S. John Paul II Homil. 7109


HOLY MASS AT THE VENERABLE ENGLISH COLLEGE

12 december 1979

12129

Brothers and sons in Christ Jesus,

I have come to celebrate with you the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Venerable English College – to commemorate with you and your fellow-countrymen at home the four centuries in which the Catholic faith has been lived here by young men preparing for the priesthood. From this historic edifice in the City of Rome, those young men have gone forth as priests in order to pass on the faith to generations of the faithful in England and Wales.

Within the sacred setting of this Eucharistic Liturgy, I wish to pay homage to this saving faith in Jesus Christ, and to honour all those whose lives have been anchored in this faith, those who, keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus, the Son of God, held fast to the confession of their faith.

A living faith in Jesus Christ has been the bedrock foundation of this College and of all its activities from the time of its establishment by my predecessor Gregory XIII in 1579. The men of faith who were your predecessors here continue to inspire you by the example of their lives. Yours is a great heritage; a whole martyrum candidatus exercitus honours the beginning of your College, and spans an entire century from the time of Saint Ralph Sherwin in 1591 to Saint David Lewis in 1679. As supreme witnesses to the faith, these Martyrs speak to you today from this chapel and from every corner of this house. And the Church herself corroborates their witness and exhorts you to "consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith".

And so, dear brothers and sons, this moment of joyful celebration and solemn commemoration becomes a time of prayerful reflection and a day of challenge for the rest of your lives. Like your predecessors, you yourselves are called to be priests of Jesus Christ, servants of his Gospel, and witnesses before your people to the pure Catholic faith as transmitted by the Apostles, proclaimed by the Magisterium of the Church and upheld by the martyrs and confessors of all ages. By word and example you are called to bear your Catholic witness at this juncture of history. God is calling you here and now, in the present circumstances of the Church and the world. Christ and his Church bid you, however, to face the challenge of this hour, not just with your own skill or with mere human wisdom, but with the power of the Gospel. In the words of Saint Paul, you are to take the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Your individual and corporate witness to the faith can be essentially non different from the witness given by your Martyrs – a witness to the faith of the universal Church, a witness that will lead others to Christ, a witness that will not yield when – as Jesus tells us in the Gospel – the rains come, the floods rise, the gales blow and the house is struck.

It is precisely because we have the whole armour of God and are rooted in faith that we feel strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, equipped to proclaim the whole mystery of the Gospel and to bear witness, in the continuity of this generation, to the fullness of Catholic truth.

This is the first part of your challenge today: to be witnesses to the faith. You are called by Christ and will be sent by his Church on an ecclesial mission, to bear witness to the faith in a place where, perhaps, you never dreamed of being, in a way that you never thought of. And yet, openness, readiness and calmness are what you have learned from the history of your College and, in particular, from the lives of your Martyrs. And today in this liturgy, Isaiah addresses to each one of you young men his prophetic exhortation: "Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord is the everlasting Rock". And I repeat these words to you: Trust in the Lord; trust in the Lord, in order to fulfil your role as witnesses to the faith – faith in Jesus Christ.

It is good to reflect that you are likewise called to be witnesses in this generation to the vitality of the Church’s youth – to be witnesses to the power and effectiveness of Christ’s grace to capture the hearts of the young today. The world needs concrete proof that Christ can draw this generation to himself. And you must show that you have understood the meaning of life in the context of Christ’s love and his call. You are called to bear witness to the fact that, amid the thousand and one attractions and options offered by the modern world, you have been "captured" by Christ, to the point of giving up all the rest, in order to become his companions and disciples; in order to embrace his mission and, finally, his Cross; and in order to know the power of his Resurrection.

174 The consideration of being witnesses to the strength of Christ’s grace leads us naturally to something that is at the summit of our very being: our own freedom. It is only through the exercise of this freedom – God’s great gift to us – that we can adequately respond to his invitation, to the call of his grace, to the love that he offers us. For each one of you the present challenge is this: to surrender your hearts and your wills to Christ under the action of the Holy Spirit, to give yourselves freely and totally and perseveringly to Christ. The Lord Jesus asks for the response of your freedom, for the oblation of your liberty. And the words of the Psalm enable you to reply: "My heart is ready, God; my heart is ready".

Dear brothers and sons: you are therefore called to bear witness to your Catholic faith in all its purity; you are called to be witnesses to the victory of Christ’s love, not as an abstract power, but as it touches your own lives and consecrates your own freedom. For all of you this is indeed an hour for great trust. He who began in you a good work – who began a good work in this College four hundred years ago – is well able through the power of his Spirit to bring it to perfection, for the glory of his name, for the honour of his Gospel and for the good of his entire Church.

And Mary, the Queen of Martyrs, the Faithful Virgin, who stood by your Martyrs and all your predecessors, will be with each of you, so that your witness may be genuine in faith and holiness.

She will assist you in the role that is yours as true disciples of her Son, faithful members of the Church, diligent students of the Second Vatican Council and of all the Councils that went before. In a special way I commend to her intercession the witness that you are called to bear in truth and love before your Anglican brethren in the providential dialogue – to be sustained by prayer and penance – that is directed to the restoration of full unity in Jesus Christ and in his Church.

And so, anchored in faith and committed to holiness of life, look forward with joyful confidence to a new era of your College. Sacrifice and generosity, prayer and study, humility and discipline will be as much a part of your future as they were of your past. Countless men, women and children will look to you to find Christ. From the depths of their being they will plead with you in the words of the Gospel: "We wish to see Jesus". Like the Apostle Philip you must show Jesus to the world – Jesus and no substitute, for there is salvation in no other name. Thus you can clearly see that the destiny of your homeland is linked with the success of the mission of this institution. The contribution that you will make to the world depends on how well you bear witness to the faith and to the power of Christ’s grace in your own lives.

My beloved brothers, sons and friends: after four hundred years this College is still, by the grace of God, just as active as it ever was, and what it stands for is more relevant than ever before. And so it will remain, provided that you continue to put into practice what Jesus himself tells you when he says: Preach my Gospel. Proclaim my word. Re-enact my Sacrifice. Yes, be my witnesses. Remain in my love, today and for ever. Amen.





1980



MASS AT THE PONTIFICAL IRISH COLLEGE

13 January 1980

13180

Moladh go deo le Dia.
Praised be Jesus Christ.

Dearly beloved in Christ,

1. Today once again, in a very special way, the Pope belongs to Ireland!

After my visit to your land, it is a joy for me to come to the Pontifical Irish College and meet all those who live here: the priests and seminarians, and the Sisters of Saint John of God. My visit is also meant for the community of Saint Isidore’s Franciscan College and Saint Patrick’s Augustinian College. With the Cardinal Primate of all Ireland and with Brothers in the Episcopate, including former Rectors of the Irish College, we are celebrating together our unity in Jesus Christ and in his Church.

The place of our celebration is important for its contribution to the Church, for the impact it has had on the lives of the Irish, and for its responsibility to future generations. It is likewise important for the Christian witness of love that has been given here; one example well known to me is the hospitality furnished by the Irish College to Polish refugees after the Second World War. In this regard, the presence at this Mass of Monsignor Denis MacDaid is a living link with the splendid achievements of the past.

2. And so, with our history and our hopes, all of us are here together to seek light and strength in commemorating the Baptism of the Lord. As portrayed in the Gospels, the Baptism of Jesus marked the beginning of his public ministry. John the Baptist proclaimed the need for conversion, and the great mystery of divine communion was revealed: the Holy Spirit descended on Christ, and God the Father pointed out his beloved Son to the world. From that moment on, Jesus pursued resolutely his mission of salvation Our celebration today invites us to reflect personally on these three elements: conversion, communion and mission.

3. The role of John was to prepare for Christ. It was in the context of conversion that the communion existing in the life of the Most Holy Trinity was revealed. The Baptist was announcing an invitation to turn to God, to be conscious of sin, to repent, to walk in the truth of one’s relationship with God. Meanwhile, Jesus himself had submitted to the penitential rite and was at prayer when the voice of the Father proclaimed him as Son: the one who is totus ad Patrem, the one who is totally devoted to the Father and living for him, the one totally enveloped in his love. We too are called to take on the attitude of Jesus towards his Father. The condition, however, for this is conversion: a daily, repeated, constant, sustained turning to God. Conversion is necessary to express the truth of the adoption of sons that is ours in Baptism. For in Baptism we were called to union with Christ in his death and Resurrection, and hence we were called to die to sin and to live for God. In Baptism the vivifying action of the Holy Spirit took place in us, and the Father now sees in us his only Son, Jesus Christ: “You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you”.

4. The communion of the Most Holy Trinity goes on in our lives. Through Jesus Christ, the mystery of divine adoption takes place, as he who is the Unigenitus Dei Filius becomes the Primogenitus in multis fratribus. A former student of the Irish College, the Servant of God Dom Columba Marmion, has left to you and to the whole Church extensive writings of deep insight and great value on this mystery of the divine sonship and on the centrality of Jesus Christ in God’s plan of sanctification.

5. In our daily lives the call to conversion and divine communion has practical requirements, if we are to walk in the profound truth of our vocation, in the sincerity of our relationship with the Father, through Christ and in the Holy Spirit. In practice, there must be an openness to the Father and to each other. Remember that Jesus is totus ad Patrem, and that he wanted the world to listen to him say: " I love the Father". Just this fast week in my Wednesday audience I mentioned that man fulfils his nature only by " existing ‘with someone’ - and still more profoundly and more completely: existing ‘for someone"‘. These words in turn reflect the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the social nature of man.

We who in our ministry are called to form community on the supernatural basis of divine communion must first experience community ourselves in faith and love. This experience of community is one that is rooted in the earliest traditions of the Church: we too must be of one heart and one soul, united in the teaching of the Apostles, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

To walk in the truth of our vocation means striving to please God rather than men, to be just in God’s sight. It means a life-style that corresponds to the reality of our role in the Church today, a life-style that takes into account the needs of our brethren and the ministry that we shall exercise tomorrow. Living the truth in love is a challenge to the simplicity of our lives, and to a self-discipline that manifests itself in diligent work and study - in responsible and accountable preparation for our mission of service to God’s people.

In a special way, living the truth of our lives here and now - in Rome in the year 1980 - means fidelity to prayer, to contact with Jesus, to communion with the Blessed Trinity. The Evangelist points out that it was while Jesus was in prayer that the mystery of the Father’s love was manifested and the communion of the Three Divine Persons was revealed. It is in prayer that we learn the mystery of Christ and the wisdom of the Cross. In prayer we perceive, in all their dimensions, the real needs of our brothers and sisters throughout the world; in prayer we are strengthened for the choices that lie ahead; in prayer we are fortified for the mission that Christ shares with us: to bring "true justice to the nations... to serve the cause of right".

Hence this house and all the religious houses and seminaries of Rome are meant to be houses of prayer, where Christ is formed in every generation. Because you are living in Rome, in a Diocese for which I personally must give a particular accounting to the Lord, you will understand how ardently I desire that Christ should be formed in you.

But towards this goal you must not walk alone. In a community of brethren who maintain alive and pure the same high ideals of Christ’s priesthood you will find strength and support. In the communion of the Church you will find joy. Through the guidance of competent spiritual directors you will find encouragement and you will avoid self-deception; by turning to them you will, above all, render homage to the humanity of the Incarnate Word of God, who continues to sustain and guide the Church through the instrumentality of men.

6. And as you endeavour to accept fully the call to conversion and communion - the call to full life in Christ - the sense of your mission must grow more and more acute. In tranquillity and trust you must begin to experience ever more a sense of urgency: the urgency to communicate Christ and his saving Gospel.

By the grace of God there is now going on in Ireland a period of intense spiritual renewal. And all of you must become involved in this. You must prepare yourselves for this mission by work and study and, especially, prayer. In this regard I ask you to listen once again to the words I prepared for the students at Maynooth: "What I really want you to realize is this: that God counts on you: that he makes his plans, in a way, depend on your free collaboration, on the oblation of your lives, and on the generosity with which you follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in the depths of your hearts. The Catholic faith of Ireland today was linked, in God’s plan, to the fidelity of Saint Patrick. And tomorrow, yes, tomorrow some part of God’s plan will be linked to your fidelity - to the fervour with which you say yes to God’s word in your lives".

7. The youth of Ireland have understood and responded very well to my call, the call to come to Christ who is "the way, and the truth, and the life". But they need your special gift, your help, your ministry, your priesthood, so that they can succeed in living the truth of their Christian vocation. Do not let them down. Go among them and be recognised, like the Apostles, as men who have been with Jesus, men who have been steeped in his word, and are aflame with his zeal: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God... for I was sent for this purpose”. But the success of this mission of yours depends on the authenticity of your conversion, on the degree that you are conformed to Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of the Eternal Father, the Son of Mary. Turn to her, and ask her help.

In the Eucharist that I am celebrating with you and for you today, I have present in my heart your families and friends, and the entire Irish nation. In a special way I am praying for the youth of Ireland. And today, to you and through you to all of them I wish to say once again: "Young people of Ireland, I love you! Young people of Ireland I bless you! I bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". Amen.



MASS AT THE NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE

22 February 1980

22280

1. "You are the Messiah," Simon Peter answered, "the Son of the Living God!".

These words of personal faith and divine inspiration mark the beginning of Peter’s mission in the history of the People of God. These words also mark the beginning of a new era in the history of salvation. From the moment these words were spoken at Caesarea Philippi, the history of the People of God was linked to the man who had pronounced them: "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church".

These words have a special meaning for me. They express what is the heart of my mission as the Successor of Peter at the end of the twentieth century. Jesus Christ is the center of the universe and of history. He alone is the Redeemer of every human being. In God’s inscrutable providence I have been chosen to continue the mission of Peter and to repeat with similar conviction: "You are the Messiah - the Christ - the Son of the living God". Nothing in my life and ministry can take precedence over this mission: to proclaim Christ to all the nations, to speak of his marvelous goodness, to tell of his power to save, and to assure every man and woman that whoever believes in Christ will not die but will have eternal life.

My brothers and sons in Christ, the words of Peter at Caesarea Philippi also have special meaning for you. Your life too must be rooted in Christ and built up in him. For it is because of Christ, on account of Christ, and for Christ that you wish to serve the People of God as priests. Thus your knowledge of Christ and your love for him must continually grow and deepen. You shall have to be men of strong faith, who through the Eucharist, the liturgy of the hours and daily personal prayer maintain a vibrant friendship with Jesus, with Jesus who told his disciples: " I no longer speak of you as slaves... Instead I call you friends". And so at all times and in all places, your first thoughts must go to him who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

2. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter by a happy coincidence is also the birthday of George Washington, your first President. In a certain sense these two events indicate the motivation for my coming here today. It has been my desire as Bishop of Rome to visit the various Colleges of the City; but I have come to the North American College in particular as an extension of my recent visit to the United States. This evening you represent for me the Church in the United States: you my brother Bishops, and you who make up the community in Rome known as the North American College, on the Janiculum Hill and at Via dell’Umiltà. In all of you and through you I once again greet the people of America.

On this occasion I would like to speak about what I consider to be extremely important components of priestly preparation, and to reiterate several points in this regard which I stressed during my visit of your country.

3. The first priority in seminary life is the word of God. God’s word is the center of all theological study; it is the chief instrument for handing down Christian doctrine and it is the perpetual source of spiritual life. Speaking to seminarians in America, I said: "The intellectual formation of the priest, which is so vital for the times in which we rive, embraces a number of the human sciences as well as the various sacred sciences. These all have an important place in your preparation for the priesthood. But the first priority for seminaries today is the teaching of God’s word in all its purity and integrity, with all its demands and in all its power".

It is my hope that in your reverence for the word of God you will be like Mary - like -Mary whose response to God’s word was "Fiat": "tot it be done to me as you say"; like Mary "who trusted that the Lord’s words to her woud be fulfilled"; like Mary who treasured those things which were said of her Son and pondered them in her heart. May you treasure God’s word always and ponder it each day in your heart, so that your whole life may become a proclamation of Christ, the Word made flesh.

4. The proclamation of God’s word reaches its summit in the celebration of the Eucharist. Indeed, all your personal endeavors and all the activities of the seminary community are bound up with the Eucharistic Sacrifice and directed toward it: " For the most blessed Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth, that is, Christ himself, our Passover and living bread". I strongly urge you therefore to make the Mass the real center of your life each day, and I recommend that you regularly spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, adoring our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

5. Seminary life should also be characterized by an atmosphere of recollection, which enables each of you to acquire lifelong habits of study and prayer, and to develop interiorly the attitudes of self-sacrifice, generosity and joyful obedience - attitudes which are so necessary in a priest. For a priest is truly called to put on the mina and heart of Christ, to imitate the Son who "learned obedience from what he suffered", and to say with Jesus: "I am not seeking my own will but the will of him who sent me". Sound discipline in the seminary, when it is properly exercised, creates that atmosphere of recollection which helps you prepare for a life of continual conversion and generous service. In particular it will assist you, as I said in Philadelphia, "in ratifying day after day in your hearts the obedience you owe to Christ and his Church".

6. Ten years ago today, my beloved predecessor Paul VI visited the North American College. On that occasion he spoke of the special value of preparing for the priesthood here in Rome. "Your being here in Rome”, he said, "is neither accidental nor unimportant. It is not pure coincidence... It is something deliberately willed for your spiritual formation; for your preparation for a priestly ministry; for a service, yet to come, to the Church and to your fellow-citizens".

If you sometimes wonder why the American Bishops have built and maintained this College in Rome, or why the Catholic faithful of the United States for over a century have given financial support and have sacrificed of themselves to provide for you and many others the opportunity to prepare for the priesthood in Rome, the answer is found in the words of Peter at Caesarea Philippi; it is linked to the mystery of Peter’s mission in the universal Church. Here in Rome the universality and rich diversity of the Church are seen more clearly than elsewhere; here the apostolic tradition of the Church as a living reality and not merely as a relic of the past becomes a conscious part of your vision of faith; and here in Rome you encounter the Successor of Peter as he endeavors to show fidelity to Christ by confirming all his brethren in the faith.

7. I would like to take occasion also to extend a special greeting to Cardinal Baum, who has only recently come to Rome to assume the weighty task of directing the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. Among his many responsibilities will be the promotion of the authentic renewal of seminary life in Rome and throughout the world. No other responsibilities of his will be of greater importance. In full accord with this conviction of mine are the following words that I wrote to the Bishops of the Church in my Holy Thursday Letter fast year: "The full reconstitution of the life of the seminaries throughout the Church will be the best proof of the achievement of the renewal to which the Council directed the Church ".

8. Beloved brothers and sons in Christ, you have a special place in my thoughts and prayers, and I look to you with confidence. For I see your youth and your sincerity, your strength and your desire to serve. I see your joy and your love for Christ and his people. All this gives me hope that the authentic renewal of the Church begun by the Second Vatican Council will indeed be brought to completion. Yes, your lives hold great promise for the future of the Church, for the future of the evangelization of the world, provided that you remain faithful: faithful to the word of God, faithful to the Eucharist, faithful to prayer and study, faithful to the Lord, who has begum this good work in you, and who will carry it through to completion.


Dear brothers and sons: let us together praise his name, and let us proclaim by word and deed - today and always - that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God.





MASS FOR A GROUP OF NEW DEACONS

Castelgandolfo, 11 April 1980

11480

Dear sons and brothers in Christ,

1. In the presence of the community of the faithful, represented by a group of your own parents, relatives and friends, you have come here to ratify the oblation of your lives as deacons of God’s Church. In doing so you are filled with confidence because you know that your vocation and your ministry find their effective support in the power of Christ’s Resurrection, which the Church is celebrating with joyful gratitude and love throughout this holy season.

The Church has indeed placed a great treasure in your hands, for she has called you to be associated in a special way with the Lord Jesus in his worship of the Father and in his service to humanity. You are called to a greater conformity with Christ the Servant, and from now on your discipleship will be expressed in a ministry of the word, of the altar and of charity.

2. Your whole lives have to be rooted in the word of God, which you are called to accept and to communicate in all its fullness, just as it is proclaimed by the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. In the Eucharistic Sacrifice - in which you participate and which will be for ever the centre of your lives - Christ himself will offer your whole ministry of charity to his Father. From now on, you will have a particular relationship with the poor, the suffering and the sick - with all those in need. And remember always that the greatest service you will render to God’s people is to bring to them his life-giving and uplifting Gospel of salvation.

3. To equip you for this task of service, the Church has solemnly invoked upon you the Holy Spirit and his sevenfold gift. He it is, the Holy Spirit, who is able to configure you ever more deeply to the Jesus whom you represent, and who wishes to prolong through you his salvific contact with humanity. The people must be able to see Christ in you; the Master must be recognized in the disciple. It is in the name of Jesus that you are sent out, and everything that you are able to accomplish will be done "by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene".

4. In order to be conscious of your task of ministering in his holy name, and in order to remain effectively united with him, you must pray. You must frequently lift up your hearts to the Lord who has called you by name and entrusted you with a great responsibility. In this regard, the Liturgy of the Hours will be the enrichment of your lives and the guarantee of the effectiveness of your ministry of service. Prayer must sustain your service and your service in turn must, time and again, lead you back to prayer. Be assured that Mary, the Mother of the Risen Lord, will support you in your efforts and remain close to you with her love.

5. And finally, dear sons and brothers, so that your joy may be complete, remember the words of Jesus, the assurance he has given us, the wonderful promise he has made to us: “...if any one serves me, the Father will honour him". Yes, as deacons, you are called to serve Christ in his members and to be honoured by his Eternal Father, to whom be all praise and thanksgiving in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.



APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO AFRICA


Nairobi (Kenya), 7 May 1980

7580

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

1. We gather here today to give praise and glory to our heavenly Father. We come together in this place, men and women of many different backgrounds, and yet all united in him "who holds all things in unity” , all united at the table of God’s word and at the altar of Sacrifice.

My heart is filled with gratitude to God for this day and for this opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist with you, to sing praise to the Lord for having reconciled everything to himself, "making peace by his death on the cross" .

On the day Jesus was crucified, he told Pilate: "I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth ". Jesus came not to do his own will but the will of his heavenly Father. By his words, by his deeds, by his very existence he bore witness to the truth. In Jesus the tyranny of deceit and falsehood, the tyranny of lies and error, the tyranny of sin was defeated. For Christ is the living Word of divine truth who promised: "If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free" .

2. The Church has received this same mission from Christ: to cultivate a deep love and veneration for the truth and to combine with faith the insights of learning and human wisdom - in all things to bear witness to the truth. In every age and in every land the Church proceeds in this mission, confident that if God is the supreme source of all truth, there can be no opposition between natural wisdom and the truths of faith.

All of the faithful, dear brothers and sisters, have a role to play in the Church’s mission on behalf of truth. That is why I stated in my Encyclical that the "Church’s responsibility for divine truth must be increasingly shared in various ways by all, including the specialists in various disciplines, those who represent the natural sciences and letters, doctors, jurists, artists and technicians, teachers at various levels and with different specializations. As members of the; People of God, they all have their own part to play in Christ’s prophetic mission and service of divine truth” . Within the communion of the faithful, and especially within the local Christian community, careful attention should be given to this responsibility to bear witness to the truth. In his Message to Africa my predecessor Paul VI addressed a special word to the intellectuals of this continent, precisely because he was convinced of the importance of their mission at the service of truth. And his words still ring out today: "Africa needs you, your study, your research, your art and your teaching.... You are the prism through which the new ideas and cultural changes can be interpreted and explained to all. Be sincere, faithful to truth and loyal" .

3. We must begin our witness to truth by cultivating a hunger for the word of God, a desire to receive and take to heart the life-giving message of the Gospel in all its fullness. When you listen attentively to the voice of the Saviour and then put in into practice, you are indeed sharing in the Church’s mission at the service of truth. You are bearing witness to the world that you firmly believe the promise God made through Isaiah: "As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do" . You can be messengers of the truth only if you are first of all true listeners to God’s word.

4. When Pilate asked Jesus whether he was a king, his response was clear and unambiguous: "Mine is not a kingdom of this world" . Christ came to bring life and salvation to every human being: his mission was not in the social, economic or political order. Likewise Christ did not give the Church a mission which is social, economic or political; but rather a religious one . Yet it would be a mistake to think that the individual Christian should not be involved in these areas of life in society. On this point, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council were very clear: "One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of their daily lives... The Christian who neglects his temporal duties neglects his duties towards his neighbour, neglects God himself, and endangers his eternal salvation” .

Christians therefore, and especially you who are laity, are called by God to be involved in the world in order to transform it according to the Gospel. In carrying out this task, your own personal commitment to truth and honesty plays an important role, because a sense of responsibility for the truth is one of the fundamental points of encounter between the Church and society, between the Church and each man and woman . The Christian faith does not provide you with ready made solutions to the complex problems affecting contemporary society. But it does give you deep insights into the nature of man and his needs, calling you to speak the truth in love, to take up your responsibilities as good citizens and to work with your neighbours to build a society where true human values are nourished and deepened by a shared Christian vision of life.

5. One of these areas which holds a very important place in society and in the total vocation of every human person is culture. "It is a fact bearing on the very person of man that he can come to an authentic and full humanity only through culture, that is, through the cultivation of natural goods and values. Wherever human life therefore is involved, nature and culture are very intimately connected” . A Christian will gladly collaborate in the promotion of true culture, for he knows that the Good News of Christ reinforces in man the spiritual values which are at the heart of the culture of every people and of every period of history. The Church, which feels at home in every culture, without exclusively making her own any culture, encourages her sons and daughters who are active in schools, universities and other institutions of learning to give their best to this activity. By harmonizing those values which are the unique heritage of each people or group with the content of the Gospel, the Christian will help his or her own people to achieve true freedom and the capacity to face the challenges of the times. Every Christian, united with Christ in the mystery of Baptism, will endeavour to conform to the Father’s plan for his Son: "to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” .

6. Another important challenge for the Christian is that of the political life. In the State citizens have a right and duty to share in the political life. For a nation can ensure the common good of all, and the dreams and aspirations of its different members, only to the extent that all citizens in full liberty and with complete responsibility make their contributions willingly and selflessly for the good of all.
The duties of the good Christian citizen involve more than shunning corruption, more than not exploiting others; these duties include positively contributing to the establishment of just laws and structures that foster human values. If the Christian finds injustice or anything that militates against love, peace and unity in society, he or she must ask: "Where have I fallen short? What have I done wrong? What did I fail to do that the truth of my vocation called me to do? Did I sin by omission?".
7. Here today in Kenya, as I have done many times before, I wish to address a particular message to married couples and to families. The family is the fundamental human community; it is the first and vital cell of any society. Thus the strength and vitality of any country will only be as great as the strength and vitality of the family within that country. No group has a greater impact on a country than the family. No group has a more influential role in the future of the world.

For this reason, Christian couples have an irreplaceable mission in today’s world. The generous love and fidelity of husband and wife offer stability and hope to a world torn by hatred and division. By their lifelong perseverance in life-giving love they show the unbreakable and sacred character of the sacramental marriage bond. At the same time it is the Christian family that most simply and profoundly promotes the dignity and worth of human life from the moment of conception.

The Christian family is also the domestic sanctuary of the Church. In a Christian home various aspects of the whole Church are found, such as mutual love, attentiveness to God’s word and prayer together. The home is a place where the Gospel is received and lived, and the place from which the Gospel radiates. Thus the family offers daily witness, even without words, to the truth and grace of the word of God. For this reason, I stated in my Encyclical "Married people... must endeavour with all their strength to persevere in their matrimonial union, building up the family community through the witness of love and educating new generations of men and women capable in their turn of dedicating the whole of their lives to their vocation, that is to say, to the ‘kingly service’ of which Jesus Christ has offered us the example and the most beautiful model” .

8. Beloved brothers and sisters: all the families that make up the Church and all the individuals that make up the families - all of us together are called to walk with Christ, bearing witness to his truth in the circumstances of our daily lives. In doing this we can permeate society with the leaven of the Gospel, which alone can transform it into Christ’s Kingdom - a Kingdom of truth and life, a Kingdom of holiness and grace, a Kingdom of justice, love and peace! Amen.



S. John Paul II Homil. 7109