• The Pope in Cyprus: "Migrants are looking for a better life, we share hope with them"

  • Pope Francis leaves Cyprus and flies to Greece: "Democracy retreats, beware of easy populisms"

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04 December 2021 Catholics and Orthodox together in the help of the least of the earth. The Pope admonishes him when he meets the Orthodox archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, Ieronymos. "Let us not be afraid, - says Francis - but let us help ourselves to adore God and serve our neighbor, without proselytizing and fully respecting the freedom of others, because - as Saint Paul wrote - 'where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom' ". Bergoglio prays that "the Spirit of charity may overcome our resistance and make us builders of communion, because 'if love truly manages to eliminate fear and it is transformed into love, then it will be discovered that what saves is unity' . However,how can we witness to the world the concordance of the Gospel if we Christians are still separated? How can we announce the love of Christ which gathers the peoples, if we are not united among ourselves? Many steps have been taken to meet us. Let us invoke the Spirit of communion, so that he may push us in his ways and help us to found communion not on calculations, strategies and conveniences, but on the only model to look at: the Most Holy Trinity ".



The Church is not asked for a spirit of conquest or large numbers


"We, as a Church, are not required to have the spirit of conquest and victory, the magnificence of large numbers, worldly splendor. All this is dangerous. It is the temptation of triumphalism. We are asked to take a cue from the mustard seed , which is lowest, but humbly and slowly growing: it is the smallest of all seeds - says Jesus - but, once it grows, it becomes a tree. We are asked to be leaven, which ferments in patient and silent hiding inside the pasta of the world, thanks to the incessant work of the Holy Spirit. The secret of the Kingdom of God is contained in small things, in what is often not seen and does not make noise ". Pope Francis reminded the bishops, priests and the small Greek Catholic community he met this afternoon in Athens in the Cathedral of San Dionigi.



Francis gave the example of the Apostle Paul, who arrived in Athens and then went to the Areopagus, as written in the Acts of the Apostles. A presence, that of the apostle, open to listening, but "in the minority and with little chance of success". At the Areopagus, Paul, taken for a "charlatan", the Pope said to the Greek Catholics "he is not experiencing a triumphant moment; he is carrying out the mission in a difficult condition. Perhaps, in many moments of our journey, we too are we feel the fatigue and sometimes the frustration of being a small community, or a Church with few forces that moves in a context that is not always favorable ".



"So, dear friends, I would like to say to you: bless littleness and welcome it. It disposes you to trust in God and in God alone. Being a minority, and in the whole world the Church is a minority - he stressed - does not mean being insignificant, but walking the the way opened by the Lord, which is that of littleness: of kenosis, of abasement, of condescension. He descended to hide himself in the folds of humanity and in the wounds of our flesh. He saved us by serving us ". "Today too we are required to have an attitude of welcome, a style of hospitality, a heart animated by the desire to create communion between human, cultural and religious differences. The challenge is to elaborate the passion for the whole, which lead, Catholics, Orthodox, brothers and sisters of other creeds,also agnostic brothers, to listen to each other, to dream and work together, to cultivate - he concluded - the 'mystique' of fraternity. Past history still remains an open wound on the path of this welcoming dialogue, but let us courageously embrace today's challenge! ".