Pope’s Mini Homily for Today

From Papa Ratzinger Forum: 

The Gospel on this Sunday presents Jesus healing ten lepers, of whom only one, a Samaritan and therefore a foreigner, comes back to thank him (cfr Lk 17,11-19). The Lord tells him, “Rise and go, your faith has saved you!” (Lk 17,19).

This Gospel page invites us to a double reflection. Above all, it makes us think of two degrees of healing: one, more superficial, is of the body; the second, more profound, touches the most intimate part of the person, what the Bible calls the ‘heart’, and from there, radiates to the whole being.

‘Salvation’ is the complete radical healing. The common language, which makes a distinction between health (salute) and salvation (salvezza), helps us to understand that salvation is far more than healing: it is, in fact, a new life, full and definitive.

Moreover, Jesus, as in other circumstances, says the word, “Your faith has saved you.” It is faith which saves man, re-establishing him in his profound relation with God, with himself and with others; and faith is expressed in acknowledgment.

Whoever, like the healed Samaritan, knows how to be grateful, shows that he does not consider everything ‘owed’ to him, but as a gift which – even if it comes from other men or nature – ultimately comes from God.

Faith therefore means opening up to the grace of the Lord, too acknowledge that everything is a gift, everything is grace. How much treasure is hidden in that small word ‘grace’.

Jesus heals 10 men afflicted with leprosy, a sickness considered at that time a ‘contagious impurity’ which required ritual purification (cfr Lv 14,1-37). In fact, the leprosy that truly disfigures man and society is sin – pride and selfishness which generate indifference, hate and violence in the human spirit.

No one but God, who is Love, can heal this leprosy of the spirit, which disfigures the face of humanity. Opening his heart to God, man is converted and is interiorly healed of evil.

“Be converted and believe in the Gospel’ (cfr Mk 1,15): Jesus began his public life with this invitation, which continues to resound in the Church, and even the Most Blessed Virgin in her apparitions, specially in recent times, has always renewed that appeal.

Today, we think especially of Fatima where, 90 years ago, from May 13 to October 13 of 1917, the Virgin appeared to three shepherd children: Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco.

Thanks to radio-TV linkage, I wish to be spiritually present at that Marian sanctuary, where Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, presided in my name at the concluding ceremonies of this very significant anniversary.

I warmly greet him, the other cardinals and bishops present, the priests who work in the new Sanctuary, and the pilgrims who have come from every part of the world for this occasion.

Let us ask Our Lady that all Christians may have the gift of true conversion so that the perennial evangelical message may be announced and borne witness to, indicating to mankind the way to authentic peace.

One Year After Regensburg

Sandro Magister on the Letter to the Pope by 138 Muslim Scholars:

One year ago, a month after Benedict XVI’s memorable lecture in Regensburg, 38 prominent Muslims wrote an open letter to the pope in which they expressed agreement with some of his positions, and disagreement with others.

The 38 came from different countries and belonged to different schools of thought. It was the first time in the Islamic world that such a diverse group of people was speaking with a single voice, and expounding the principles of Islam to the head of the most important Christian Church, with the intention of arriving at “mutual understanding.”

Over the following months, other signatures joined the original ones, and the 38 became 100. Now, one year later, the 100 have become 138, and they have made public a second letter.

In comparison with the first letter, the second has expanded the scope of its intended audience. In addition to pope Benedict XVI, it is addressed to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, to the patriarch of Moscow, Alexei II, and to the heads of 18 other Eastern Churches; to the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams; to the leaders of the worldwide federation of Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, and Baptist Churches; to the secretary general of the World Council of Churches, Samuel Kobia, and in general “to the leaders of the Christian Churches.”

As for content, the first letter supported positions clearly in favor of the freedom to profess one’s faith “without restrictions.”

It asserted the rational consistency of Islam, while maintaining the absolute transcendence of God.

It decisively restated the limitations placed by Islamic doctrine upon recourse to war and the use of violence, condemning the “utopian dreams in which the end justifies the means.”

And it concluded by expressing hope for a relationship between Islam and Christianity founded upon love of God and neighbor, the “two great commandments” recalled by Jesus in Mark 12:29-31.

The second letter picks up precisely where the first one left off, and builds upon its conclusion. The commandments of love of God and neighbor – found in both the Qur’an and the Bible – are the “common word” that offers to the encounter between Islam and Christianity “the most solid theological foundation possible.”

The text of the letter was discussed and refined last September, at a meeting held in Jordan at the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, sponsored by King Abdullah II.

It is the conviction of the promoters that, before this letter, “Muslims have never offered the Christian world such a strong consensus proposal.”

Aref Ali Nayed – a Libyan theologian who signed both the first and second letter, and is an author well known to readers of http://www.chiesa – emphasized the participation of Muslims of all tendencies, Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Ismaili, Ja’fari:

“Rather than engage in polemic, the signatories have adopted the traditional and mainstream Islamic position of respecting the Christian Scripture and calling christians to be more, not less, faithful to it.”

The 138 signatories come from 43 countries. Some of them live in Europe or the United States, but most live in Muslim countries: from Jordan to Saudi Arabia, from Egypt to Morocco, from the Emirates to Yemen, but also in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Palestine.

Some of the letter’s signatories – including Aref Ali Nayed, who was a docent, in Rome, at the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies – have on repeated occasions met with the heads of the Vatican curia.

The first contacts go back one year ago. But the Church of Rome gave no public sign of appreciation until after the publication of the second letter.

On October 12, cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the pontifical council for dialogue among the religions, said on Vatican Radio:

“This is a very interesting and novel document, because it comes from both Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. It is not a polemical document, and includes many citations from the Old and New Testament. [...] It represents a very encouraging sign, because it demonstrates that good will and dialogue can overcome prejudice. It is a spiritual approach to interreligious dialogue, something I would call a dialogue of spiritualities. Both Muslims and Christians must answer a single question: is God truly the only god in your life?”.

There is strong agreement between the positions on interreligious dialogue expressed in the letter and those of Benedict XVI.

The last time the pope touched upon this topic was last October 5.

Speaking to the members of the International Theological Commission, Benedict XVI pointed to the “natural law” and the ten commandments as “the foundation for a universal system of ethics” valid for “all the consciences of men of good will, whether secularists or members of the various religions.”

And the ten commandments are summed up in the two “greatest” commandments of love for God and neighbor: “submission to God, the source and judge of all goodness, and the sense of the other as one’s equal.”

These are the same two commandments that form the core of the letter to the pope from the 138 Muslims.