VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI visits parish church of Rhemes Saint-Georges in Val d’Aosta: “God does not oppose violence with stronger violence. To violence he opposes the very opposite: love, to the very end, to His Cross. This is God’s humble way of winning: with His love - and this is the only possible way - He limits violence.”

Les Combes (Agenzia Fides) - In the late afternoon of Sunday 23 July, the day he had called the Church everywhere to pray for peace in the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI made an unexpected visit to pray for peace at the parish church of Rhemes Saint-Georges in Val d’Aosta, where he is spending a short holiday. Speaking without a written text the Pope reflected on St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (cfr Eph 2,13-18) recalling that Christ through his death put an end to enmity and united us in His peace. However struck by the contrast with the reality we see, since “there is still war among Christians, Muslims and Jews; and there are others who foment war and everything is still filled with enmity and violence” we are tempted to ask the Lord : “Where is the effectiveness of your sacrifice? Where in history is this peace your Apostle tells us about?”. “We men cannot resolve the mystery of history- the Pope said -, the mystery of human freedom to say "no" to God’s peace. We are unable to resolve the whole mystery of the God/man relationship, of His action and our response. We must accept the mystery”.
Among the elements the Lord offers in response to our question the Pope mentioned “the great reality of the communion of the universal Church, of all peoples, the network of Eucharistic communion which transcends frontiers of cultures, civilisations, peoples and time”. Within the Body of Christ there are islands of peace in the world: “the great saints of charity created "oases" of this peace of God in the world which again and again kindle His light, and again and again reconcile and build peace. There are the martyrs who suffered with Christ bearing witness to this peace, of love which limits violence … The Lord triumphed on the Cross. He conquered not with a new empire, not with force more powerful than others and able to destroy them … This is God’s way of conquering: to violence he does not oppose stronger violence. To violence he opposes the very opposite: love, to the very end, to His Cross. This is God’s humble way of winning: with His love - and this is the only possible way - He limits violence. This way of winning appears to us to be very slow, but it is only way of overcoming evil, of stopping violence and we must put our trust in this divine way of winning”.
The Pope continued: “Today in a multicultural and multireligious world many are tempted to say: "For peace in the world among religions and cultures it is best not to speak too much about the specificity of Christianity, of Jesus, the Church, the Sacraments. We must be content with the things we have more or less in common…". However this is not so. Precisely at this moment - the moment when there is the greatest abuse of God’s name - we need a God who wins on the cross, who wins not through violence but with His love. Precisely at this moment we need the Face of Christ, in order to know the true Face of God and be able in this way bring reconciliation and light to the world.”
Last of all the Pope recalled that what each of us can do is to bear witness to our love and our faith “above all by crying out to God: we can pray! We are certain that the Father listens to the cry of his children”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 25/6/2006, righe 36, parole 579)