Pope Francis says "This is the path before us: journeying together and serving together, giving priority of place to prayer” - "we also continue to pray for the end of the wars" at Ecumenical Vespers

Pope Francis presided over Ecumenical Vespers to close the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and invites all Christians to give "priority of place to prayer.” Pope Francis gave the homily at the ecumenical Evening Prayer service held in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
At the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Pope joined the heads and representatives of various Churches for Vespers, including Metropolitan Polycarp of Italy, representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. According to Vatican News, as a sign of Christian Unity, Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Communion, sent out pairs of Catholic and Anglican Bishops. The Bishops are taking part in the ecumenical summit “Growing Together” in Rome and Canterbury, and were commissioned by the Pope and the Archbishop to “continuing to testify to the unity willed by God for his Church in their respective regions”.

SOLEMNITY OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

CELEBRATION OF THE SECOND VESPER

LVII WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

Full Text - HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls - Thursday, January 25, 2024

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In the Gospel we heard, the doctor of the Law, although he addresses Jesus by calling him "Master", does not want to let himself be taught by him, but rather "put him to the test". An even greater falsehood, however, emerges from his question: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10.25). Doing to inherit, doing to have: here is a distorted religiosity, based on possession rather than gift, where God is the means to obtain what I want, not the end to be loved with all my heart. But Jesus is patient and invites that doctor to find the answer in the Law of which he was an expert, which prescribes: «You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27).

Then that man, "wanting to justify himself", asks a second question: "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29). If the first question risked reducing God to one's own "I", this one seeks to divide: divide people into those who must be loved and those who can be ignored. And dividing is never from God: it is from the devil, who is a divider. Jesus, however, does not respond with theory, but with the parable of the Good Samaritan, with a concrete story, which he also calls us into question. Because, dear brothers and sisters, it is the priest and the Levite who behave badly, with indifference, who put the protection of their religious traditions before the needs of those who suffer. It is instead a heretic, a Samaritan, who gives meaning to the word "neighbor", because he becomes neighbor: he feels compassion, he approaches and tenderly bends over the wounds of that brother; he takes care of him, regardless of his past and his faults, and serves him with all of himself (see Luke 10:33-35). This allows Jesus to conclude that the correct question is not "Who is my neighbor?", but: "Do I make myself a neighbor?" Only this love that becomes free service, only this love that Jesus proclaimed and lived, will bring separated Christians closer to each other. Yes, only this love, which does not return to the past to distance itself or point fingers, only this love which in the name of God puts the brother before the iron defense of one's own religious system, only this love will unite us. First the brother, then the system.

Brothers and sisters, among ourselves we should never ask the question “who is my neighbor?”. Because every baptized person belongs to the same Body of Christ; and more, because every person in the world is my brother, my sister, and we all compose the "symphony of humanity", of which Christ is the firstborn and redeemer. As Saint Irenaeus, whom I had the joy of proclaiming "Doctor of unity", recalls, "he who loves the truth must not be carried away by the difference of each sound nor imagine that one is the author and creator of this sound and a the craftsman and creator of the other is another [...], but he must think that only one made it" (Adv. haer. II, 25, 2). Therefore not "who is my neighbor?", but "do I make myself a neighbor?" Do I and then my community, my Church, my spirituality become close? Or do they remain barricaded in defense of their own interests, jealous of their autonomy, locked into the calculation of their own advantages, establishing relationships with others only to gain something from them? If this were the case, it would not just be a matter of strategic mistakes, but of infidelity to the Gospel.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”: this is how the dialogue between the doctor of the Law and Jesus began. But today even this first question is overturned thanks to the Apostle Paul, whose birthday we celebrate in the Basilica dedicated to him. conversion. Well, just when Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of Christians, meets Jesus in the vision of light that envelops him and changes his life, he asks him: "What must I do, Lord?" (Acts 22:10). Not "what must I do to inherit?", but "what must I do, Lord?": the Lord is the purpose of the request, the true inheritance, the supreme good. Paolo doesn't change his life based on his goals, he doesn't become better because he realizes his projects. His conversion arises from an existential reversal, where the primacy no longer belongs to his skill in the face of the Law, but to his docility towards God, in total openness to what He wants. Not to his skill but to his docility: from skill to docility. If He is the treasure, our ecclesial program can only consist in doing his will, in meeting his desires. And He, the night before giving his life for us, ardently prayed to the Father for all of us, "so that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21). Here is his will.

All efforts towards full unity are called to follow the same path as Paul, to put aside the centrality of our ideas to seek the voice of the Lord and leave initiative and space to Him. Another Paul, a great one, understood this well. pioneer of the ecumenical movement, Abbé Paul Couturier, who in prayer used to implore the unity of believers "as Christ wants it", "with the means that He wants". We need this conversion of perspective and above all of heart, because, as the Second Vatican Council stated sixty years ago: "There is no true ecumenism without interior conversion" (Unitatis redintegratio, 7). As we pray together, we recognize, each one starting from himself, that we need to convert, to allow the Lord to change our hearts. This is the way: walking together and serving together, putting prayer first. In fact, when Christians mature in the service of God and others, they also grow in mutual understanding, as the Council further declares: «The closer their communion with the Father, with the Word and with the Holy Spirit, the more intimate and they will be able to make mutual brotherhood easy" (ibid).

This is why we are here tonight from different countries, from different cultures and traditions. I am grateful to Grace Justin Welby¸ Archbishop of Canterbury, to Metropolitan Polycarp, representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and to all of you, who make many Christian communities present. I address a special greeting to the members of the International Mixed Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, who are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their journey, and to the Catholic and Anglican Bishops who are participating in the meeting of the International Commission for Unity and the Mission. It is beautiful that today with my brother, Archbishop Justin, we can give these couples of Bishops the mandate to continue to bear witness to the unity desired by God for his Church in their respective regions, moving forward together "to spread mercy and the peace of God in a needy world" (Appeal of the IARCCUM bishops, Rome 2016). I also greet the scholarship students of the Committee for Cultural Collaboration with the Orthodox Churches of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the participants in the study visits organized for young priests and monks of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and for the students of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey of the World Council of Churches.

Together, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we pray with Paul, saying, “What shall we do, Lord?” And in asking the question there is already an answer, because the first answer is prayer. Praying for unity is the first task of our journey. And it is a holy task, because it is being in communion with the Lord, who first prayed to the Father for unity. And we also continue to pray for the end of the wars, especially in Ukraine and the Holy Land. A heartfelt thought also goes to the beloved people of Burkina Faso, in particular to the communities who have prepared the material there for the Week of Prayer for Unity: may love for others take the place of the violence that afflicts their country.

«“What should I do, Lord?”. And the Lord – Paul recounts – said to me: “Get up and walk away”” (Acts 22:10). Arise, Jesus says to each of us and to our search for unity. Let us then, in the name of Christ, rise from our tiredness and our habits, and continue, let us move forward, because He wants it, and he wants it "so that the world may believe" (Jn 17.21). Let us pray, therefore, and move forward, because this is what God wants from us. This is what he wants from us.