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MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS,
SIGNED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN,
TO MARK THE XLV EDITION OF THE MEETING FOR FRIENDSHIP AMONG PEOPLES
[RIMINI, 20-25 AUGUST 2024]
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From the Vatican, 19 July 2024
His Most Reverend Excellency
Bishop NICOLÒ ANSELMI
of Rimini
Your Most Reverend Excellency,
On the occasion of the 45th Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, the Holy
Father wishes to send a message of good wishes to the participants, greeting the
organizers, the volunteers and all those who will take part in the event, whose
title represents a heartfelt appeal to responsibility: “If we are not after the
essence, then what are we after?”.
Especially as we are going through complex times, the search for what
constitutes the heart of the mystery of life and reality is of crucial
importance. Indeed, our age is marked by various problems and considerable
challenges, in the face of which we sometimes find a sense of impotence, a
renunciatory and passive attitude that can lead to “dragging one's feet” and
allowing oneself to be swept away by the daze of the ephemeral, to the point of
losing the meaning of existence. In this scenario, therefore, the choice to set
out on the trail of what is essential is all the more pertinent.
Pope Francis therefore encourages the attempt to search, with passion and
enthusiasm, for what brings out the beauty of life, confronting the question
posed by Don Luigi Giussani when he courageously stated: “The heart is worn by
hardening, or rather the loss of passion and the taste for living. … To be old
at twenty and even earlier, to be old at fifteen years of age, this is the
characteristic feature of today’s world” (Il senso religioso, Milan 2013,
116-117).
As the icy winds of war blow, joining with recurrent phenomena of injustice,
violence and inequality, as well as the grave climate crisis and unprecedented
anthropological change, it is essential to stop and ask ourselves: is there
something worth living and hoping for?
Ever since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has urged us to
read even the resistance, hardships and failings of today’s men and women as a
call to reflection, so that the heart may open to the encounter with God and
each person may become aware of himself, his neighbour, and reality.
His constant invitation is to become beggars of the essential, of what
gives meaning to our life, first of all by divesting ourselves of what weighs
down our daily life, following the example of a climber who, on the rock face,
must rid himself of excess in order to be able to climb more rapidly. By doing
so, we discover that the value of human existence does not consist in things, in
successes achieved, in the race of competition, but first and foremost in that
relationship of love that sustains us, rooting our journey in trust and hope: it
is the friendship with God, which is then reflected in all other human
relations, that is the foundation of the joy that will never fail. We are
beloved, this is the essential truth, that Don Giussani himself announced to
young university students: “You are loved. This is the message that arrives in
your life. … This is Jesus Christ in the history of humankind, the continuous
beginning of this message: ‘You are loved!’ What is life? Being loved. And our
being? Being loved. And destiny? Being loved” (Litterae Communionis Tracce,
1996, no. 1).
On the same wavelength, Pope France recalls that “what is essential, most
beautiful, most attractive and at the same time most necessary for us is faith
in Jesus Christ” (Address at the Plenary Session of the Dicastery for the
Doctrine of the Faith, 26 January 2024). Indeed, only the Lord saves our
fragile humanity and, in the midst of adversity, lets us experience an otherwise
impossible joy. Without this anchorage point, the boat that is our life would be
at the mercy of the waves and at risk of sinking.
To return to the essential that is Jesus does not mean escaping from reality
but, on the contrary, it is the condition to truly immerse oneself in history,
to face it without fleeing its challenges, to find the courage to risk and to
love even when it does not seem worth the effort, to live in the world without
any fear. As the then-Archbishop Montini wrote, “You are necessary to us, O
Christ, O Lord, O God-with-us, to learn true love and to walk in the joy and
strength of your charity, along the path of our arduous life” (Omnia nobis
est Christus. Pastoral letter to the archdiocese of Milan for Lent 1955).
In this spirit, then, the Holy Father appreciates and shares the aims of the
forthcoming Meeting, because focusing on the essential helps us to take our life
into our own hands and to make it an instrument of love, mercy and compassion,
becoming a sign of blessing for our neighbour. Faced with the temptation of
discouragement, the complexity of the current crisis and, in particular, the
challenge of a seemingly impossible peace, the Holy Father urges everyone to
become responsible agents of change, actively collaborating in the Church’s
mission, to give life together to places where Christ’s presence can be seen and
touched. This joint commitment can give rise to a new world, where the Love that
was manifested to us in Christ may finally triumph, and the entire planet may
become a temple of fraternity.
Pope Francis hopes that the Meeting’s rich programme, in its multiple
proposals and languages, may inspire in many the desire to be seekers of the
essential and to make the passion for the proclamation of the Gospel, source of
liberation from all slavery and force that heals and transforms humanity,
flourish in hearts. To all, organizers, volunteers and participants, He heartily
sends his blessing, asking you to please pray for him.
In adding my personal good wishes as well, I avail myself of the circumstance
to confirm my distinguished reverence to
Your Most Reverend Excellency
Pietro Cardinal Parolin
Secretary of State
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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 19 August 2024 |
