Eminent Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops,
Your Excellency Bishop Mussinghof
Dear friends of the Community of Sant�Egidio
Dear brothers and sisters
It is a great joy for me to be together with you in this honourable place, where generations of christians have prayed and celebrated mass. This church still breathes the air of unity, because it was built in a time when East and West were still united.
Also the building style of this dom testifies about the bond of unity. It is meaningful that we start our days of reflection and prayer in this dom, that christians from many churches and confessions are gathered here, that we listened together to the word of God that connects us all and calls upon us to search for unity and to work together for Peace in the world .
We heard in the Gospel how people brought a def mute to Jesus so he would touch him. And the Gospel tells us how Jesus took him apart, away from the crowd, put his fingers in his ears, touched the def mutes tongue with saliva, looked up to the sky, sighed and said to the def-mute man : Effata : open yourself . We see Jesus� great love, his approaching and at the same time his concrete friendship. He puts in an effort to heal this ill person. These days intend to be an occasion to come to Jesus so he can open our ears, that we may get along, not only among christians but also with people from other religions and cultures. Jesus� word can loosen our tongue too, so we can speak the language of the Gospel, a language of friendship and peace, a universal language which we have learnt so little.
But the experience of these days, after this long history of peace meetings, shows us how many fruits this language of the gospel can bear. I think about the peace in Mozambique, for which the Community of Sant�Egidio worked hard. I think of the language of reconciliation coming from the Gospel, connected with many gestures of friendship as described in the Gospel and that has borne a great fruit of peace. I think of the many engagements in the dialogue between christians and muslims, with other religions, with non-believers, politicians and people of culture in the framework of this meeting for peace.
The time ahead does not seem easy. We see worrying signs in the world. Def-muteness seems to be a wide-spread illness. But as christians we are convinced that the word of the Lord is capable of many things, that nothing is impossible to God. And the fact that we are gathered here this morning is a hope and already realises the old dream we heard of in the book of Isaia. The desert will bloom again and splashing fountains break through through the work of God. The desert of this world seems to increase, the sad news from the Middle East, from Africa and other parts of the world seem to confirm that. But as christians we are and may not be resigned. When we are one we can overcome this resignation and together we can understand and live Gods dream better. The dream of one world, where the deserts blooms for all, not only for a few on a happy island in the north of the world, but also in the poor south, everywhere people suffer. The Lord says to us : �Be courageaous, do not fear. Let us be courageaous these days, let us not be afraid to approach one another in friendship, to listen to one another and to speak the language of peace.
Amen.
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