S. John Paul II Homil. 187
28880
Dear young people of Dublin,
1. The love of Christ has gathered us together morning! Nothing else can adequately explain our marvellous unity. We have come together in the name of Jesus, and he is present with us. Jesus Christ is in our midst.
2. You have come to Rome as representatives of the youth of Dublin; you have wished to return the visit that I made to you in Ireland. At the same time you are giving me another opportunity to speak to you about Christ, to remind you of your Christian dignity, and to proclaim to you a fellowship that the Holy Spirit has given to all of us: a fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
3. You have come here, moreover, so that all of us together may celebrate our life in Christ, and through the merits of his redemption find ever greater communion with the Most Holy Trinity. A wonderful aspect of our Eucharist is that, in it, we bring to Christ the fabric of our daily lives. He accepts our offering, unites it to his own oblation, and presents it to his eternal Father. At the same time, in the Mass, we listen to God’s word as proclaimed by the Church - a proclamation that reaches its highest expression in the very renewal of Christ’s Sacrifice. As we celebrate this Eucharistic Sacrifice we are performing an action that is at the very summit of our Christian dignity is realized to the full. And all of this is something that we are doing together as a community, a community in Christ and with Christ, as members of his Body, members of his holy Church.
And from this Eucharistic celebration you will go out to fulfil your calling, the activities of your life, and finally your destiny. For a few moments, therefore, let us reflect, within this sacred context of God’s word, on these important elements of the Christian life.
4. Each one of you is individually called by Christ, called to be part of his Kingdom and to play a role in his mission of salvation. These are the great realities of your Baptism and your Confirmation.
Having called you by name, God sends you forth to accomplish what he wants you to do. He says to each of you what he said to Jeremiah the Prophet: "I am with you to protect you". He seals his protection over you by putting his words into your mouth. In the expression of the Psalmist, the word of God becomes for you a lamp for your feet and a light for your path. Christ calls you to lead a new life based on the Beatitudes, with new criteria of judgment, a fresh spiritual outlook and a transformed pattern of life. Incorporated into the newness of Christ’s own life, only a constant turning to him will give you fulfilment and joy. A repeated conversion of heart becomes the condition for the usefulness of your activities and for the attainment of your destiny.
5. As you pursue your fundamental Christian calling, you will be summoned to perform joyfully and faithfully the activities of each moment, each day, each week. For most of you, the field of your activities in the secular world itself in need of the Gospel leaven. Your task is crystal clear: to bring Christ to the world and to bring the world to Christ. I am sure that you have already grasped all of this. Is this not the context of your motto: "To do more, to love more, to serve more"?
This "doing", this "loving", this "serving" must be expressed in many ways. You are called, for instance, to be men and women of honesty and integrity: "to live in truth and love" according to the petition of this morning’s Mass. Your are called to open your hearts to the justice of the Gospel, so that in turn you may be instruments of justice and builders of peace.
You are young and you are rightfully looking for understanding from others - from your elders, your priests, your beloved parents, all who make up the preceding generations of society - and you are hoping for the compassion of friendship. But precisely because you are young with the vitality of Christ’s grace and share enthusiasm for his message, you know that there is something even higher and more noble; hence it becomes possible for you to pray "not so much to be understood, as to understand; to be loved as to love". And so you are called to be leaders of the next generation through understanding and love. Dear young people: Is not almost a half of your Archdiocese made up of young people under twenty-one? Can you have any doubt but that the future of Dublin and the rest of Ireland really does depend on your generosity, your commitment to Christ and your service to your brothers and sisters?
You are called to understand each other, to work together, to walk together the path of life - together with each other and with Christ - to respect humanity in everyone, even in those who have lost a sense of their own dignity. You must find Christ in others, and give Christ to others - the Christ who alone is the hope of the world! In all the circumstances of your lives you are called to be bearers of a message of hope, called to be ready, in the words of Saint Peter, with an answer for anyone who asks you "to account for the hope that is in you". With this hope, with understanding and love, equipped with all the principles of your Catholic faith, you will be able to face serenely the issues of daily living. And you can be sure that Mary, Mother of Jesus and bright "Sun of the Irish race" will always assist you by her intercession.
Complicated social and economic problems are not subject to facile solutions. Nevertheless, a perseverance born of hope and a fraternal commitment to the needs of one’s brothers and sisters are indispensable conditions for real progress in these fields. Your Christian calling urges you to make your contribution - great or small, but always unique and irreplaceable - to building up a just and peaceful society. And this same Christian calling invites you, individually and all together, to help - through prayer, sacrifice, personal Christian discipline and a number of ways open to your own creative initiative - to bring the Gospel of salvation into the lives of many people. The parish needs you and your contribution of Christian living. The community needs your vitality, your joy, your efforts at working together for the good of all. Even the Creator himself has asked for your cooperation in sustaining his creation. Be convinced always that your daily work has great value in the eyes of God. Make every effort to ensure that its quality is worthy of Christ and his members.
And remember too that Christ wants to accept the gift of your work and of your lives, and offer them to his Father. In fact, he is doing this right now, in this Eucharist.
I have already mentioned the need to turn constantly to Christ and to be ever newly converted to him. Christian living is not complete without this renewed conversion, and conversion is not fully authentic without the Sacrament of Penance. Dear young people of Dublin: Christ wants to come to meet you regularly, frequently, in a personal way, in a personal encounter of loving mercy, forgiveness and healing. He wants to sustain you in your weakness and keep lifting you up, drawing you closer to his heart. As I explained in my Encyclical “Redemptor Hominis”, the encounter of this Sacrament is a right that belongs to Christ and to each of you. And so the Pope is very much in earnest when he now exhorts you: Do not deprive Christ of his right in this Sacrament, and never surrender your own.
6. And finally, dear young people, from this Eucharist you will go out to fulfil your destiny. This fulfilment depends on God’s grace - as the feast of Saint Augustine so forcefully recalls to us today. But it also requires the assent of your free will. You must repeatedly say yes to Christ, in order to ensure the success of your unique part in God’s plan for the salvation of the world. Here we must reflect again on the importance of fidelity to your calling. I have mentioned on other occasions how much the course of history has been shaped in Ireland and throughout the world by the fidelity of one man - the fidelity of Saint Patrick. The proportion may be different but the principle is the same: Christ has a special work for each one of you, a work that only you can do. Without your cooperation it would remain undone. Christ directs each of you, in a personal way, towards a destiny, for the attainment of which we are interdependent. Look to him today - look to Christ.
Accept his offer as he extends his hand to you, embraces you with the strength of his arm, and reveals to you the love of his Sacred Heart.
7. And now, in conclusion, let me add just one more word. When I was in Galway, I told all those present there that I believe in youth with all my heart, that I believe in the youth of Ireland, every one of you. And today I would like to add something to that message, and it is this: Because of what Christ has given you, because of his own free gift of life and grace, he believes in you. Christ believes in youth, the youth of Ireland, every one of you. And he loves you. Young people of Dublin, Christ loves you! Christ loves you and wants to love through you! Amen.
17281
Dearly beloved in Christ,
1. Four hundred years ag? this year, Bishop Domingo de Salazar arrived in Manila. He had been sent by Pope Gregory XIII to be the first Bishop of this newly created Diocese, and he had come to continue here in your country the work of evangelization and to build upon the achievements of the missionaries who had preceded him.
?s I celebrate the Eucharist today in the Cathedral of Manila I feel a spiritual closeness to Bishop de Salazar and to Pope Gregory. The same love for the Gospel and for the Filipino people which inspired them has in turn prompted me, the present Bishop of Rome, to come to your beloved land to proclaim the message of Christ and to strengthen you in the faith.
This is a moment of great joy for me as I celebrate the Eucharist with you in the Cathedral of Manila, as we unite our hearts and voices in proclaiming the greatness of God and in giving praise and glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. We do this, recalling the great efforts at renewal made by this local Church in Manila during the year 1979, and asking God to bring to fruition the good work begun in the Archdiocesan Synod.
During these days it will be my special honor to beatify Lorenzo Ruiz, one of your own countrymen, the father of a family and a layman of courageous faith. Among all the events by which you have commemorated the fourth centenary of the Church in Manila, the beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz and his fifteen martyr companions holds a principal place. May it also be an encouragement for all of you—Bishops, priests, religious and laity—to strive after the holiness that is found in Christ Jesus.
2. At this time I wish to address a special message to the men religious—both priests and brothers—who are present here, and through them to all the men religious of the Philippines. May I begin, my brothers, by expressing my gratitude to the Lord for your presence in the Church and for your collaboration in the Church's mission of proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
190 In the passage from Saint John which we have just heard, we are reminded of the essence of religious life."You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit"[1]. Through the initiative of the Savior and your own free response, Christ has become the purpose of your life and the center of all your thoughts. It is because of Christ that you made your profession of the evangelical counsels ; and it is Christ who will sustain y?u in faithfulness to himself and in loving service to his Church.
Religious consecration is essentially an act of love: Christ's love for you and in return your love for him and for all his brethren. This mystery is proclaimed today in the Gospel, when Jesus says to his disciples : "As the Father has loved me, s? I have loved y?u ; abide in my love"[2]. Christ wants y?u to abide in him, to be nourished by him daily in the celebration of the Eucharist and to surrender your lives to him through prayer and self-denial. Trusting in his word and confident of his mercy, y?u respond to Christ's love. You choose to follow him more closely in chastity, poverty and obedience ; and your want to share more completely in the life and holiness of the Church. You want to love all those whom Christ loves as brothers and sisters.
3. The world today needs to see y?ur love for Christ. It needs the public witness of religious life. As Paul VI once said : "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses"[3]. If the non-believers of this world are to come to believe in Christ, they need your faithful witness—a witness which springs from your complete trust in the bountiful mercy of the Father and your persevering hope in the power of the Cross and Resurrection.
And so the ideals, values and convictions which underlie your commitment to Christ must be translated into the language of daily life. In the midst of the people of God, in the local ecclesial community, your public witness is part of your contribution to the mission of the Church. As Saint Paul says, "You are a letter from Christ... written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts"[4].
4. As religious brothers and priests you are engaged in a great variety of apostolic activities: proclaiming the word of God, administering the sacraments, teaching, catechizing, caring for the sick, assisting the poor and orphans, exercising charity, serving by prayer and sacrifice, building up the local communities to reflect the Gospel and embody the Kingdom of God. As you carry out these works of service with steadfast perseverance, remember the advice of Saint Paul : "Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, do it for the Lord rather than for men"[5].
All these apostolic activities retain their importance today. They continue to be vital dimensions of evangelization, bearing prophetic witness to God's love and contributing to full human advancement. I am sure that the community in general, as well as the ecclesial community, will be grateful to the religious for helping the Church to maintain her commitment to these diverse expressions of her pastoral activity.
At the same time, you rightly seek additional ways of bearing witness to Christ and serving his people. The Church must indeed be attentive to the needs of the men and women of our time. She cannot be indifferent to the problems which they face or to the injustices which they suffer. As you seek new ways of furthering the Gospel and of promoting human values, I offer you my encouragement and the assurance of my prayers.
At the same time I ask you to observe this guideline : that each apostolic endeavor should be in harmony with the teaching of the Church, with the apostolic purposes of your individual Institutes and with the original charism of your founders. May I also remind you of my words at Puebla : "You are priests and religious ; you are not social or political leaders or officials of a temporal power ... Let us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel if we 'dilute' our charism through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal problems"[6]. It is important for people to see you as "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"[7].
5. Faithfulness to Christ in religious life requires a threefold fidelity: fidelity to the Gospel, fidelity to the Church, fidelity to the particular charism of your Institutes.
First of all, you must be faithful to the Gospel. We are reminded of this by the Second Vatican Council, which taught : "the fundamental norm of religious life is the following of Christ as it is presented to us in the G?spel"[8]. F?r this reason you make it your first priority to listen to the word of God, ponder it in your heart and seek to put it into practice. May you find time every day to meditate on God's word, being confident in its power to enlighten your minds and to bring to life within you the spirit of the Beatitudes.
Secondly, your religious consecration, in addition to strengthening your commitment to Christ, also binds you inseparably to the life and holiness of his Spouse, the Church. And it is in the local ecclesial community that this is given concrete expression. This is the reason why it is so important for you to work in close collaboration with the clergy and laity of the local Church, and to accept willingly the authority and ministry of the local Bishop as the focus of its unity.
191 In this connection I would like to underline two relevant expressions of this commitment to the local Church. The first is the relationship of religious priests with the diocesan clergy. Religious priests should be happy to take part in the apostolate of the local Church, in a l?yal and disinterested way, with the diocesan priests, whose tasks they are called to share, not by way of exception, but on a regular basis.
The second is the relationship with the National Conference of Bishops. In the spirit of the Document Mutuae Relationes, religious superiors should seek, accept, and cultivate a frank and filial dialogue with the Pastors, whom the Holy Spirit has placed to govern the Church of God. In this sense it cannot be stressed too much how important are the relations between the National Conference of Bishops, whose task it is to work out and establish pastoral plans for the country, and the Associations of Major Religious Superiors, which assume the task of promoting the religious life, taking care that it should remain faithful to its deepest roots and to the charism that characterizes it.
As religious you are in a position to make a special contribution to the promotion of the unity of the Church. Your experience of community life, common prayer and corporate apostolic service prepares you for this task. May y?u dedicate yourselves to the great cause of unity with renewed vigor, seeking, in a spirit of openness and respect, to break down barriers of division and to encourage the progress of harmony and mutual collaboration.
Finally, may y?u always be faithful to the particular charism of your individual Institutes. To illustrate this point I wish to acknowledge two events of great significance to the Church in the Philippines occurring this year : first the three hundredth anniversary of the Christian Brothers of de la Salle. The instruction of young people in the Christian faith and in the other subjects remains as indispensable for the mission of Christ as at the time when this Congregation was founded. And the Church in the Philippines has been greatly blessed through their consecrated lives and dedicated service.
The second event is the celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the presence of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. Through their missionary efforts, through their work in schools and parishes and through the spirituality of Saint Ignatius, the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus have made a great contribution to the Philippines and throughout the world.
Similarly, all the religious families represented here today, each in a distinctive way, contribute to the life and holiness of the Church. An indication of the effectiveness of your contributions has been, and continues to be, your faithfulness to the spirit of your founders, to their evangelical intentions and to the example of their sanctity. May this faithfulness to your respective charisms always be seen as part of your fidelity to Christ.
6. In closing, may I say once again that your life of consecration and your partnership in the Gospel fill me with joy in my role as Pastor of the universal Church. I have come here to this Cathedral to celebrate with you and the entire ecclesial community the holiness of Christ's Church and the marvels of grace that have been accomplished in this Archdiocese during the past four centuries of evangelization.
It is my prayer that the commemoration of this anniversary will be an added incentive for you to make your specific contribution as religious to the life of this local Church and to the life of the Church throughout the whole country. I pray that zealous religious will continue, as in the past four centuries, to serve the People of God faithfully by word and deed. And by your own generous and joyful example may young men be encouraged to carry on the traditions in this new era of grace.
May the Virgin Mary, Mother and model of all religious, assist you by her prayers. May she be your constant guide on the journey of faith to the heavenly Father, and may she help you to attain your highest goal: oneness in love with our Lord Jesus Christ.
[1] Jn 15,16.
[2] Jn 15,9.
[3] AAS 66 (1974), 568.
[4] 2Co 3,3.
[5] Col 3,23.
[6] AAS 71 (1979), p. 193.
[7] 1Co 4,1.
[8] Perfectae Caritatis, PC 2.
18281
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
1. The City of Manila and all the Philippines are filled with joy on this day as they sing a hymn of glory to Jesus Christ. For, according to his Gospel promise, Christ is truly acknowledging, in the presence of his Father in heaven, those faithful martyrs who acknowledged him before men[1]. And because of the nearness of Luneta Park to old Manila "intra muros", the hymn of glory to God which has just been sung by numberless voices is an echo of the Te Deum sung in the Church of Santo Domingo on the evening of December 27, 1637, when the news arrived of the martyrdom at Nagasaki of a group of six Christians. Among them were the head of the mission, Father Antonio González, a Spanish Dominican from León, and Lorenzo Ruiz, a married man with a family, born in Manila "extra muros" : in the suburb of Binondo[2].
These witnesses had also in their turn sung psalms to the Lord of mercy and power, both while they were in prison and during their execution by the gallows and the pit, which lasted three days. The song of these "designated" martyrs—to use a definition made by my predecessor Benedict XIV—was followed in Manila, then as now, by the song of thanksgiving for the martyrs n?w "consummated" and "glorified". Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus: they belonged indeed to a white-robed throng, whose members included those of the white legion of the Order of Preachers.
2. Our hymn is at same time a hymn of faith that conquers the world[3]. The preaching of this faith enlightens like the sun all who wish to attain the knowledge of truth. Indeed, although there are different languages in the world, the power of the Christian tradition is the same. And so, as Saint Irenaeus explains, the Churches founded in Germany or in Spain believe and teach no differently from the Churches founded in the East or in the central parts of the world[4].
I therefore greet with deep affection in Christ Jesus the European Churches in Italy, France and Spain, and the Asian Churches in Taiwan, Macau, the Philippines and Japan, represented here or at least spiritually united to this ceremony of the beatification of sixteen martyrs who belong to them by birth, apostolic work or martyrdom.
3. The Lord Jesus by his blood truly redeemed his servants, gathered from every race, tongue, people and nation, to make them a royal priesthood for our God[5]. The sixteen blessed martyrs, by the exercise of their priesthood—that of baptism or of Holy Orders—performed the greatest act of worship and love of God by the sacrifice of their blood united with Christ's own Sacrifice of the Cross. In this way they imitated Christ the priest and victim in the most perfect way possible for human creatures[6]. It was at the same time an act of the greatest possible love for their brethren, for whose sake we are all called to sacrifice ourselves, following the example of the Son of God who sacrificed himself for us[7].
193 4. This is what Lorenzo Ruiz did. Guided by the Holy Spirit to an unexpected goal after an adventurous journey, he told the court that he was a Christian, and must die for God, and w?uld give his life for him a thousand times[8].
Kahit maging sanglibo man
Ang buhay n'yaring katawan
Pawa kong ipapapatay,
Kung inyong pagpipilitang
Si Kristo'y aking talikdan.
(Had I many thousands of lives I would offer them all for him. Never shall I apostatize. You may kill me if that is what you want. To die for God—such is my will.)
Here we have him summed up ; here we have a description of his faith and the reason f?r his death. It was at this moment that this young father of a family professed and brought to completion the Christian catechesis that he had received in the Dominican Friars' school in Binondo: a catechesis that cannot be other than Christ-centered, by reason both of the mystery it contains and the fact that it is Christ who teaches through the lips of his messenger[9].
This is the Christian essence of the first Beatus of the Philippine nation, today exalted as a fitting climax to the fourth centenary of the Archdiocese of Manila. Just as the young Church in Jerusalem brought forth its first martyr for Christ in the person of the deacon Stephen, s? the young Church in Manila, founded in 1579, brought forth its first martyr in the person of Lorenzo Ruiz, who had served in the parish church of Saint Gabriel in Binondo. The local parish and the family, the domestic church, are indeed the center of faith that is lived, taught and witnessed to.
5. The example of Lorenzo Ruiz, the son of a Chinese father and Tagala mother, reminds us that everyone's life and the whole of one's life must be at Christ's disposal. Christianity means daily giving, in response to the gift of Christ who came into the world so that all might have life and have it to the full[10]. Or, as so aptly expressed in the theme of my visit to this country : To die for the faith is a gift to some; to live the faith is a call for all.
I too have come from the city of the martyrs Peter and Paul to this capital city to speak to you about the meaning of our existence, about the value of living and dying for Christ. And that is what I wish to affirm by this act of beatification, desired by myself and by my predecessor Paul VI, and requested by the various local Churches and by the Dominican Order.
194 6. But the attractive figure of the first Filipino martyr would not be fully explained in its historical context without extolling the witness given by fifteen companions, who suffered in 1633, 1634 and 1637. They form the group led by two men : Domingo Ibáñez de Erquicia, the vicar provincial of the Japanese mission and a native of Régil in the Spanish Diocese of San Sebastián ; and Jacobo Kyuhei Tomonaga, a native of Kyudetsu in the Diocese of Nagasaki.
Both of these belonged to the Dominican Province of the Holy Rosary in the Philippines, established in 1587 for the evangelization of the Far East. The whole group of Lorenzo's companions was composed of nine priests, two professed brothers, two members of the Third Order, and a catechist and a guide-interpreter. Nine were Japanese, four were Spaniards, one a Frenchman, and one an Italian. They had one reason for their evangelical witness: the reason of Saint Paul, baptized by Ananias to carry the name of Christ to all peoples[11]: "We have come to Japan only to preach faith in God and to teach salvation to little ones and to the innocent and to all the rest of the people". Thus did the martyr Guillaume Courtet sum up their mission before the judges at Nagasaki[12].
7. I shall have the joy of speaking again about these brave apostles in a few days' time, in Nagasaki, near that holy hill called Nishizaka, where they suffered martyrdom. By their place of death they are all Japanese. That archipelago was the land of their true and definitive birth, the birth that brings the adopted children of God to eternal light.
8. F?r the moment, as we consider the place where they are being beatified, I would dwell upon the fact that the city of Manila, the island of Luzón and the island of Formosa, which at time came under a single civil g?vernment, were the wide and providential starting-point of the nine priests who later sailed for Nagasaki. There was a ministry among the Chinese of the suburb of Bínondo, among the Japanese colony in Manila, among the peoples of the regions of Bataán, Pangasinán, Cagayán, and, further north, in Formosa. For some of them there was a teaching assignment in the College of Santo Tomás in Manila, which in 1645 became the present Pontifical University, the oldest and the largest Catholic university in the Far East.
Four of the new Beati were professors in the College, one was also the Rector, and a fifth had studied there. In the first century of the evangelization of the Far East, begun by the preaching of Saint Francis Xavier, the Philippine Islands had already, in this university institution, a further means of carrying out the mission of evangelization[13]. A fruitful program aimed at imparting theological knowledge and propagating the faith, which still today is enhanced by the cultural heritage of the Philippines and vivified by the Christian spirit, is a fitting instrument for assisting the spread of the Gospel[14].
The harmonious mingling of faith and culture is spoken of by the Filipino poet and national hero José Rizal, in these verses :
Tal la Educación estrecha alianza
Con alma Religión une sincera:
Por ella Educación renombre alcanza ;
Y ay ! del ser que ciego desechando
De santa Religión sabias doctrinas,
195 De su puro raudal huye nefando.[15]
All the more therefore, it is my duty and the object of my apostolic ministry to confirm my brethren in the truth[16], and to repeat to the missionaries, to the students of theological and human sciences, as well as to all the Catholics of East Asia, the words of Christ : "You shall be my witnesses ... to the ends of the earth"[17].
9. Let us endeavor to imitate the commitment to faith and the fidelity to commitment of those who, through their difficult missionary task, accepted with joy and steadfastness hard journeys, difficulties of climate, betrayal even by their friends, privations of every kind and terrible tortures. They were so much in love with Christ's Passion that they could cry out, like Miguel de Aozaraza contemplating Christ's wounds : "What beautiful carnations, what bloodred roses shed for love of you, my God !"[18]. They asked Mary, as did Giordano Ansalone, to enable them to recover their health, s? that they could die only as victims for Christ[19].
I entrust all this to Mary, who, with her rosary, helped our martyrs to imitate and to proclaim her Son ; to be intrepid guardians of his word, like the courageous women Magdalena of Nagasaki and Marina of Omura. I entrust the destiny of the Philippines and of all Asia to Mary, Queen of the Rosary, who with the title of "La Naval" is venerated as the guardian of freedom for the Catholic faith.
10. This is the full meaning of this beatification : to animate all the Christians of the Far East and to spread the word of the Lord[20]. In a special way I say this to you Filipinos, who form the only predominantly Catholic nation in the eastern part of the continent of Asia. It is an invitation that I also extend to the other Christians of the nearby lands that border the Pacific Ocean like a symbol of the search for God described by Saint Catherine of Siena : "A deep sea, in which the further I enter it the more I find ; and the m?re I find the more I look f?r you. You are insatiable, for as the soul becomes satiated in your abyss, it is not satiated, because it always remains hungry for you, thirsty for y?u, desiring to see you by the light of your light"[21].
Dearly beloved : amidst the efforts needed for our own Christian lives, and for spreading the light of Christ thoughout Asia and the whole world, let us look today to these zealous martyrs who give us deep assurance and fresh hope when they tell us : "In all this we are more than conquerors because of him who has loved us"[22]. And this is the mystery we celebrate today : the love of Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world. Amen.
[1] Cf. Mt 10,32.
[2] Cf. Positio super Martyrio, Rome 1979, pp. 478-9.
[3] 1Jn 5,4.
[4] Cf. Adversus Haereses, Book 1, 10, 1-3; PG 7, 550-554.
[5] Cf. Ap 5,9-10.
[6] Cf. S. Th. II-II 124,3.
[7] Cf. Jn 3,16.
[8] Cf. Positio, pp. 47.
[9] Cf. Catechesi Tradendae, CTR 5-6.
[10] Cf. Jn 10,10.
[11] Cf. Ac 9,15.
[12] Cf. Positio, pp. 412-414.
[13] Cf. Sapientia Christiana: AAS 71 (1979), p.478.
[14] Cf. Sapientia Christiana, loc. cit., p. 479.
[15] Cf. Alianza Intima entre la Religión y la Educación, 19 April 1987.
[16] Cf. Lc 22,32.
[17] Ac 1,8.
[18] Cf. Positio, p.446.
[19] Cf. Positio, p.298.
[20] Cf. 2Th 3,1.
[21] Dialogue, Chapter 167.
[22] Rm 8,37.
S. John Paul II Homil. 187