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Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Even today it is necessary for the Church to "put preaching at the centre". And always be a Church "that cannot live without sharing with others the embrace of God’s love", and needs to proclaim the joy of the Gospel "like oxygen to breathe". This is what Pope Francis said today, recalling with evocative words that the apostolic mission to announce the salvation of Christ is the sole raison d'être of the Church in her journey through the history. He did so by taking inspiration from the figures of the Apostles Peter and Paul, on the day when the Church celebrates the liturgical memory of the Patron Saints of Rome. In the homily of the Mass, celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis drew inspiration from the readings of the liturgy of the day to underline that Peter and Paul respond with different accents to Christ's call and to their encounter with him. Peter's answer - underlined Pope Francis - "can be summed up in one word: follow. Peter lived following the Lord". In Caesarea Philippi, Peter himself responded to the question that Jesus posed to his disciples (Who do you say that I am?") with a fine profession of faith: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God". But that answer - the Bishop of Rome pointed out - "is the fruit of a journey: for only after the thrilling experience of following the Lord, walking with him and behind him for some time, did Peter arrive at the spiritual maturity that brought him, by grace, by pure grace, to so clear a profession of faith".
And Peter's experience is still offered today as a paradigm to which all the baptized can compare themselves: Even today, the question "who is Jesus for me?" - underlined pope francis - "it is not enough to respond with a faultless doctrinal formula or a set of preconceived notions. No. It is only by following the Lord that we come to know him each day, only by becoming his disciples and listening to his words that we become his friends and experience his transforming love". Even today, only an experience of following similar to that of Peter can free us from excuses and objections, including those "disguised as spiritual, as for example when we say, "I am not worthy", "I don’t have it in me", "What can I do?". Excuses, objections and self-justifications of this kind - remarked the Successor of Peter - represent a real "the devil’s ploys: it robs us of trust in God’s grace by making us think that everything depends on our own abilities". If Peter's response to the call and attraction of Christ manifested itself above all in the following of Christ, Paul's response - Pope Francis continued - was expressed above all in the impetus to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples. For Paul too, as for Peter", remarked the Pontiff - " For Paul too, everything began with grace, with the Lord’s prior initiative. On the road to Damascus, as he led a fierce persecution of Christians, barricaded in his religious convictions, the risen Jesus met him and blinded him by his light. Or better, thanks to that light, Paul came to realize how blind he had been: caught up in the pride of his rigid observance, he discovered in Jesus the fulfilment of the mystery of salvation". From that moment, and only after this encounter, "Paul then devoted his life to traversing land and sea, cities and towns, heedless of privations and persecutions, for the sake of preaching Jesus Christ". Paul tells us that our answer to the question "who is Jesus for me?" is not a privatized piety that leaves us peaceful and unconcerned about bringing the Gospel to others. The Apostle teaches us that we grow in faith and in knowledge of the mystery of Christ "when we preach and bear witness to him before others. This is always the case: whenever we evangelize, we are ourselves evangelized. It is an everyday experience: whenever we evangelize, we are ourselves evangelized. The word that we bring to others comes back to us, for however much we give to others, we ourselves receive much more". With their very different personal accents, Peter and Paul - the Pope recalled in the conclusion of his homily - answered "the essential question in life – who is Jesus for me? – by following him as his disciples and by proclaiming the Gospel". Following in their footsteps, even today "it is good for us to grow as a Church in the same way, by following the Lord, constantly and humbly seeking him out. It is good for us to become a Church that is also outgoing, finding joy not in the things of the world, but in preaching the Gospel before the world and opening people’s hearts to the presence of God. Bringing the Lord Jesus everywhere, with humility and joy: in our city of Rome, in our families, in our relationships and our neighbourhoods, in civil society, in the Church, and political life, in the entire world, especially in those places where poverty, decay and marginalization are deeply rooted". At the end of his homily, Pope Francis also addressed his "affectionate greeting to the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, sent here by my very dear Brother, His Holiness Bartholomew", and led by Metropolitan Job of Pissidia (in the photo at the time of the greetings with Pope Francis). "Thank you - added the Pontiff - for your presence! Thank you. May we advance together; advance together in following and in preaching the word, as we grow in fraternity. May Peter and Paul accompany us and intercede for us all". (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 29/6/2023)
