GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS 20 JANUARY 2016
GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Paul
VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
We have listened to the Biblical text which this year
guides the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which
is taking place this week from 18 to 25 January. That passage from the First
Letter of St Peter was chosen by an ecumenical group from Latvia, commissioned
by the World Council of Churches and by the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity.
At the centre of the Lutheran Cathedral of Riga there
is a baptismal font that dates back to the 12th century, when Latvia was
evangelized by St Meinhard. That font is an eloquent sign of the origin of the
faith, recognized by all the Christians of Latvia: Catholics, Lutherans and
Orthodox. That origin is our shared Baptism. The Second Vatican Council affirms
that Baptism “constitutes the sacramental bond of unity existing among all who
through it have been reborn” (Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 22). The
First Letter of Peter is addressed to the first generation of Christians to
make them aware of the gift they received at Baptism and of what that entails.
We too, in this Week of Prayer, are invited to rediscover its significance, and
to do so together, moving beyond our divisions.
First of all, sharing Baptism means that we are all
sinners and need to be saved, redeemed, freed from sin. This is the negative
aspect, which the First Letter of Peter calls “darkness” when it says: “[God]
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. This is the experience of
death, what Christ wanted to overcome, and what is symbolized in Baptism by
immersion in water, followed by emergence, the symbol of the resurrection to
new life in Christ.
When we Christians speak of sharing in one Baptism, we
affirm that we all — Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox — share in the
experience of being called out of the merciless and alienating darkness to the
encounter with the living God, full of mercy. We all, unfortunately, also
experience the selfishness, that creates division, withdrawal and contempt.
Starting anew from Baptism means rediscovering the font of mercy, the font of
hope for all, for no one is excluded from the mercy of God.
The sharing of this grace creates an indissoluble bond
between us as Christians, such that, by virtue of Baptism, we can consider
ourselves truly brothers and sisters. We are truly the holy people of God, even
if, due to our sins, we are not yet a fully united people. The mercy of God,
who acts in Baptism, is stronger than our divisions. To the extent that we
accept the grace of mercy, we become ever more fully the people of God, and we
also become better able to proclaim to all his marvelous deeds, starting with a
simple and fraternal testimony of unity. We Christians can proclaim to all
people the power of the Gospel by committing ourselves to sharing in the corporal
and spiritual works of mercy. This is a concrete testimony of unity among us
Christians: Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic.
In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, we
Christians have all, by the grace of Baptism, been shown mercy by God and been
welcomed into his people. We, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, form one
royal priesthood and one holy nation. This means that we have one common
mission, which is to pass the mercy we have received on to others, beginning
with the poor and abandoned. During this Week of Prayer, let us pray that all
of us, disciples of Christ, may find a way to cooperate with one another to
bring the mercy of the Father to every part of the earth.
Special greetings:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors
taking part in today’s Audience, including those from New Zealand and the
United States of America. In the context of this Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity, I offer a special greeting to the group from the Bossey Ecumenical
Institute. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke an abundance of joy and
peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!
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