change language
tu es dans: home - l'oecum�...dialogue - rencontr...tionales - chypre 2008 newslettercontactslink

Soutenez la Communauté

  

Les arrivées des premiers couloirs humanitaires 2018 en Italie. La nouvelle phase du projet, devenu un modèle d'accueil et d'intégration pour l'Europe

"PAIX SUR TOUTES LES TERRES" : 1er janvier, une marche pour un monde qui sache accueillir et intégrer

Le premier jour de l'année nouvelle, manifestations sur tous les continents pour soutenir le message du pape François

De l'Indonésie au Salvador, de l'Allemagne au Mozambique, voici les nouvelles galeries d'images des repas de Noël de Sant'Egidio dans le monde

Des photos continuent d'affluer de tous les continents, regardez-les sur notre carte interactive!

Galerie de photos et vidéos du repas de Noël à Santa Maria in Trastevere

Visite virtuelle de la crèche de Sant'Egidio : Jésus accueilli par les pauvres, les malades, les sans logis et les hommes de toutes confessions

Sant'Egidio et la Muhammadiyah signent à Djakarta un nouvel accord pour la paix et le dialogue interreligieux

une délégation de la Communauté menée par Marco Impagliazzo se trouve en Indonésie

Sant'Egidio au conseil de sécurité de l'ONU pour un point sur la République centrafricaine

Mauro Garofalo : "Le succès de ce premier désarmement garantit la crédibilité de l'ensemble du processus en actes"

Donner à manger aux personnes âgées au Mozambique : distribuitions d'aides alimentaires aux plus pauvres dans la ville de Beira

Aidons les réfugiés rohingyas au Bangladesh

La Communauté de Sant’Egidio lance une collecte de fonds pour envoyer des aides dans les camps de réfugiés au Bangladesh, en collaboration avec l’Eglise locale

Tous les textes de la rencontre #Pathsofpeace

L'assemblée d'inauguration de la rencontre internationale Chemins de Paix

Chemins de 2017 : tout sur la rencontre internationale des religions du monde pour la paix

Le programme, les intervenants et les événements en direct streaming

Global friendship, #MoreYouthMorePeace : le message et l’engagement des Jeunes pour la paix à Barcelone

rendez-vous l’année prochaine à Rome !

 
version imprimable
18 Novembre 2008 16:15 | Center of the Old Town

Meditation



Crescenzio Sepe


Cardinal, Archevêque de Naples

Meditation on 1 Jn 4, 16b - 21

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.
In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.
Let us love, then, because he first loved us.
Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.

Dear brothers and sisters,

"God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him", as we have heard in the first letter of John.

Where does God remain? It was the question of Israel and it is our question, as well. How and where can we meet the Lord? Having built the Temple, the wise King Salomon addressed the almighty God by saying: "Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built! (1 Kings 8:27)

God sent his Only Son to remain among us, He made visible the great love of God for humanity. We have experienced once again the truth and the joy of God’s love, in these days. We are able to live God’s love because he came and dwelt among us.

This presence has been revealed through the love of the welcoming Church of Cyprus and of its Archbishop, as well through our love for each other. We shared the quest for peace in a divided world marked by violence and conflict. This presence has been revealed in the past 22 years through the meetings that the Community of Sant’Egidio patiently and tenaciously committed to continue.

Indeed, love conquers fear, which separates us from each other. Fear distances us from the others and leads us into prejudice and mistrust. As John says, perfect love drives out fear. Fear conceals an evil temptation that induces us to distance ourselves from one another, and creates unfriendliness. Fear makes us believe that the long-existing divisions between Christians cannot be overcome, and we have to accept them as something we have to live with.

During these days we have been living one beside the other. Even though sometimes distance can separate us, and division is still an open wound, we have discovered that mutual love, dialogue and encounter lessens the power of fear. So we realized that we are as close as brothers, more than we thought. It the miracle of Cyprus, the miracle of Assisi, the miracle that took roots in my town, Naples. It is the miracle that happens every year with the Community of Sant’Egidio: men and women of different religions, Christians of various denominations and congregations, all are replete with the love of God and rediscover in the others the image God shaped in every creature since the very beginning. Through love, we have seen that God remains in us, and that the risen Christ drives out fear once for all.

Dear brothers and sisters, we have to be grateful to the Lord, for truly love is of God, and his love has touched us and we have become its witnesses. We Christians can contemplate the gratuitousness of the Love of God in Jesus. His love teaches us not to wait for others to love us first, and it unfolds our task, which is to first love our brothers and sisters. As we were unlimitedly loved by God, irrespective of our merits.

Tonight’s prayer purifies us from those feelings and thoughts that distance us from one another, and helps us all to tune in with the heart of God, and with His love, so that we may always obey his commandment: “Whoever loves God must also love his brother”. We are aware that we all are in debt: it is the debt of mutual love. This awareness, which is also an essential element of our faith, was enhanced during our meetings and our dialogue. May the Lord help us all to remain in the spirit of Cyprus, so that we may contribute, through love which drives out fear, to a more human world and to bringing peoples closer to each other.

Programa

Italiano - English - Greek

{PROGRAMMA_BOX_PP}