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June 16, 2024Dear sisters and brothers, for the first time the pastoral visit of the Bishop takes place in the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in the Abrahamic Family House.
It is certainly a very special pastoral visit. Usually, this type of visit happens in parishes, where the Bishop stays for a few days to meet the priests and faithful and to verify the life of the parish community in its aspects.
In this case, however, the church of Saint Francis from a canonical and pastoral point of view is connected to the Cathedral Parish of Saint Joseph. However, this church is not simply a branch church of the cathedral.
This is the Church that the President of the United Arab Emirates His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan gifted to the Holy Father Pope Francis, and which is entrusted to the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia for its pastoral animation. Therefore, it is a unique Church in the world.
Its location is also unique, being part of the Abrahamic Family House, which includes three places of worship: in addition to the Catholic Church, we can admire the presence of a Synagogue and a Mosque.
The uniqueness of this reality immediately refers to the prophetic document on Human Fraternity, signed five years ago here in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and Ahmad al Tayyeb, the grand Imam of Al Ahzar.
For the first time, the head of the Catholic Church and a prominent authority of Sunni Islam signed a joint document that declared: “the adoption of a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard” for the construction of a more fraternal and human world, rejecting any kind of violence in the name of God, and making their spiritual traditions available for a peaceful coexistence of all peoples.
Justice, peace, freedom, education, fraternity are the words that continually re-occur in this text which inspired this place and thereby also our Church of Saint Francis where we are at this moment. Therefore, there are many specific values that characterize the activities of the Church of Saint Francis, and which express the value of dialogue between people of different faiths.
On this occasion I would like to express my profound gratitude to Father Stefano Luca who is responsible for the pastoral and cultural activities linked to this Church.
First, I thank him for his availability. About a year ago I invited him to move from Milan to Abu Dhabi to take care of the church of Saint Francis and the relationship with the Abrahamic Family House. After some time, I received his availability. And so, at the end of August a year ago he joined the priests working in the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia. And since then, he has been responsible for the pastoral action of the church of Saint Francis.
Furthermore, the other thanks to Father Stefano is for his competence and pastoral ability. He is a scholar of interreligious dialogue, an expert in Islam, passionate about Franciscan Spirituality, especially of the memorable meeting between the saint of Assisi and Sultan Melik Al Camil in Damietta, which occurred eight hundred years ago.
I think you all had the joy of appreciating his fraternal style and his theological and spiritual competence. His recent volume on theology of differences is truly enlightening for our ecclesial responsibility in this part of the World.
Considering all this we can say that dialogue with people of different faiths is not only desirable but also necessary. This is not something that can only concern a group of intellectuals, but all the faithful.
The question of interreligious dialogue is a question internal to our faith and not just optional. This is true everywhere, but it is particularly true for us who live every day alongside people of different faiths.
I would just like to give an example in this regard relating precisely to the church of Saint Francis. When you come to this church for the Eucharistic celebration or for a moment of prayer, you enter a building complex where, in addition to the Catholic Church, there are also two other places of prayer: the Mosque and the Synagogue.
In this way, when you go to church you are naturally led to recognize the presence of other religions and to practice a peaceful and constructive coexistence. Our faithful cannot think of their church without recognizing the significant presence of other places of worship. It's about respecting differences and growing in awareness of our faith through relationships with other religions. Everyone knows himself better when he recognizes what is different from himself.
In this perspective, on the occasion of my first pastoral visit, I would like to try to briefly outline the pillars that support the Christian community in its daily life. Being aware of the constituent elements of the Christian experience also helps us to live our relationship with other religious experiences with greater intensity.
In fact, the first fundamental element that the Christian community experiences and that it has in common with other religions is the certainty of the absolute centrality of God. All religions, despite their great diversity, are united by the reference to the mystery of God, the source and destiny of all living.
This is an essential point of the Abu Dhabi document on Human Fraternity. Human creature without reference to God becomes dehumanized and lose the meaning of their life. In light of this fundamental dimension of religious experience, I would now like to refer to a passage of Sacred Scriptures in which the fundamental traits of the Christian community are described in summary. We find this precious text in chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles:
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:42-48)
This text contains many ideas and is obviously not exhaustive of the life of the Christian community, but it allows us to grasp some decisive traits present even in the first Christian community.
It is possible for us to identify first the unity of all the faithful: there was a profound fraternal union among them, as the Acts of the Apostles tell us. Immediately after the Pentecost, the Christian community understands that the announcement of faith is aimed at everyone and not just one nation.
Therefore, the Christian community has been multi-ethnic and multicultural ever since its origin. But in spite of the diverse nature of the community, there was a profound fraternal union among them because in Christ they all recognized themselves as sons and daughters of the same Heavenly Father and animated by the same Spirit.
Let us also remember that before dying on the cross, Jesus himself turns to the Father asking for unity among all his disciples. May they be perfect in unity so that the world may believe.
In his letters, Saint Paul never tires of repeating that we are all members of one Body: one Spirit, one Baptism, one Faith. How does this union manifest itself concretely? We can first of all recognize the centrality of worship aimed at God. That is coming together for prayer and for the breaking of bread, i.e. the Eucharistic celebration.
Therefore, when there is the Eucharist, the breaking of bread, there is a Christian community. Around the Eucharist we can see Christian worship which is then expressed in all the other sacraments, from baptism and confirmation to the anointing of the sick and reconciliation, passing through marriage and the sacrament of orders.
Every Christian prayer, even when it is made by the individual believer, has its original form of the celebration of the Eucharist, which is the Christian worship par excellence, making us participate in the death and resurrection of Christ, in the offering of his body and the shedding of his blood for the salvation of the world.
Furthermore, the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles refers to assiduous listening to the teaching of the Apostles. In this statement we can see in total, the anticipation of what we call today the Christian formation, the study of the word of God which is offered to us in the sacred scriptures and in the living tradition of the Church.
From the beginning, the Christian community felt the need to reflect deeper into the reasons for faith. Here we can also see in essence what we call in the history of the Church, the catechism, and the Christian doctrine.
The teaching of the Apostles never refers to an abstract ideology but always has a profound relationship with daily life, with moral and spiritual values, with a new way of seeing and understanding life rooted in the encounter with Jesus and following him.
Furthermore, the text in the Acts of the Apostles tells us about the fact that the faithful who live in profound fraternal union, shared everything and none of them was in need, they took care of each other. Certainly, in these words there is the affirmation of something ideal. As we know, tensions and conflicts were also present in the first Christian community. However, everyone was aware that the ideal to strive for was that of mutual love in imitation of Christ. We can say that this pillar of Christian life is charity which manifests itself in the sharing of resources for the needy.
Finally, the text points out that this love does not remain only within the Christian community. It is also seen and communicated externally so that Christians are admired by all the people, to the point that other disciples, called by the Lord, join the Christian community. All this can be described with a simple word: Christians are called every day to bear witness by practicing a good life of the Gospel.
From the beginning, Christianity excludes any form of proselytism. Christianity spreads through testimony. Being witnesses means communicating to everyone the meaning of one's life through the changes that the encounter with Christ brings about in each of the faithful. Being witnesses does not mean showing that we are good or better than others. Christians should know very well that we are all sinners like all people and that we always need forgiveness and mercy. Christians should feel that they are called to make Jesus and his love known through evangelical testimony.
From this perspective, every area of life is an area in which to live Christian testimony: in the family, at work, at school, with friends, in society. We are not Christians only in some moments of the day but in every moment of our life, whether we eat or drink, whether we wake or sleep. True worship of God is rooted in the Eucharist and reaches the point of giving one's life, as the martyrs teach us in particular.
Let us think, for example, Saint Arethas and his companions, whose 1,500th anniversary of martyrdom we celebrate this year, which they suffered precisely in this Arab region.
A fundamental element of Christian testimony is also the dialogue with people of different faiths. The love of Christ pushes us to mutual knowledge, to overcome prejudices and to build relations with mutual esteem, collaboration, peaceful coexistence and to work together for a more fraternal and human world in the perspective of the kingdom of God, which will manifest itself in its fullness when God will be all in all.
In our world marked by so many conflicts, all religions are called to show that living our faith makes us better people and capable of building a more just and Fraternal society.
To Sum up, the words that describe the Christian community from its origins are: the worship of One God and prayer, Christian formation, charity and the testimony of life.
All these values are lived here in the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi. For this reason, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you, for your commitment to Christian life, for your participation in this church within this unique reality.
Although this reality is just a little more than a year old, the Christian community that gathers here is a true Christian community that lives fraternal union by praying together and celebrating the Eucharist, deepening the sense of faith, living charity and the testimony of life, promoting in particular dialogue between people of different faiths.
Certainly, all of us along with the entire Church, are on the way and every day we are called to grow in faith and to realize our fundamental vocation to holiness that we received in our baptism.
Be holy because I am holy says God. God is all holy, God is love. And we were created in the image and likeness of God, with unconditional love.
Holiness is the full realization of our humanity because we were created to love and to be loved, living in full fraternal communion.
May the Lord bless you and give you peace.
