Vatican City, 16 November 2015 (VIS) –
Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father met with the evangelical Lutheran
community of Rome in the Christuskirche, where he was warmly welcomed
by Pastor Jeans-Martin Kruse, who in his welcome discourse also
recalled the visits to the same temple by St. John Paul II and Pope
Benedict XVI.
Francis then answered questions from
three members of the community, a child and two women, and after the
vespers prayer, with the reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (25,
31, 46), he pronounced an off-the-cuff homily in which he emphasised
that Lutherans and Catholics must ask mutual forgiveness for
persecutions against each other and for the scandal of divisions.
The first question to which the Pope
responded was from a child who wanted to know what he liked the most
about being the Pope. “The thing I like best, sincerely, is being a
pastor”, Francis replied. “I like being the Pope in the style of
a parish priest. Service: I like it, in the sense that I feel good,
when I visit the sick, when I speak with people who are desperate or
sad. I like going to prisons … to speak with detainees. … Every
time I enter a prison I ask myself, 'Why them and not me?'. And I am
aware of the salvation of Jesus Christ, His love for me. Because He
saved me. I am no less a sinner than they are, but the Lord took me
by the hand. And when I go into a prison I am happy. Being a Pope is
being a bishop, being a pastor. If a Pope is not also a bishop, if a
Pope is not also a pastor, he may be a very intelligent person, very
important and hold great influence in society, but I think that
inside he will not be happy”.
The second question came from a
Lutheran woman married to a Catholic, who lamented the fact they
cannot participate together in the Lord's Supper. “It is not easy
for me to answer this”, affirmed the Pope. “I think that the Lord
told us the answer when He gave us this mandate: 'Do this in memory
of me'. And when we share the Lord's Supper, we remember and we
imitate, we do the same thing that the Lord Jesus did. And there will
be the Supper of the Lord, the final banquet in the New Jerusalem. …
However on the path, I wonder – and I do not know how to answer,
but I make your question my own – I wonder, is sharing the Lord's
Supper the aim of the path, or the way of walking together? I leave
this question to theologians, to those who understand. It is true
that in a certain sense sharing means saying that there is no
difference between us, that we have the same doctrine … but do we
not have the same Baptism? And if we have the same Baptism, we should
walk together. … When you pray together, this Baptism grows and
becomes strong; when you teach your children who Jesus is … you do
the same thing, in both a Lutheran and Catholic language, but it is
the same thing. Your question: and the Supper? There are questions to
which only if one is sincere with oneself and with the few
theological 'lights' I have, it is necessary to answer in the same
way. 'This is my body, this is my blood' said the Lord, 'do this in
memory of me', and this is a viaticum that helps us to walk together.
… To your question I respond only with a further question: what can
I do with my husband, so that the Lord's Supper accompanies us as we
walk together? It is a problem that each of us should respond to. A
pastor friend said to me, 'We believe that the Lord is present there.
He is present. You believe that the Lord is present. So what is the
difference?' 'Ah, these are explanations, interpretations'. Life is
greater than explanations and interpretations. Always make reference
to your Baptism: 'one faith, one Baptism, one Lord', as St. Paujl
said, and take it from there. I would never dare give permission to
do this as it is not my competence. One Baptism, one Lord, one faith.
Speak with the Lord and go ahead. I dare not say any more”.
The final question, from the treasurer
of a project to help refugee families, related to how to combat
poverty and to ensure that Christians do not consider this inevitable
or, worse, erect new walls to defend themselves against it.
“Man, from the first moment,
according to the Scriptures, was a great builder of walls that
separate him from God”, said the Holy Father. “And there is a
fantasy behind human walls, the fantasy of becoming like God. For me
the myth … or the narrative of the Tower of Babel shows the
attitude of men and women who build walls, because building a wall is
like saying, 'We are the powerful, and you are outside'. Building a
wall of exclusion follows this approach. The wall is a monument to
exclusion. … For us too … how often do wealth, vanity and pride
become walls … that distance us from the Lord? … What can we do
to avoid building them? Let us do as Jesus did … by placing
ourselves in the place of the least among us. … With this work of
yours, helping young mothers, you do not build walls, you carry out
service. … Human selfishness seeks to defend its own power, its own
selfishness, but this defence distances it from the source of true
richness. Walls, in the end, are a form of suicide. They close you
in”.
Following this discussion the Pope said
vespers and pronounced a brief homily in which, citing the Gospel of
St. Matthew, he spoke about the questions that Jesus will ask us on
Judgement Day. “Did you go to Mass? Did you receive a good
catechesis? No. His questions will be about the poor, as the poor are
at the centre of the Gospel. He, being rich, made Himself poor to
enrich us with His poverty. … It is the choice of service. Did you
use your life for yourself or to serve? To defend yourself from
others with walls or to welcome them with love? This will be the
final decision of Jesus”.
“And I wonder: we, Lutherans and
Catholics, on what side will we be on that day, the right or the
left? There have been many bad times between us …. Think of the
persecutions – between us! With the same Baptism! Think of the many
people burned alive. We must ask forgiveness for this, for the
scandal of division, so that all of us, Lutherans and Catholics, are
together in this choice, the choice of service that He has indicated
to us, the servant of the Lord”.
“Finally, I like to ask Him, He Who
serve unity, to help us to walk together. Today we have prayed
together. Let us pray together, walk together for the poor, for the
needy; let us love each other with true fraternal love. 'But father,
we are different, because our dogmatic books say one thing and yours
say another'. But a great exponent of yours once said that there is
the time of reconciled diversity. Let us ask today for this grace,
the grace of this diversity reconciled in the Lord, that is, the
Servant of Yahweh, the God Who came among us to serve and not to be
served”.
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