Vatican
City, 13 October 2013 (VIS) - We publish below the full text of Pope
Francis' video message, broadcast at the beginning of the
beatification ceremony for 522 twentieth-century Spanish martyrs,
which took place in Tarragona, Spain.
“I
would like to express my heartfelt participation in the celebration
taking place in Tarragona in which a great number of pastors,
consecrated persons and lay faithful are being proclaimed Blessed
martyrs.
“Who
are the martyrs? They are Christians won over by Christ, disciples
who have understood fully the path to that “love to the extreme
limit” that led Jesus to the Cross. There is no such thing as love
in consignments or in portions. Total love: and when one loves truly,
one loves to the very end. On the Cross, Jesus felt the weight of
death, the weight of sin, but He entrusted Himself entirely to the
Father, and He forgave. He barely uttered a word, but He gave His
life. Christ precedes and awaits us in love; the martyrs imitated Him
in loving to the very end.
“The
Holy Fathers say, 'Imitate the martyrs!' It is always necessary to
die a little in order to come out of ourselves, to leave behind our
selfishness, our comfort, our laziness, our sadness, and to open
ourselves to God, and to others, especially those most in need.
“We
implore the intercession of the martyrs in order to be true
Christians, Christians not only in words but in deeds; so as not to
be mediocre Christians, Christians painted with a superficial gloss
of Christianity but without substance; the martyrs were not glossed
and painted Christians, they were were Christians to the very end.
Let us ask their help to stay firm in faith, in spite of
difficulties, and let us too nurture hope and be architects of
brotherhood and solidarity.
“And
I ask you to pray for me. May Jesus bless them and the Holy Virgin
protect them”.
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