Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Luanda (Agenzia Fides) – At 10am on Saturday, March 21, the Holy Father Benedict XVI celebrated the Holy Mass in the Church of “São Paolo” in Luanda. In addressing the Bishops, priests, religious, ecclesial movements, and catechists of Angola and São Tome present at the celebration, the Pope said: “Dear brothers and sisters, I feel great joy to be here today with you, my fellow-workers in the Lord’s vineyard, where you labour daily to prepare the wine of divine mercy and to pour it out as balm on the wounds of your people who have suffered so many tribulations.”
At the beginning of his homily, the Pope commented the readings from the Mass. The children of Israel encouraged one another, amidst their many tribulations that had come as a result of their lack of knowledge of God, with these words: “let us make haste to know the Lord.” And the Lord, as a good physician, opened the wounds of their hearts, poor in love, so that the sore might heal. The Gospel passage told of two men who went up to the temple to pray, one “went down to his house justified rather than the other.” The Pope explained: “The latter had paraded all his merits before God, virtually making God his debtor... And yet it was the tax collector who went down to his house justified. Conscious of his sins, and so not even lifting his head – although in his trust he is completely turned towards Heaven – he awaits everything from the Lord...He knocks on the door of mercy, which then opens and justifies him.”
“Saint Paul, the patron saint of the city of Luanda and of this splendid church built some fifty years ago, speaks to us from personal experience about this God who is rich in mercy. I wanted to highlight the second millennium of the birth of Saint Paul by celebrating the present Pauline Year, so that we can learn from him how to know Jesus Christ more fully...The decisive event in Paul’s life was his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus: Christ appeared to him as a dazzling light, he spoke to him and he won him over...what had earlier seemed essential and fundamental, he now considered nothing more than 'refuse'; no longer 'gain' but loss, for now the only thing that mattered was life in Christ.”
The Pope explained that “Jesus, perfect man, is also our true God. In him, God became visible to our eyes, to give us a share in his divine life. With him a new dimension of being, of life, has come about, a dimension which integrates matter and through which a new world arises.” This takes place through faith and Baptism, the sacrament of death and resurrection, of transformation in a new life.
Here, Benedict XVI recalled that from 1506, in these lands, the first sub-Saharan Christian kingdom came about, thanks to the faith and determination of the king, Dom Alphonsus I Mbemba-a-Nzinga. “two quite different ethnic groups – the Bantu and the Portuguese – were able to find in the Christian religion common ground for understanding, and committed themselves to ensuring that this understanding would be long-lasting, and that differences – which undoubtedly existed, and great ones at that – would not divide the two kingdoms! For Baptism enables all believers to be one in Christ.”
The Pope then launched the following appeal: “Today it is up to you, brothers and sisters, following in the footsteps of those heroic and holy heralds of God, to offer the Risen Christ to your fellow citizens. So many of them are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they end up even condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers...But if we are convinced and have come to experience that without Christ life lacks something, that something real – indeed, the most real thing of all – is missing, we must also be convinced that we do no injustice to anyone if we present Christ to them and thus grant them the opportunity of finding their truest and most authentic selves, the joy of finding life. Indeed, we must do this. It is our duty to offer everyone this possibility of attaining eternal life...Let us enable human poverty to encounter divine mercy. The Lord makes us his friends, he entrusts himself to us, he gives us his Body in the Eucharist, he entrusts his Church to us...Let this, then, be our common commitment: together to do his holy will: 'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.'” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 23/3/2009)
