Published by Carlo Mafera
Young people from every continent, do not be afraid to be the saints of the New Millennium! To be holy means to be divine, to enter the sphere of the divine. Holiness is above all an ontological dimension before being a moral dimension. To be in God, to be children, to be in Jesus, this is what we are called to be, as well as to be immaculate, that is, without blemish. Saint Paul in the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of the Church and says that Christ loved the Church, gave himself up for her, to make her holy by purifying her by means of washing water, accompanied by the Word, in order to make us appear before to his Church all glorious without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and immaculate. And we are called to be holy and spotless in Jesus; the Church is called to be holy and immaculate in Jesus.
Here, then, is God's intention in history, which emerges from this page of Saint Paul. Jesus' intention is to make of each of you present here, of me who am speaking to you, one thing in Christ and to make us one thing holy, that is, the Church, to make us divine, to purify us from every stain of selfishness, hatred, self-love, to make us sons in his son Jesus, as the fifth verse of this first chapter says, predestining us to be his adopted sons through the work of Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will. Here is God's intention, which appears from this passage: to be holy, to be divine, that is, to be in Christ, to be loved as children, to be like Jesus, to bring Jesus' presence and radiation into the world. I have tried to read with you these very rich verses of Saint Paul, much higher than he is able to explain, but I have tried with you to realize the immensity of this call to be saints.
What does this page say to each of us who are listening here today? and what does it mean, therefore, according to the words of St. Paul to be holy? When we hear this word we immediately feel a shiver of fear that being saints means being very good, making who knows what efforts, but this page tells us that everything is much simpler: being saints means letting yourself be loved by God, letting yourself be looked at by God as He Himself looks at Jesus Christ, it means being children in Jesus and with Jesus, it means being loved, washed and forgiven by Jesus. Being holy, therefore, is a problem of God, before being ours, it is a problem that it is up to Him to solve , for us it is important to let ourselves be loved, not to stiffen ourselves, not to frighten us, but to marvel, how much more you love us my God and want to be all in me, that you want to be one with me, to teach me to live, to love, to suffer and die like you. This is what it means to be holy: to let Jesus live in us, to let the Holy Spirit form the image and life of Jesus in us, so that day after day Jesus teaches us to live, to love, to forgive, to suffer , to die like him. This is what it means to be holy: to let God work in us and to let the steps, the characteristics and the moments emerge little by little from this work of God, which give rhythm to our holiness. Here I return to the message of the Holy Father, of which I read the first words: "Young people from every continent, do not be afraid to be the saints of the New Millennium!".
The Holy Father concretely describes the characteristics of this holiness, which are five. "Be - he says - contemplatives and lovers of prayer, consistent with your faith, generous in the service of your brothers, active members of the Church, builders of peace". Here he translates us as putting Jesus at the center of our heart and our life. Being contemplative is expressed in something very simple, for me it would already be a lot, if everyone started by taking ten minutes a day of silence with the Gospel, to anticipate the joy of the moment and extend the time according to one's possibilities. Be coherent, that is, give that show that you are all giving to the city of Rome these days, demonstrating that you are people who have hope, people who smile, people who face sacrifices with serenity. Being generous in the service of brothers consists in the many acts of solidarity. Here you are giving the world this simple image of holiness, which is recorded with surprise by the mass media, but which is nevertheless here and is possible.
In being an active member of the Church you want to express the liveliness, availability, love and capacity for forgiveness of the Church. Each of you, then, wants and is called to be a peacemaker, starting with the family, the parish, your own group, to bring words of benevolence, understanding and acceptance. After describing these characteristics of holiness, the Holy Father also says how to concretely ensure that they are not unique to this day, but become life lived in everyday life. The Holy Father says: "To carry out this demanding project of life, remain listening to his word, draw strength from the sacraments, especially from the Eucharist and from Penance". They are two fundamental attitudes, which nourish our holiness, above all listening to the Word. These are again the words of the Holy Father, which express more concretely what he expects from each of us: "May the Gospel become your most precious treasure in attentive study and generous acceptance, in the Word of the Lord you will find nourishment and strength for the life of every day, you will find the reasons for an unceasing commitment to building the civilization of love”. If being holy means being like Jesus, in Jesus, it is the Gospel meditated on and read every day, which puts within us the life, feelings, judgements, thoughts, reactions of Jesus. Therefore, remain in listening of the Word and draw strength from the sacraments especially the Eucharist and Penance. I would like to underline how surprisingly the mass media have noticed the revival of the Confession in recent days.
These thousands of confessions made with confidence in the Circus Maximus and elsewhere and here; I would like to tell you not to forget this extraordinary experience of the sacrament of Penance. Take it with you, because it is through this sacrament that we find, even in our weakness, the strength every day to be like Jesus, that is, to be holy. It seems very hard and difficult to strive for holiness every day, it is something that scares us, yet we continually experience that being in Jesus and like Jesus is very beautiful and it is much more beautiful than the opposite, as a recent author said: "Do not there is a sadness, that of not being saints, negligence, laziness, listlessness, always and only seeking one's own comforts is the saddest thing there is. Holiness, being in Jesus, trying to get close to him, is the most beautiful thing”. Therefore, it is worth trying and it is possible to realize this ideal. So many saints come to my mind, whom I have known, admired, and personally frequented, people who have worked in several sectors, from politics to university, from entrepreneurship to women, mothers of families who have given their life for that of the children. All of them show us that there are many saints today and that therefore holiness is among us. There are in our time not only very many saints, but also many martyrs of our time. Martyrs of the mission, martyrs of aid to the Jews, martyrs of the massacres of peoples, martyrs of the dignity of the human person, martyrs of charity and martyrs of justice. Never in the history of the Church has there been a century as rich in martyrs as the twentieth century, hence heroic holiness especially among us, by weak, fragile people like us, but capable of allowing themselves to be possessed by Christ Jesus.
Last May 7, the Holy Father wanted to commemorate the ecumenical martyrs, that is, of all the Christian churches and confessions, who bore witness to the faith under Soviet totalitarianism, Orthodox victims of communism, in many European nations. Thus I am thinking of Albania, of the people who for decades lived in forced labor or in prisons, of the confessors of the faith, victims of Nazism and fascism, of the confessors who gave their lives for the faith of the Gospel in Asia, in Oceania, faithful from Spain and Mexico, Magadascar and Africa, persecuted, faithful in Latin America. Behold the presence of the saints today! The strength of Jesus which none of us has, which none of us can claim to have, but which the Lord has granted in abundance to this century of ours, which appears so pagan but which is richer than all other times of martyrs and saints. I would like to conclude with a testimony, which is perhaps one of the most shocking. Written a few years ago, in 1994 on 1 December, by the Prior of an Algerian monastery, kidnapped and killed with six other Trappist monks on 7 May 1996. Well, he wrote, foreseeing what was happening around him: "If one day it happened to me , and it could be today, of being a victim of terrorism, which currently seems to want to involve all foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family to remember that my life had been given to God and to this people. I would like them to accept that the one Lord of all life could not be free from this brutality. I wish they would pray for me. How to be worthy of such an offer! I wish they were able to associate this death with many others, equally violent, left in indifference and anonymity.
My life has no more value than another, it doesn't even have less, in any case it doesn't have the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know myself an accomplice to the evil that seems to prevail in the world in me and also to what could strike me blindly. When the time comes, I would like to have that moment of lucidity, which would allow me to ask God's forgiveness from my brothers, forgiving wholeheartedly, at the same time, to whoever struck me and you too, friend of the last minute, that you will not know what you are doing, yes for you too I want to say this thanks to God, in whose face I contemplate you, and may we meet again joy-filled thieves in paradise, if it pleases God Our Father, Father of all and two". Thus he went with his companions to meet a violent death, keeping the word of forgiveness in his heart. Here is today's holiness, the one that Jesus accomplishes, the one that the Holy Spirit expresses of our weakness and none of us can presume to have this strength, but we can trust God and Jesus who works in us. I would like to conclude by proposing some questions for your reflection: I wonder, do I want to be a saint, or am I afraid of being one? What is the biggest obstacle to holiness? What, on the other hand, is the greatest stimulus for holiness today?
Pig iron St. Paulinus's Voice
«Let's not say that today it is more difficult;
it's different. Let's learn rather
by the saints who have gone before us
and they faced the difficulties
characteristic of their era".