Vatican City, 30 November 2015 (VIS)
“Today Bangui becomes the spiritual capital of the world. The Holy
Year of Mercy comes in advance to this land. A land that has suffered
for many years as a result of war, hatred, misunderstanding, and the
lack of peace. But in this suffering land there are also all the
countries that are experiencing the Cross of war”, said Pope
Francis yesterday afternoon in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception of Bangui, before opening the Holy Door and
thus beginning the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Bangui thus becomes, he continued, the
spiritual capital of prayer for the Father's mercy. We all ask for
peace, mercy, reconciliation, forgiveness, and love. For Bangui, and
for all the Central African Republic, for all the world, for
countries that suffer war, we ask for peace. Let us all ask together
for love and peace!”, he exclaimed, adding in the Sango language of
the Central African Republic, “Doye Siriri! Love and peace!”.
With this prayer he began the Holy Year
following the rite for the opening of the Holy Door. “Opne the
doors of justice; this is the door of the Lord; I enter Your House,
Lord”, said Francis before entering first, alone, into the
cathedral where he was awaited by the priests, men and women
religious, and seminarians of the Central African Republic to
participate in the Holy Mass. In his homily, the Pope reiterated that
all, without exception, share in the “God’s grace, the alms of
peace”, and he made an fresh appeal to those who “make unjust
use” of weapons: “Lay down these instruments of death. Arm
yourselves instead with righteousness, with love and mercy, the
authentic guarantors of peace”.
The following is the full text of the
homily pronounced by the Holy Father:
“On this first Sunday of Advent, the
liturgical season of joyful expectation of the Saviour and a symbol
of Christian hope, God has brought me here among you, in this land,
while the universal Church is preparing for the opening of the
Jubilee Year of Mercy, which we inaugurated here today. I am
especially pleased that my pastoral visit coincides with the opening
of this Jubilee Year in your country. From this cathedral I reach
out, in mind and heart, and with great affection, to all the priests,
consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers of the nation, who
are spiritually united with us at this moment. Through you, I would
greet all the people of the Central African Republic: the sick, the
elderly, those who have experienced life’s pains. Some of them are
perhaps despairing and listless, asking only for alms, the alms of
bread, the alms of justice, the alms of attention and goodness. All
of us are looking for God’s grace, for the alms of peace.
“But like the Apostles Peter and John
on their way to the Temple, who had neither gold nor silver to give
to the paralytic in need, I have come to offer God’s strength and
power; for these bring us healing, set us on our feet and enable us
to embark on a new life, to 'go across to the other side'.
“Jesus does not make us cross to the
other side alone; instead, He asks us to make the crossing with Him,
as each of us responds to his or her own specific vocation. We need
to realise that making this crossing can only be done with Him, by
freeing ourselves of divisive notions of family and blood in order to
build a Church which is God’s family, open to everyone, concerned
for those most in need. This presupposes closeness to our brothers
and sisters; it implies a spirit of communion. It is not primarily a
question of financial means; it is enough just to share in the life
of God’s people, in accounting for the hope which is in us, in
testifying to the infinite mercy of God who, as the Responsorial
Psalm of this Sunday’s liturgy makes clear, is 'good [and]
instructs sinners in the way'. Jesus teaches us that our heavenly
Father 'makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good'. Having
experienced forgiveness ourselves, we must forgive others in turn.
This is our fundamental vocation: 'You, therefore, must be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect'.
“One of the essential characteristics
of this vocation to perfection is the love of our enemies, which
protects us from the temptation to seek revenge and from the spiral
of endless retaliation. Jesus placed special emphasis on this aspect
of the Christian testimony. Those who evangelise must therefore be
first and foremost practitioners of forgiveness, specialists in
reconciliation, experts in mercy. This is how we can help our
brothers and sisters to 'cross to the other side' – by showing them
the secret of our strength, our hope, and our joy, all of which have
their source in God, for they are grounded in the certainty that He
is in the boat with us. As He did with the apostles at the
multiplication of the loaves, so too the Lord entrusts His gifts to
us, so that we can go out and distribute them everywhere, proclaiming
His reassuring words: 'Behold, the days are coming when I will fulfil
the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah'.
“In the readings of this Sunday’s
liturgy, we can see different aspects of this salvation proclaimed by
God; they appear as signposts to guide us on our mission. First of
all, the happiness promised by God is presented as justice. Advent is
a time when we strive to open our hearts to receive the Saviour, Who
alone is just and the sole Judge able to give to each his or her due.
Here as elsewhere, countless men and women thirst for respect, for
justice, for equality, yet see no positive signs on the horizon.
These are the ones to whom he comes to bring the gift of his justice.
He comes to enrich our personal and collective histories, our dashed
hopes and our sterile yearnings. And He sends us to proclaim,
especially to those oppressed by the powerful of this world or
weighed down by the burden of their sins, that 'Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it
shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness’. Yes, God is
righteousness; God is justice. This, then, is why we Christians are
called in the world to work for a peace founded on justice.
“The salvation of God which we await
is also flavoured with love. In preparing for the mystery of
Christmas, we relive the pilgrimage which prepared God’s people to
receive the Son, who came to reveal that God is not only
righteousness, but also and above all love. In every place, even and
especially in those places where violence, hatred, injustice and
persecution hold sway, Christians are called to give witness to this
God Who is love. In encouraging the priests, consecrated men and
women, and committed laity who, in this country live, at times
heroically, the Christian virtues, I realise that the distance
between this demanding ideal and our Christian witness is at times
great. For this reason I echo the prayer of St. Paul: 'Brothers and
sisters, may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one
another and to all men and women'. Thus what the pagans said of the
early Christians will always remain before us like a beacon: 'See how
they love one another, how they truly love one another'.
“Finally, the salvation proclaimed by
God has an invincible power which will make it ultimately prevail.
After announcing to His disciples the terrible signs that will
precede His coming, Jesus concludes: 'When these things begin to take
place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is
drawing near'. If St. Paul can speak of a love which 'grows and
overflows', it is because Christian witness reflects that
irresistible power spoken of in the Gospel. It is amid unprecedented
devastation that Jesus wishes to show His great power, His
incomparable glory and the power of that love which stops at nothing,
even before the falling of the heavens, the conflagration of the
world or the tumult of the seas. God is stronger, more powerful, than
all else. This conviction gives to the believer serenity, courage and
the strength to persevere in good amid the greatest hardships. Even
when the powers of Hell are unleashed, Christians must rise to the
summons, their heads held high, and be ready to brave blows in this
battle over which God will have the last word. And that word will be
one of love and peace!
“To all those who make unjust use of
the weapons of this world, I make this appeal: lay down these
instruments of death! Arm yourselves instead with righteousness, with
love and mercy, the authentic guarantors of peace. As followers of
Christ, dear priests, religious and lay pastoral workers, here in
this country, with its suggestive name, situated in the heart of
Africa and called to discover the Lord as the true centre of all that
is good, your vocation is to incarnate the very heart of God in the
midst of your fellow citizens. May the Lord deign to 'strengthen your
hearts in holiness, that you may be blameless before our God and
Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints'.
Reconciliation, forgiveness, love and peace! Amen”.
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