limits, between life and death. And for us, this
experience should lead us to promote religious freedom for all: for
everyone! Every man and woman should be free in their religious
confession, whatever it may be. Why? Because that man and that woman
are children of God.“
The
vigil ended with the profession of faith, prayer intentions, and the
singing of the Regina Coeli.
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