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Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
"Africa
Is the Repository of an Inestimable Treasure for the Whole World"
Homily at the Inauguration of the Synod of African Bishops
H.H. Benedict XVI
Vatican City
October 4, 2009
My Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Illustrious Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear brothers and sisters!
Pax vobis - peace to all of you! With this liturgical greeting I
address all of you who are gathered together in the Vatican
Basilica, where 15 years ago, on 10 April, 1994, the Servant of God
John Paul II opened the first Special Assembly for Africa of the
Synod of Bishops. The fact that today we find ourselves here to
inaugurate the second, signifies that the first was indeed a
historical event, but not an isolated one. It was the point of
arrival on a path, that was pursued later on, and that now reaches a
new significant stage of verification and impulse. We praise the
Lord for this! I address a most cordial welcome to Members of the
Synod Assembly, who concelebrate this Holy Eucharist with me, to the
experts and auditors, particularly to those who come from the
African land. With special gratitude I greet the Secretary General
of the Synod and his collaborators. I am very pleased to have among
us His Holiness Abuna Paulos, Patriarch of the Tewahedo Orthodox
Church of Ethiopia, whom I cordially thank, and to the fraternal
Delegates of the other Churches and other ecclesial Communities. I
am also pleased to welcome the Civil Authorities and the Ambassadors
who wished to participate in this occasion; with affection I greet
the priests, the religious women and men, the representatives of the
organisms, movements and associations, and the Congolese choir, who,
together with the Sistine Chapel, enliven our Eucharistic
Celebration.
Today's Bible readings speak of matrimony. But, more radically,
speak of the design of creation, of the source and, therefore, of
God. The second reading also converges on this level, taken from the
Letter to the Hebrews, where it states: "For consecrator - that is
Jesus Christ - and consecrated - that is man - are all of the same
stock; that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Heb
2:11). From both readings, the Primacy of God the Creator springs
forth in a very evident manner, with the eternal validity of his
original imprint and the absolute precedence of his lordship, that
lordship which children welcome better than adults, and because of
this Jesus points to them as models to enter the kingdom of heaven
(Cf. Mk 10:13-15). Now, the acknowledgment of the absolute Lordship
of God is one of the salient and unifying features of the African
culture. Naturally in Africa there are many different cultures, but
they all seem to be in agreement on this point: God is the Creator
and the source of life. Now life - as we well know - manifests
itself primarily in the union between the man and the woman and in
the birth of children; divine law, written in nature, and thereby
stronger and prominent with respect to any human law, according to
the clear and concise assertion by Jesus: "What God has united,
human beings must not divide" (Mk 10:9). First of all the prospect
is not a moral one: it, before duty, concerns the being, the order
inscribed in Creation.
Dear brothers and sisters, in this sense today's Liturgy of the Word
- beyond the first impression - reveals itself as particularly apt
in accompanying the opening of a Synodal Assembly dedicated to
Africa. I would like to highlight in particular certain aspects that
strongly emerge and call us to the work that awaits us. The first,
already mentioned: the primacy of God, Creator and Lord. The second:
matrimony. The third: children. As to the first aspect Africa is the
repository of an inestimable treasure for the whole world: its deep
sense of God, that I had the occasion to observe directly in the
meetings with the African Bishops during their ad limina visit, and
more so in the recent Apostolic Visit to Cameroon and Angola, still
a pleasing and moving memory for me. It is to this pilgrimage in
African lands that I would like to mention, because during those
days I ideally opened this Synodal Assembly, by handing over the
Instrumentum laboris to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences
and to the Heads of the Synods of Bishops of the Eastern Catholic
Churches.
When we speak of the treasures of Africa, our thoughts immediately
turn to the resources its land is rich in and that, unfortunately,
have become and often continue to be a reason for exploitation,
conflict and corruption. The Word of God, instead, makes us look at
another inheritance: the spiritual and cultural one of which
humanity has even greater need than it does of raw materials. As
Jesus said, "What gain, then, is it for anyone to win the whole
world and forfeit his life?" (Mk 8:36). From this point of view,
Africa represents an enormous spiritual "lung" for a humanity that
appears to be in a crisis of faith and hope. But this "lung" can
take ill as well. And, at the moment, at least two dangerous
pathologies are attacking it: first of all, an illness that is
already widespread in the West, that is, practical materialism,
combined with relativist and nihilist thinking. Without entering
into the merit of the origins of such sicknesses of the spirit,
there is absolutely no doubt that the so-called "First" World has
exported up to now and continues to export its spiritual toxic waste
that contaminates the peoples of other continents, in particular
those of Africa. In this sense, colonialism which is over at a
political level, has never really entirely come to an end. But from
this same point of view we also have to point out a second "virus"
that could hit Africa, that is, religious fundamentalism, mixed
together with political and economic interests. Groups who follow
various religious creeds are spreading throughout the continent of
Africa: they do so in God's name, but following a logic that is
opposed to divine logic, that is, teaching and practicing not love
and respect for freedom, but intolerance and violence.
As regards matrimony, the text of Chapter 2 of the Book of Genesis
reminds us it is the permanent foundation, as Jesus himself
confirmed: "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and
becomes attached to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Gn 2:24).
How can we forget the admirable cycle of catechesis that the Servant
of God John Paul II dedicated to this topic, starting from an
exegesis of unprecedented depth of this very Biblical text? Today,
putting this forward for ourselves at the opening of the Synod, the
liturgy offers us the abundant light of truth revealed and made
incarnate in Christ with which we can consider the complex theme of
matrimony in the ecclesial and social context of Africa. Also on
this point, though, I would like to briefly take up a suggestion
that precedes any moral reflection or instruction, and that is still
connected to the primacy of the sense of the sacred and of God.
Matrimony, as it is presented to us in the Bible, does not exist
outside of the relationship with God. Married life between a man and
a woman, and therefore of the family that springs from that, is
inscribed into the communion with God and, in the light of the New
Testament, becomes the symbol of Trinitarian love and the sacrament
of the union of Christ with the Church. To the extent to which it
looks after and develops its faith, Africa could discover immense
resources to give in favor of the family that is built on matrimony.
If we include in the evangelical pericope the text on Jesus and the
children (Mk 10:13-15), the liturgy invites us to bear in mind right
from now, in our pastoral concern, the reality of childhood that
constitutes a large and, unfortunately, suffering part of the
African population. In the scene where Jesus welcomes the children,
indignantly opposing his own disciples who wanted to chase them
away, we see the image of the Church that, in Africa, and in every
other part of the planet, demonstrates her maternal concern
especially for the littlest, even before they are born. Like the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Church does not view them primarily as the
recipients of assistance, nor of pity and exploitation, but as full
people in their own right, who by their very way of being show the
best road to enter the Kingdom of God, namely that of entrusting
themselves unconditionally to His love.
Dear brothers, these indications coming from the Word of God are
inserted in the vast horizon of the Synodal Assembly beginning
today, and that is tied to the preceding one dedicated to the
African continent, whose fruits were presented by Pope John Paul II,
of venerated memory, in the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in
Africa. Naturally, the primary task of evangelization remains valid
and actual, or rather a new evangelization that bears in mind the
rapid social changes of our era and the phenomenon of world
globalization. The same can be said for the pastoral choice of
edifying the Church as the Family of God (Cf. ivi, 63). The second
Assembly, which has as its theme: "The Church in Africa at the
Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace. ‘You are the salt of
the earth... You are the Light of the world'" (Mt 5:13-14), follows
in the wake of all this. In recent years the Catholic Church in
Africa has known great dynamism, and the Synodal assembly is the
occasion to thank the Lord for this. And since the growth of the
ecclesial community in all areas also bears ad intra and ad extra
challenges, the Synod is the propitious moment to rethink pastoral
activity and renew the impulse of evangelization. To become the
light of the world and the salt of the earth one must always aim at
the "high measure" of Christian life, that is to say holiness. All
the Shepherds and all the members of the ecclesial community are
called to saintliness, the lay faithful are called to spread the
perfume of the holiness in the family, in workplaces, in schools and
in every other social and political field. May the Church in Africa
always be a family of true disciples of Christ, where the difference
between the different ethnic groups becomes a reason and a stimulus
for mutual human and spiritual enrichment.
With its work of evangelization and human promotion, the Church can
most certainly give Africa a great contribution to all of society,
which unfortunately experiences poverty, injustice, violence and
wars in many countries. The vocation of the Church, the community of
persons reconciled with God and with each other, is that of being
the prophesy and leaven of reconciliation among the various ethnic,
linguistic and even religious groups, within each individual nation
and throughout the continent. Reconciliation, a gift of God that men
must implore and embrace, is the stable foundation upon which one
builds peace, the necessary condition for the true progress of men
and society, according to the project of justice wanted by God. Open
to the redeeming grace of the Holy Spirit, thus Africa will be
enlightened evermore by his light and, allowing itself to be guided
by the Risen Lord, will become a blessing for the universal Church,
bringing its own qualified contribution to the edification of an
evermore just and fraternal world.
Dear Synodal Fathers, thank you for the contribution that each one
of you will bring to the works during the next weeks, which will be
for us a renewed experience of abundant fraternal communion
benefitting the entire Church, especially in the context of this
Year of the Priest. And to you, dear brothers and sisters, I ask you
to pray for us. I ask this of those present; I ask this of the
cloistered monasteries and the religious communities spread
throughout Africa and in every part of the world, of the parishes
and the movements, of the ailing and the suffering: I ask all to
pray that the Lord may make this Second Special Assembly for Africa
of the Synod of Bishops fruitful. We also call upon the protection
of Saint Francis of Assisi, who we remember today, of all the
African saints and, in a special way, of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church and Our Lady of Africa. Amen!
[Translation by the Secretary General of the Synod]
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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