Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Pope gave his General Wednesday Audience on 7 February first in St Peter’s where he met the Bishops of Lombardy in Rome for the ad limina visit accompanied by many Catholics from the respective dioceses and then in the Paul VI audience Hall where he gave his weekly teaching to visitors from all over the world.
Addressing the Bishops and lay Catholics from Lombardy the Pope recalled the Church’s important task: “to announce and bear witness to the Gospel in every sector of society, especially where there emerge the negative traits of a culture of consumerism and hedonism, secularism and selfishness, where there exist old and new forms of poverty with concerning signs of dissatisfied youth and phenomena of violence and crime”. The Pope affirmed that despite difficulties “her great ideal and moral resources” render the Church in Lombardy “alive and rich in the dimension of the faith and in missionary spirit, able and determined to hand on the torch of the faith to the future generations and to the world of our times”. Speaking of the vast field of action for Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI highlighted protection and promotion of the culture of human life and legality, and ever more consistent conversion to Christ, individual and community. “In every Christian sphere, guided by the Holy Spirit who lives in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful as in a temple, may you be living signs of supernatural hope - the Pope said -. Our world, with so many worries and difficulties, needs hope. And our hope stems from the Lord’s promise and His presence”.
During his teaching in the Paul VI Hall the Pope reflected on Priscilla and Aquila, husband and wife, who were among the early Christians worked with St Paul the Apostle. Although their names were Latin, both husband and wife were of Jewish origin. They came from Rome to Corinth where around the year 50 they met Paul and invited him to stay with them. In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul speaks of the “most important role the couple had in the early Church: they opened their home for the Christian community whenever it gathered to listen to the Word of God and celebrate the Eucharist” the Holy Father explained. “In the home of Aquila and Priscilla, the Church came together, the congregation of Christ celebrated the sacred Mysteries. And so we see the actual birth of the reality of the Church in the homes of the faithful”.
When they return to Rome Aquila and Priscilla do the same. “In fact Paul, writing to the Romans, sends a special greeting: ‘Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus; to save my life their risked their heads and to them not only I am grateful but all the Churches of the nations; greet also the community which gathers in their home’ (Rom 16,3-5). What high words of praise for this husband and wife! And they comes from no less than Saint Paul. He explicitly recognises in them two valid and important co-workers for his apostolate ”. Pope Benedict XVI recalled that Christianity has come down to our generation “not only thanks to the Apostles who announced it” but also thanks to “the commitment of these families, married couples, these Christian communities of lay faithful who provided the "humus" for the growth of the faith. And it is always and only in this way that the Church grows. This couple demonstrates the importance of the activity of Christian couples”. Another lesson to be learned is that “every home can become a small church. Not only in the sense that it must be ruled by typical Christian love consisting of selflessness and reciprocal attention, but even more in the sense that the whole of family must rotate around the unique Lordship of Jesus Christ … We honour Aquila and Priscilla as examples of married life responsibly involved in serving the whole Christian community. And they are a pattern for the Church, family of God in every epoch.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 8/2/2007 - righe 46, parole 691)
