Pope: Meeting with Al-Tayyeb and Guterres tomorrow to mark Day of Human Fraternity
Francis points to the Day for Human Fraternity at the general audience. Illustrating prayer in the liturgy, he says: "in the liturgy there is an objective mediation required by the fact that Jesus Christ is not an idea or a feeling, but a living Person, and his Mystery is a historical event ". “A Christianity without liturgy I would dare to say is a Christianity without Christ”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - May dialogue between "all religious groups" be "our prayer today and may it be our commitment every day of the year".
With this appeal at the end of the general audience Pope Francis recalled that tomorrow the first International Day of Human Fraternity will be celebrated, "as established by a recent resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. This initiative also takes into account the meeting of 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, when I and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, signed the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,
The Pope noted: “I am very happy that the nations of the whole world join in this celebration, aimed at promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Therefore, tomorrow afternoon I will participate in a virtual meeting with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr António Guterres, and with other personalities. The aforementioned UN Resolution recognizes "the contribution that dialogue between all religious groups can make to improve awareness and understanding of the common values shared by all humanity".
Previously in the general audience, which took place again in the private library, the Pope continued the cycle of catechesis on prayer and addressed the theme "Praying in the liturgy".
“Several times in the history of the Church - observed Francis – there has been the temptation to practice an intimate Christianity, which does not recognize their spiritual importance to public liturgical rites. Often this tendency claimed the presumed greater purity of a religiosity that did not depend on external ceremonies, which were considered a useless or harmful burden”.
But, even if "in fact, certain forms of spirituality can be found in the Church that have not been able to adequately integrate the liturgical moment" and "many faithful" have turned to "other sources, of a devotional type", the liturgy contains “that objective mediation required by the fact that Jesus Christ is not an idea or a feeling, but a living Person, and his Mystery a historical event”.
“The prayer of Christians - he continued - passes through concrete mediations: Sacred Scripture, the Sacraments, liturgical rites. In the Christian life we do not ignore the corporeal and material sphere, because in Jesus Christ it has become the way of salvation”.
“The body - he added - enters into prayer”. And "there is no Christian spirituality that is not rooted in the celebration of the holy mysteries".
"The liturgy, in itself, is not only spontaneous prayer, but something always original: it is an act that roots the whole Christian experience and, therefore, also prayer. It is an event, a happening, a presence, an encounter. Christ makes himself present in the Holy Spirit through the sacramental signs: hence the need for us Christians to participate in the divine mysteries. A Christianity without liturgy, I would say is a Christianity without Christ. Even in the unembellished rite, such as those which Christians have celebrated and celebrate in places of imprisonment, or hidden in a house during times of persecution, Christ makes himself truly present and gives himself to his faithful. The liturgy, precisely because of its objective dimension, asks to be celebrated with fervour, so that the grace poured out in the rite is not dispersed but reaches everyone's experience ".
“Many Christian prayers - he later stressed - do not come from the liturgy, but all, if they are Christian, presuppose the liturgy, that is, the sacramental mediation of Jesus Christ. Every time we celebrate a Baptism, or we consecrate the bread and wine in the Eucharist, or we anoint the body of a sick person with holy oil, Christ is here! He is present as when he healed the weak limbs of a sick person, or delivered his testament for the salvation of the world at the Last Supper. The Christian's prayer makes the sacramental presence of Jesus its own. What is external to us becomes part of us: the liturgy even expresses it with the natural gesture of eating. The Mass cannot only be 'listened to', as if we were only spectators of something that slips away without involving us. Mass is always celebrated, and not only by the priest who presides over it, but by all Christians who live it. The centre is Christ! All of us, in the diversity of gifts and ministries, all join in his action, because he is the protagonist of the liturgy”.
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