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PAGE 7-May 15,1980
John Paul II’s Homily During Mass For Families
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KINSHASA, Zaire (NC) - Here is
an NC News translation of the
homily given in French by Pope John
Paul II during a Mass for families
May 3 in Kinshasa, Zaire:
Dear Christian spouses, fathers
and mothers of families:
1. Emotion and joy flood into my
heart as universal pastor of the
church, because the grace has been
given to me to meditate for the first
time with African families on their
particular vocation — Christian
marriage. May God — who has been
revealed to be ‘one in three persons’
— assist us all through this
meditation! The subject is marvelous,
but the reality is difficult! If
Christian marriage is comparable to a
very lofty mountain which puts the
spouses in the immediate vicinity of
God, it must be recognized that its
ascent demands much time and much
hardship. But would that be a reason
to suppress or lower such a summit?
Is it not by moral and spiritual
ascents that the human person is
fully realized and dominates the
universe, much more than by
technical and even spatial records, as
admirable as they are?
Together, we shall make a
pilgrimage to the sources of marriage,
then we shall try to better measure
its dynamism in the service of the
spouses, of the children, of society,
of the church. Finally, we shall
gather our energies to promote ever
more effective family pastoral
activity.
2. Everyone is familiar with the
famous story of creation by which
the Bible begins. It is there said that
God made man in his likeness in
creating him man and woman. There
is something surprising right away.
Mankind, to resemble God, must be a
couple of two persons in movement
toward one another, two persons
whom a perfect love is going to
unite. This movement and this love
makes them resemble God, who is
love itself, the absolute unity of
three persons. Never has anyone sung
so beautifully of the splendor of
human love as in the First pages of
the Bible: “This one, says Adam in
contemplating his wife, is flesh of my
flesh, bone of my bones. That is why
man will leave his father and mother
and cling to his wife and they shall
be but one flesh” (Gen. 2, 23-24).
Paraphrasing Pope St. Leo, I cannot
help saying to you: “Oh Christian
spouses, recognize your eminent
dignity!”
This pilgrimage to the sources
reveals to us also that the first
couple, in the plan of God, is
monogamous. Here is something to
surprise us again, when civilization —
at the time when the biblica accounts
were written — was generally far
from this cultural model. This
monogamy, which is not of Western,
but Semitic origin, appears as the
expression ot the inter-personal
relation, that in which each of the
partners is recognized by the other as
of equal value and in the totality of
his or her person. This monogamous
and personalistic concept of the
human person is an absolutely
original revelation, which bears the
mark of God, and which deserves to
be explored ever more deeply.
3. But this history which began so
well in the luminous dawn of the
human race knew the drama of the
rupture between the newly created
couple and the creator. That is
original sin. Nevertheless this rupture
will be the occasion for a new
manifestation of the love of God.
Compared very often to an infinitely
faithful spouse, for example in the
texts of the psalmists and the
prophets, God reforms incessantly
his alliance with capricious and sinful
humanity. These repeated alliances
will culminate in the definitive
alliance which God sealed in his own
Son, sacrificing himself freely for the
church and for the world. St. Paul is
not afraid to present this alliance of
Christ with the church as the symbol
and model of every alliance between
man and woman (Cf. Eph. 5,25)
united as spouses in an indissoluble
manner.
Such are the letters of nobility of
Christian marriage. They are
generative of light and strength for
the daily realization of the conjugal
and family vocation, to the benefit
of the spouses themselves, of their
children, of the society in which they
live, and of the church of Christ.
African traditions judiciously used
can have their place in the building
of Christian homes in Africa. I think
especially of all the positive values of
a sense of family, so rooted in the
African soul and which take on
multiple aspects, assuredly capable of
being brought to the attention of
so-called more advanced civilizations:
the seriousness of the matrimonial
commitment at the end of a long
preparation, the priority given to the
transmission of life and therefore the
importance given to the mother and
children, the law of solidarity among
families which have made an alliance
and which is exercised especially on
behalf of the elderly, widows and
orphans, a sort of co-responsibility in
the raising and education of children,
which is capable of attenuating many
psychological tensions, the cult of
ancestors and of the dead which
fidelity to traditions favors.
Indeed, the delicate problem is
that of taking up ail this family
dynamism, inherited from ancestral
customs, while transforming it and
sublimating it in the perspectives of
the society which is coming to life in
Africa. But in any case the conjugal
life of Christians is lived — through
various periods and different
situations — in the footsteps of
Christ, liberator and redeemer of all
men and of all realities which make
up the life of men. “AH that you do,
let it be done in the name of Our
Lord Jesus Christ” as St. Paul said to
us (Col. 3,17).
4. It is therefore in conforming
themselves to Christ who delivered
himself through love to his church
that the spouses arrive, day after day,
at the love of which the Gospel
speaks to us: “Love one another, as I
have loved you,” and more precisely
at the perfection of indissoluble
union on all levels. The Christian
spouses have made the promise to
communicate to one another all that
they are and all that they have. It is
the boldest contract ever, and also
the most marvelous!
The union of their bodies, willed
by God himself as the expression of
the communion profounder still of
God. Essential agreement must be
shown in the decision upon the
pursuit of common objectives. The
most energetic partner must back up
the will of the other, supplement it
sometimes, become adroitly,
educationally, its lever.
Finally the union of souls,
themselves united to God! Each of
the spouses must reserve to himself
or herself moments of solitude with
God, of “heart to heart” when the
spouse is not the first concern. This
indispensable personal life of the soul
with God is far from excluding the
sharing of the whole conjugal and
family life. On the contrary it
stimulates the Christian spouses to
seek God together, to discover
together his will and to accomplish it
concretely with the lights and
energies drawn from God himself.
JOHN PA UL II
IN AFRICA
their minds and their hearts, carried
out with as much respect as
tenderness, renews the dynamism
and the youth of their solemn
commitment, of their first “yes.”
The union of their characters: to
love a being, is to love him as he is, it
is to love to the point of cultivating
in oneself the antidote of his
weaknesses or of his defects, for
example calmness and patience if the
other is plainly lacking them.
Union of hearts! The nuances
which differentiate the love of man
from that of woman are
innumerable. Each of the partners
can only demand to be loved as he
loves. And it requires — on one side
and the other — renouncing the
secret reproaches which separate
hearts and of freeing oneself of this
pain at the most favorable moment.
A t»A«tr liniftTiurt rVinvJnrt to fliof rtf f ho
A VC1 y uuuj'iug aliening io mat v*. v»»~
joys and still more of the sufferings
of the heart. But it is likewise in the
common love of children that the
union of hearts is strengthened.
The union of minds and wills! The
spouses are also two strengths that
are diversified but linked for their
mutual service, the service of their
home, of their social environment, of
5. Such a vision and such a
realization of the alliance between
man and woman notably surpasses
the spontaneous desire which unites
them. Marriage for them is truly the
path of promotion and
sanctification. And source of life!
Don’t Africans have an admirable
respect for newborn life? They love
children deeply. They welcome them
with great joy.
Christian parents will know how
to put their children on the way of a
life guided by human and Christian
values. In showing them by a
lifestyle, courageously reviewed and
perfected, what is the meaning of
every person, of unselfish service to
others, of renunciation of whims, of
often repeated pardon, of loyalty in
all things, of conscientious work, of
the meeting in faith with the Lord,
the Christian spouses introduce their
own children into the secret of a
happy life which notably surpasses
the discovery of a “good job.”
6. Christian marriage is also called
to be a leaven of moral progress for
society. Realism makes us recognize
the threats which weigh on the
family as a natural and Christian
institution, in Africa as elsewhere, as
a result of certain customs, as a result
also of cultural changes which are
becoming general.
Doesn’t it often occur to you to
compare the modern family to a
canoe which floats on the river and
pursues its course amid troubled
waters and obstacles? You know as
well as I do how much the notions of
fidelity and indissolubility are
disparaged by opinion. You know
also that the fragility and break-up of
families gives rise to a string of
miseries, even if African family
solidarity tries to remedy it as far as
the raising of the children is
concerned. Christian homes — solidly
prepared and duly assisted — have to
work without discouragement for the
restoration of the family which is the
first cell of society and must remain
a school of social virtues. The state
must not fear such homes but must
protect them.
7. Leaven of society, the Christian
family is moreover a presence, an
epiphany of God in the world. The
Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World (No. 48)
contains luminous pages on the
shining forth of this “profound
community of life and love” which is
at the same time the very first basic
church community. “The Christian
family, because it is the issue of a
marriage, image and participation
of the alliance of love which unites
Christ and the church, will show to
all men the living presence of the
savior in the world and the true
nature of the church, as much by the
love of the spouses as by the loving
cooperation of all its members.”
What a dignity and what a
responsibility!
Yes, this sacrament is great! And
let the spouses be confident: their
faith assures them that they
receive, with this sacrament, the
strength of God, a grace which
accompanies them throughout their
life. Let them never neglect to draw
upon this gushing fountain which is
within them!
8. I would not like to end this
meditation without very strongly
encouraging the bishops of Africa to
pursue — despite well known
difficulties - their efforts in the
“pastoral care of Christian families,”
with a renewed dynamism and an
unwearying hope. I know that such is
already the constant concern of
many and I admire them. I
congratulate also the many African
families which realize already the
Christian ideal of which I have
spoken, with specifically African
qualities, and which are for so many ■
others an example and an attraction.
But I allow myself to insist.
Without abandoning anything of
their concerns for the human and
religious formation of children and
adolescents, and in taking into
account the African sensibility and
customs, the dioceses must little by
little establish a pastoral activity
aiming at the two spouses together
and not only one or other of the
partners. Let the preparation of the
young for marriage be intensified, in
encouraging them to follow a true
preparation for conjugal life, which
will reveal to them the meaning of
the Christian identity of the couple,
will fortify them for their
interpersonal relations and for their
family and social responsibilities.
These centers of preparation for
marriage need the solid support of
the dioceses and the generous and
competent assistance of chaplains, of
experts and of families capability to
bring a witness of quality. I insist
especially on the assistance that each
Christian couple can bring to
another.
9. This family pastoral activity
must also aid young families, right
from their establishment. Days of
recollection, retreats, meetings of
families will sustain the young
couples on their human and Christian
journey.
Let there be maintained in all
these occasions a good balance
between doctrinal formation and
spiritual inspiration. The role of
meditation, of conversation with the
faithful God, is of great importance.
It is from him that the spouses draw
the grace of fidelity, understand and
accept the necessity of asceticism
generative of true freedom, resume
or decide upon their family and
social commitments which will make
their homes radiant homes.
It would undoubtedly be very
useful for the homes of a parish and
a diocese to gather to make up a vast
family movement, not only to help
‘Christian couples to live according to
the Gospel, but to contribute to the
restoration of the family in
protecting its values against the
assaults of all kinds, and in the name
of the rights of the man and the
citizen. On this important level of
family pastoral activity, ever more
adequate to the needs of our time
and of your regions, I put full
confidence in your bishops, my dear
brothers in the episcopate.
May you find in this talk the sign
of the major interest that the pope
brings to the grave problems of the
family, the testimony of his
confidence in and his hope for
Christian families, and the courage to
work yourselves more than ever, on
this soil of Africa, for the greatest
good of your nations and for the
honor of the church of Christ, at the
solid construction of fatniiy
communities “of life and love”
according to the Gospel! I promise
you to keep this great intention
always in my heart and in my prayer.
May God who has been revealed to
be family m the unity of the Father,
the Son and the Spirit, bless you, and
may his blessing remain forever upon
you!
Pope’s Address To Priests, Religious, Seminarians
KINSHASA, Zaire (NC) - Here is
an NC News translation of Pope John
Paul II’s address in French to priests,
Religious and seminarians at Our
Lady of Zaire Cathedral in Kinshasa
May 2:
Praised be Jesus Christ!
May God Our Father and Jesus
Christ Our Lord give you grace and
peace!
May the Holy Spirit be your joy!
1. Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ, your archbishop, dear
Cardinal Joseph Malula, has just
welcomed me in the name of all of
you, bishops, priests, men and
women Religious, seminarians and
laity of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa
and of the other Catholic
communities of Zaire. I am deeply
thankful to him. He has evoked the
vitality of the church in Zaire, a
vitality which the church of Rome
knows and appreciates. And I, bishop
of Rome, had a great desire to come
to you.
I come as a servant of Jesus
Christ, the invisible head of the
church. I come as the successor of
the Apostle Peter, to whom Jesus
said: “Strengthen your brothers,”
then three times: “Be the pastor of
my lambs ... Be the pastor also of
my sheep” (John 21, 15-17), that is
of the whole flock of my disciples.
By the will of God, despite my
unworthiness, I have in my turn
inherited this mandate, which is that
of the pope, that is to say of the
father, that of the vicar of Christ on
earth, who watches over unity in
faith and charity.
2. First of all, I thank God with
you for all that he has carried out in
Zaire during 100 years. I come today
to celebrate with you the centenary
of evangelization, to look with you
at the road traveled, a road which has
known difficulties and sufferings,
joys and hopes. A road of graces!
The centenary permits us to measure
better in some sense the benefits of
the Lord and the merits of your
predecessors. And to use this
Christian history as the basis for a
new surge forward.
Just a century ago, in fact, some
missionaries, burning with love for
Christ and for you, came to share
with you the faith which they had
themselves received. They wanted,
from the beginning, to implant the
church, to bring to birth a local
church, with the Africans. The
harvest was great. Your fathers
welcomed the word of God with
generosity and enthusiasm. Today
the tree of the church is solidly
rooted in this country, its brances
extend throughout all the land. The
faith has become the portion of a
considerable number of citizens of
Zaire. From your Zairean familiies
have come forth bishops, priests,
sisters, catechists, committed laity,
who guide or support your
communities. And the Gospel has
imprinted its mark in life and
customs. God be praised! And
blessed be all those who have made
this church flourish, those who have
come from afar and those who were
born in this country! Blessed be
those who guide it today!
3. Dear friends, you have lived
through a first great stage, an
irreversible stage. A new stage is
opened to you, not less exalting,
even if it necessarily involves new
trials, and perhaps temptations to
discouragement. It is that of
perseverance, that in which it is
necessary to pursue the strengthening
of the faith, the in-depth conversion
of souls, of ways of living, so that
they may correspond ever better to
your sublime Christian vocation; to
say nothing of the evangelization
that must be continued in the areas
or among the groups where the
Gospel is as yet unknown. As St.
Peter wrote to the first generations
of converts in the diaspora, I say to
you: “Be vigilant. . . Become holy
yourselves in every aspect of your
conduct, after the likeness of the
holy one who called you” (1 Pet. 1,
13-16). There is never an end to
being Chrisian.
It is thus that the church which is
in Zaire will attain its full Christian
and African maturity.
4. I know that your bishops —
who are your pastors and your
fathers — guide you with lucidity and
courage on these paths of the
kingdom of God, as the exhortations,
letters or appeals which they have
addressed to you individually or
collegially give witness. I come to
strengthen and encourage the
ministry of these bishops who are my
brothers. But at the same time I
come to encourage all the Christian
men and women of Kinshasa and of
Zaire.
I am happy that my first meeting,
in this cathedral, is with the priests,
the men and women Religious, the
seminarians. In the building up of the
church, you have a privileged place.
Your ordination, your religious
consecration, your call to the
priesthood are inestimable graces.
Thank the Lord! Serve him in joy,
simplicity and purity of heart. You
are destined, more than the other
disciples of Christ, to be the salt
which gives savor, and the light
which shines. I wanted to have a
prolonged conversation with the
priests, then with the sisters, in the
course of the coming days. But from
this evening on, I greet you with all
my affection. My first word is a word
of comfort, in keeping with the
thanksgiving that is suitable for a
centenary.
— Priests: Be happy to be
ministers of Christ, announcers of his
word and dispensers of his mysteries:
“Imitamini quod tractatis,” “Live
what you carry out.” Be educators of
the faith, men of prayer, have the
zeal and the humility of the servant,
live your total consecration to the
kingdom of God of which your
celibacy is the sign.
— Men and women Religious: Be
happy to have given your whole love
to Christ; and to serve the church,
your brothers and sisters in complete
availability. With all the consecrated
persons of Zaire, let Christ seize your
lives, in order to become transparent
witnesses for the people of God and
for men of good will. I think of your
sister, Zairean, who has gone before
you, leaving a luminous example of
purity and of courage in the faith,
the servant of God, Sister Anwarite,
whom, I hope, the church will soon
be able to beatify.
And you, priests, sisters, brothers
and laity who have come from other
countries as — missionaries — and
who continue to cooperate in the
various services of the church in this
country, be happy to be here where
your assistance is precious and
necessary, and where you are
witnesses of the universal church.
Pursue this friendly and unselfish
service, under the leadership of
Zairean pastors who will know how
to welcome all priests completely
into their presbyterate.
— Seminarians: Be happy to
answer the call of the master who
does not decieve. Welcome the
pedagogy of Christ who formed your
elders so much. Prepare yourselves,
in assimilating thoroughly the solid
doctrine and discipline of life which
will permit you to be in your turn
spiritual leaders. I wish that many
may follow in your footsteps.
Priestly vocations are the proof of
the vitality and the maturity of a
local church which thus becomes
capable of taking in hand
responsibility for the work of the
Gospel, giving to the Gospel message
and the mission of the church their
full Christian and African
authenticity.
I do not wish to forget the
Christian laity whom I shall also
meet: fathers and mothers of
families, leaders of small
communities, catechists, educators,
committed laity, students and young
people of Kinshasa or other cities
and villages. May they be happy and
proud of their faith! May they be
witnesses of the love of Christ who
has first loved them! And may they
pursue an apostolate in which they
are irreplaceable!
5. I must make to all of you the
recommendation that the apostle St.
Paul expressed in all his letters, he
who visited so many of the first
Christian communities. It is the one
which called forth the last prayer of
Jesus after the Last Supper: “That all
may be one.”
Yes, banish all division, live in the
unity which pleases God and which is
your strength, around your priests.
And may the priests be united in the
same presbyterate around their
bishops. Manifest a kind acceptance
and a real collaboration among
yourselves, men and women of Zaire,
and with the foreigners who have
come to share your life. The church
is a family from which no one is
excluded.
In receiving your witness, I bring
to you in my turn that of the church
which is in Rome and that of the
universal church which has its center
in Rome. It is a single family. No
community lives closed upon itself:
it is linked to the great church, to the
unique church. Your church has been
grafted on the great tree of the
church, where, for 100 years, it has
drawn its sap, which now permits it
to give its fruits to church and to
become itself missionary to others.
Your church will have to deepen its
local African dimension, without
ever forgetting its universal
dimension. I know your fervent
attachment to the pope. I say also to
you: through him, remain united to
the whole church.
And now, I invite you to turn
with me, your glances and your
hearts toward the Virgin Mary.
6. Permit me, in fact, in this year
in which you are thanking God for
the centenary of the evangelization
and of the baptism of your country,
to refer to the tradition which we
find at the beginning of this century,
at the beginning of evangelization on
African soil.
The missionaries who came to
preach the Gospel began their
missionary service by an act of
consecration to the mother of Christ.
They spoke to her in this fashion:
“Here we find ourselves among
those who are our brothers and our
sisters, and whom your son, Oh
Virgin Mary, loved unto the end.
Through love, he gave his life for
them on the cross; through love, he
remains in the Eucharist to be the
nourishment of souls; through love,
he founded the church to be the
steadfast community in which
salvation is found. All that, these
brothers and sisters among whom we
arrive do not yet know; they do not
yet know the good news of the
Gospel. But we, we profoundly
believe that their hearts and their
consciences are prepared to w dcome
the Gospel of salvation through the
work of the salvation of Christ, and
also thanks to your maternal
intercession and to your mediation.
“We believe that, when Christ,
from the height of the cross, gave
you each man as a son, in the person
of his disciple St. John, you accepted
also as sons and daughters these
brothers and sisters to whom his holy
church now sends us as missionaries.
“Help us to carry out the
missionary mandate of your son on
this earth, help us to accomplish here
the saving mission of the Gospel and
of the church. We consecrate to you
all those whom the Spirit of Jesus
Christ desires to illuminate with the
light of faith and in whom he wishes
to enkindle the fire of his love. We
consecrate to you their families, their
tribes, the communities and societies
that they form, their work, their joys
and their sufferings, their villages and
their cities. To you we consecrate
everything, we consecrate them all to
you. Welcome them in that eternal
love of which you have been the first
servant, and deign to guide,
unworthy as it may be, the apostolic
service which we are beginning.”
7. Today, 100 years have passed
since those beginnings. At the
moment when the church, in this
country of Zaire, thanks God in the
Holy Trinity for the waters of holy
baptism which have given salvation
to so many of its sons and daughters,
permit, 0 mother of Christ and
mother of the church, me, Pope John
Paul II, to whom it is given to
participate in this jubilee, to recall
and renew at the same time this
missionary consecration which took
place on this soil at the beginning of
its evalgelization.
To be consecrated to Christ by
your intermediacy!
To be consecrated to you by
Christ!
Permit me also, O mother of
divine grace, while giving thanks for
all the lights that the church has
received and for all the fruits that it
has borne in the course of this
century on this soil of Zaire, to
confide to you anew this church,
which I entrust into your hands for
the years and the centuries to come,
until the end of the ages!
And at the same time, I confide to
you again the whole nation, which
lives today its own independent life.
I do it in the same spirit of faith and
with the same confidence as the first
missionaries, and I do it at the same
time with a joy so much the greater
because all the pastors of this church
and also the whole people of God
make this act of consecration and
abandonment with me; this people of
God which desires to take up and
pursue with its pastors, in love and
apostolic courage, the work of the
building of the body of Christ and of
the approach of the kingdom of God
on this earth.
Accept, O mother, , his act of
trust which we make, open hearts
and strengthen souls, for listening to
the word of life and for doing what
your son does not cease to order and
recommend to us.
May grace and peace, justice and
love be the share of this people; may
it, while giving thanks for the
centenary of its faith and its baptism,
look with confidence toward its
temporal and eternal future! Amen!