Spero News
Dec 1 2006
Papal visit to Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate
The tragic divisions which, over time, have arisen among Christ’s
followers openly contradict the Lord’s will, give scandal to the
world and damage that most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel to
every creature
Friday, December 01, 2006
by Spero News
Dear Brother in Christ,
I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet Your Beatitude in this
very place where Patriarch Kalustian welcomed my predecessors Pope
Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. With great affection I greet the
entire Armenian Apostolic community over which you preside as
shepherd and spiritual father. My fraternal greeting goes also to His
Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of Holy Etchmiadzin, and the
hierarchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. I give thanks to God for
the Christian faith and witness of the Armenian people, transmitted
from one generation to the next, often in very tragic circumstances
such as those experienced in the last century.
Our meeting is more than a simple gesture of ecumenical courtesy and
friendship. It is a sign of our shared hope in God’s promises and our
desire to see fulfilled the prayer that Jesus offered for his
disciples on the eve of his suffering and death: `that they may all
be one. As you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be one
in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me’ (Jn
17:21). Jesus gave his life on the Cross to gather into one the
dispersed children of God, to break down the walls of division.
Through the sacrament of Baptism, we have been incorporated into the
Body of Christ, the Church. The tragic divisions which, over time,
have arisen among Christ’s followers openly contradict the Lord’s
will, give scandal to the world and damage that most holy cause, the
preaching of the Gospel to every creature (cf. Unitatis
Redintegratio, 1). Precisely by the witness of their faith and love,
Christians are called to offer a radiant sign of hope and consolation
to this world, so marked by conflicts and tensions. We must continue
therefore to do everything possible to heal the wounds of separation
and to hasten the work of rebuilding Christian unity. May we be
guided in this urgent task by the light and strength of the Holy
Spirit.
In this respect I can only offer heartfelt thanks to the Lord for the
deeper fraternal relationship that has developed between the Armenian
Apostolic Church and the Catholic Church. In the thirteenth century,
Nerses of Lambron, one of the great Doctors of the Armenian Church,
wrote these words of encouragement: `Now, since we all need peace
with God, let its foundation be harmony among the brethren. We have
prayed to God for peace and continue to do so. Look, he is now giving
it to us as a gift: let us welcome it! We asked the Lord to make his
holy Church solid, and he has willingly heard our plea. Let us climb
therefore the mountain of the Gospel faith!’ (Il Primato della
Carità, Ed. Qiqajon, p. 81). These words of Nerses have lost nothing
of their power. Together let us continue to pray for the unity of all
Christians, so that, by receiving this gift from above with open
hearts, we may be ever more convincing witnesses of the truth of the
Gospel and better servants of the Church’s mission.
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