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Homily of Pope Francis at the Ecumenical Vigil
2nd Session of the 16th General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
in the Square of the Roman Protomartyrs – Friday, 11 October 2024
21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us,
so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21)
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them” (Jn 17:22).
These words of Jesus’ prayer before his Passion can be applied especially to the martyrs, who received glory for their witness they bore to Christ.
In this place, we remember the first martyrs of the Church of Rome.
This Basilica was built on the spot where their blood was shed; the Church was built upon their blood. May these martyrs strengthen our certainty that as we draw closer to Christ, we draw closer to one another, sustained by the prayers of all the saints of our Churches, now perfectly one through their participation in the Paschal Mystery.
As we read in the Decree on Eucmenism ‘Unitatis Redintegratio’, the sixteenth anniversary of which we are celebrating, the closer Christians are to Christ, the closer they are to one another (cf. 7).
On this day, when we commemorate the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which marked the official entry of the Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement, we are gathered together with the fraternal delegates, our brothers and sisters of other Churches.
I make my own the words that Saint John XXIII addressed to the observers at the opening of the Council: “Your very welcome presence here and the emotion that fills my heart as a priest, as a Bishop of God’s Church… encourage me to confide to you the longing of my heart, which burns with the desire to work and suffer for the dawn of the day when Christ’s prayer at the Last Supper will be fulfilled for all” (13 October 1962).
Accompanied by the prayers of the martyrs, let us enter into thr same prayer of Jesus, and make it our own in the Holy Spirit.
Christian unity and synodality are related.
In fact, “the journey of synodality is what God expects of the Church of the third millennium” (Address for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Establishment of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015), and it must be traveled by all Christians.
“The journey of synodality… is and must be ecumenical, just as the ecumenical journey is synodal” (Address to His Holiness Mar Awa III, 19 November 2022).
In both processes, it is not so much a question of creating something of of welcoming and making fruitful the gift we have already received. And what is the gift of unity?
The experience of the Synod helps us to discover some aspects of this gift.
1; Unity is a grace, an unexpected gift.
We are not its driving force; the true driving force is the Holy Spirit who leads us to greater communion. Just as we do not know beforehand what the outcome of the Synod will be, neither do we know exactly what the unity to which we are called will look like.
The Gospel tells us that, in his great prayer, Jesus, “looked up to heaven”: (Matthew 14:19. Mark 6:41, Luke 9:16). Unity does not come primarily from the earth, but from heaven.
It is a gift whose timeand manner we cannot foresee.
We must receive it by “not placing obstacles in the way of divine providence and not allowing preconceived judgments to interfere with the future inspirations of the Holy Spirit”, as the Council decree continues (Unitatis Redintegratio, 24). As Fr. Paul Couturier used to say, Christian unity must be implored “as Christ wills” and “by the means he wills”.
2. Unity is a journey
Another lesson that we can learn from the synodal process is that unity is a journey: it grows gradually as it progresses.
It grows through mutual service, through the dialogue of life, through the collaboration of all Christians which “brings out more clearly the marks of Christ the Servant” (Unitatis Redintegratio, 12).
But we, for our part, must walk by the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:16-25); or, as Saint Irenaeus says, as tôn adelphôn synodía, as “a caravan of brothers.”
Christian unity grows and matures through a common pilgrimage “at God’s pace”,
like that of the disciples on the way to Emmaus who walked with the risen Jesus at their side.
3. A third lesson is that unity is harmony.
The Synod helps us to rediscover the beauty of the Church in the diversity of her faces.
Unity, then, is not uniformity, or the result of compromise or counterbalance.
Christian unity is the harmony among the diversity of charisms that the Spirit has awakened for the building up of all Christians (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 4).
Harmony is the way of the Spirit, who, as Saint Basil says, is harmony itself (cf. In Ps. 29:1).
We must follow the path of unity out of love for Christ and for all those whom we are called to serve.
As we journey along this path, let us never allow difficulties to stop us!
Lus trust in the Holy Spirit who leads us to unity in the harmony of a multifaceted diversity
4. Unity is for the sake of mission
Finally, like synodality, the unity of Christians is essential to their witness: unity is for the sake of mission. “That they may all be one… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21).
This was the conviction of the Council Fathers when they declared that our division “scandalizes the world and harms the holy cause of proclaiming the Gospel to every creature” (Unitatis Reintegratio, 1).
The ecumenical movement was born of the desire to bear common witness: to witness together, not apart or, worse, in opposition.
In this place, the Roman protomartyrs remind us that even today, in many parts of the world, Christians of different traditions give their lives together for their faith in Jesus Christ, embodying an ecumenism of blood.
Their witness speaks louder than any words, for unity is born of the Cross of the Lord.
Before the beginning of this Assembly, we celebrated a service penance.
Today, too, we express our shame at the scandal of division among Christians, the scandal of our failure to bear common witness to the Lord Jesus.
This Synod is an opportunity to do better, to break down the walls that still exist between us.
Let us focus on the common ground of our common baptism, which prompts us to become missionary disciples of Christ, with a common mission.
The world needs our common witness; the world needs us to be faithful to our common mission.
Dear brothers and sisters, it was before an image of the Crucified Christ that Saint Francis of Assisi received the call to restore the Church.
May the Cross of Christ also guide us on our daily journey towards full unity, in harmony with one another and with the whole of creation: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:19-20 – For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through the blood of his cross.).
