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Pope to Lutheran church in Rome: Only Christ can grant unity |
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15/03/2010 (:)
We have destroyed the “us” of the Christian community, we have divided “the only way” into “many ways”, and now we experience the sin that does not allow us to drink from the same chalice or be together around the altar. However, today we are here praying together to the Lord, the only One who can grant us unity. With these words, Benedict XVI ended his homily on Sunday, March 14th, during the evening worship service of the Lutheran community in Rome.
Invited to the Christuskirche, the “Church of Christ”, on the Via Sicilia in Rome -- 27 years after John Paul II’s visit, the first papal visit to a Lutheran church -- Benedict XVI was welcomed by Pastor Jens-Martin Kruse and the community’s 350 members.
During the celebration, the Pope commented on the gospel passage about the grain of wheat that bears fruit only when it falls to the ground and dies. “Jesus said that whoever loves his life, loses it”, the Pope explained, “He makes us understand that life is not only for ourselves, that it is not about receiving but about giving ourselves, entrusting our own life to others and being servants. This is the way of the grain of wheat, the way of salvation.”
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