VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI in Assisi- “Assisi tells us that loyalty to one's religious convictions, loyalty above all to Christ, crucified and risen, is expressed not with violence or intolerance, but rather with sincere respect for others, with dialogue, and with proclamation which appeals to freedom and reason, and with commitment for peace and reconciliation”

Monday, 18 June 2007

Assisi (Agenzia Fides) - On Sunday 17 June, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI paid a visit to Assisi on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the Conversion of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Pope travelled by helicopter and landed at Rivotorto sports field where he was welcomed by the local religious and civil authorities. The Pope stopped to pray for a while at the Shrine of Rivotorto, where St. Francis lived with the first friars for about two years, and then he went to the Shrine of Saint Damian, where St. Francis heard the voice from the Crucifix telling him to go and repair the House of God which was in ruins. Then the Pope went to the Basilica of Santa Claire where he met the community of the Poor Clare Sisters. The Holy Father reached Assisi at 10am where he presided Mass in front of the Basilica of St Francis.
“Today everything speaks to us of conversion” the Pope said in his homily, “to speak of conversion, means going to the heart of the Christian message and to the roots of human life”. The Sunday readings presented first of all the figure of King David, “at the climax of his political fortune, but at the lowest level of his moral life ”, blinded by passion for Bethsabea, he takes her from her husband ordering the latter to be killed. “Man is truly, greatness and wretchedness- the Holy Father commented -: greatness because he bears within himself the image of God and is the object of His love; wretchedness because he can make bad use of the freedom which is his great privilege, and end up acting against his Creator". Deeply shaken by God's verdict against him pronounced Natan, King David sincerely repents. He accepts the offer of mercy and starts a journey of conversion.
The same path was taken by Francis, who in his will speaks of the first 25 years of his life as the time in which he lived “in sin”. “Apart from certain manifestations, sin was the idea and organisation of a life centred on himself, pursuing vain dreams of earthly glory” the Pope said. “Conversion led him to exercise mercy and to obtain mercy… …To convert to love means to pass from bitterness to "sweetness", from sadness to true joy. Man is truly himself and is fully realised to the extent in which he lives with God and of God, recognising him and loving him in others.”
Another great convert, St Paul the Apostle, is the author of the Letter to the Galatians of which a passage was read at the Mass: “Paul understood that in Christ all the law is fulfilled and those who follow Christ, and are united with Christ fulfil the law- Pope Benedict XVI explained-. To carry Christ, and with Christ the one true God, to all peoples had become his mission… When he says he is crucified with Christ, Saint Paul refers not only to his own re-birth in baptism, but to his whole live at the service of Christ… the discussion on the right way to see and live the Gospel, in the end, is decided not by arguments of our thought; what decides it is the reality of life, communion lived and suffered with Jesus, not only with ideas and words, but to the deepest part of our life, involving even the body, the flesh. The bruises received in a long story of passion are the testimony of the presence of the cross of Jesus in the body of Saint Paul, they are his stigmata”.
The Sunday Gospel taken from the Gospel of St Luke “tells us about the dynamism of authentic conversion, offering as an example the sinful woman saved by love”. Jesus shows deep tenderness towards the woman, “abused by many and judged by all”, without however putting aside moral law. “For Jesus, good is good and evil is evil. Mercy does not change sin, it burns it away with a fire of love. This purifying and healing effect comes about if the person corresponds with love, which implicates recognition of God's law, sincere repentance, a since resolution to change one's life. Because the sinful woman in the Gospel loved much, she was forgiven much. In Jesus, God comes to give us love and to ask us for love”.
The life of the converted Francis was simply one great act of love. “It was this conversion to Christ, to the point of desiring to ‘become’ Him, becoming his perfect image, which explains the way in which he lived, and which makes him so relevant with regard to the principal issues of our times, such as the quest for peace, the protection of nature, the promotion of dialogue among all peoples. Francis was a maestro in these things. But he was so, because of Christ”.
Pope Benedict XVI concluded by recalling the first day of prayer for peace convoked at Assisi by John Paul II in 1986, which brought together representatives of the different Christian confessions and of the principal world religions. “The decision to hold the meeting in Assisi was prompted by the testimony of Francis, a man of peace - the Pope explained -. At the same time the light of the 'Poverello' on that initiative was a guarantee of Christian authenticity, since his life and his message clearly rested on his decision for Christ, to be rejected a priori any temptation of religious indifferentism, which would have nothing to do with interreligious dialogue. The "spirit of Assisi", which from that event continues to spread across the world, is contrary to the spirit of violence, to abuse of religion as a pretext for violence. Assisi tells us that loyalty to one's religious convictions, loyalty above all to Christ, crucified and risen, is expressed not with violence or intolerance, but rather with sincere respect for others, with dialogue, and with proclamation which appeals to freedom and reason, and with commitment for peace and reconciliation.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 18/6/2007; righe 63, parole 960)


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