It recalls the ecumenism of the blood, Pope Leo. Underlining the commitment of the Catholic Church, with the Commission for the new martyrs, at the Dicastery for the causes of the saints (and with the collaboration of the Dicastery for the promotion of the unity of Christians) to remember the martyrs of all Christian faiths, Prevost cites the recent Synod who recognized that “” the testimony of their martyrdom is more eloquent than every word: the unity comes from the cross of the Lord “. May the blood of many witnesses approach the blessed day in which we will drink the same glass of salvation! ». The Pope, in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls presides over the commemoration of the martyrs and witnesses of the 21st century faith together with the representatives of the other Christian churches and communions. Thank them for accepting the invitation to be present. There are the metropolitan of Moscow Antoniij And the Serbian Iularion patriarch, the methodists, the Anglicans, the Lutheran, the patriarchies of Antochia, Armenia, the world evangelical train, to mention only any of the numerous delegations.
Leone quotes, among the examples of loyalty to the Gospel until death, too Fratel Francis Tofi, Anglican and member of the Melasian Brotherhood, “who gave his life for peace in the Solomon Islands”, Sister Dorothy Stang, “engaged for the without land in the Amazon: to those who were preparing to kill her asking her for a weapon, she showed the Bible replying:” Here is my only weapon “”. And father “Ragheed Ganni, Mosul’s Caldeo priest in Iraq, who has given up fighting to testify how a true Christian behaves”.
Although the great ideologies of the twentieth century ended, the persecution of Christians has not subsided, on the contrary, recalls Pope Leo. On the day on which the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated, the Pope recalls that this is precisely the “” hope of Christians “and the” glory of martyrs “”. And he adds: “Even today we can say with John Paul II that, where hatred seemed to permeate every aspect of life, these bold servants of the Gospel and martyrs of faith have evidently shown that” love is stronger than death “”. And then “we remember these brothers and sisters of ours with our gaze turned to the Crucifix. With his cross Jesus manifested us the true face of God, his infinite compassion for humanity; He took over the hatred and violence of the world, to share the fate of all those who are humiliated and oppressed “. Many brothers and sisters today “in difficult situations and hostile contexts, bring the same cross of the Lord: as he are persecuted, condemned, killed”. These are “women and men, religious and religious, secular and priests, who pay with life the loyalty to the Gospel, the commitment for justice, the struggle for religious freedom where it is still violated, solidarity with the poorest. According to the criteria of the world they were “defeated” ».
In the year of the Jubilee, however, the Pontiff stresses that a defeat is not celebrated of them, but a hope “full of immortality, because their martyrdom continues to spread the Gospel in a world marked by hatred, violence and war; It is a hope full of immortality, Because, despite having been killed in the body, nobody can turn off their voice or delete the love they have given; It is a hope full of immortality, because their testimony remains as a prophecy of the victory of good on evil ».
It speaks of disarmed hope, because these people “testified the faith without ever using the weapons of strength and violence, but embracing the weak and mild strength of the Gospelaccording to the words of the apostle Paul: “I will therefore gladly boast of my weaknesses, because the power of Christ lives in me. (…) In fact, when I am weak, that’s then that I am strong” ».
They are witnesses that we cannot forget why, as in the first centuries, “even in the third millennium” the blood of the martyrs is seed of new Christians “”, as Tertullian said.
And finally, he recalls the words written on his notebook by a child Pakistani Abish Masih, killed in an attack on the Catholic Church: “Making the World a Better Place”, “make the world a better place”. A dream that must spurs us “to courageously testify our faith, for Being together yeast of a peaceful and fraternal humanity “.
