POPE BENEDICT XVI IN U.K. Evening Prayer, Westminster Abbey London
Dear friends in Christ, I thank the Lord for this opportunity to join you, the
representatives of the Christian confessions present in Great Britain, in this magnificent
Abbey Church dedicated to Saint Peter, whose architecture and history speak so eloquently
of our common heritage of faith. Here we cannot help but be reminded of how greatly
the Christian faith shaped the unity and culture of Europe and the heart and spirit
of the English people. Here too, we are forcibly reminded that what we share, in
Christ, is greater than what continues to divide us. I am grateful to His Grace
the Archbishop of Canterbury for his kind greeting, and to the Dean and Chapter of
this venerable Abbey for their cordial welcome. I thank the Lord for allowing me,
as the Successor of Saint Peter in the See of Rome, to make this pilgrimage to the
tomb of Saint Edward the Confessor. Edward, King of England, remains a model of Christian
witness and an example of that true grandeur to which the Lord summons his disciples
in the Scriptures we have just heard: the grandeur of a humility and obedience grounded
in Christ’s own example (cf. Phil 2:6-8), the grandeur of a fidelity which does not
hesitate to embrace the mystery of the Cross out of undying love for the divine Master
and unfailing hope in his promises (cf. Mk 10:43-44). This year, as we know,
marks the hundredth anniversary of the modern ecumenical movement, which began with
the Edinburgh Conference’s appeal for Christian unity as the prerequisite for a credible
and convincing witness to the Gospel in our time. In commemorating this anniversary,
we must give thanks for the remarkable progress made towards this noble goal through
the efforts of committed Christians of every denomination. At the same time, however,
we remain conscious of how much yet remains to be done. In a world marked by growing
interdependence and solidarity, we are challenged to proclaim with renewed conviction
the reality of our reconciliation and liberation in Christ, and to propose the truth
of the Gospel as the key to an authentic and integral human development. In a society
which has become increasingly indifferent or even hostile to the Christian message,
we are all the more compelled to give a joyful and convincing account of the hope
that is within us (cf. 1 Pet 3:15), and to present the Risen Lord as the response
to the deepest questions and spiritual aspirations of the men and women of our time.
As we processed to the chancel at the beginning of this service, the choir sang
that Christ is our “sure foundation”. He is the Eternal Son of God, of one substance
with the Father, who took flesh, as the Creed states, “for us men and for our salvation”.
He alone has the words of everlasting life. In him, as the Apostle teaches, “all
things hold together” … “for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”
(Col 1:17,19). Our commitment to Christian unity is born of nothing less than
our faith in Christ, in this Christ, risen from the dead and seated at the right hand
of the Father, who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. It
is the reality of Christ’s person, his saving work and above all the historical fact
of his resurrection, which is the content of the apostolic kerygma and those credal
formulas which, beginning in the New Testament itself, have guaranteed the integrity
of its transmission. The Church’s unity, in a word, can never be other than a unity
in the apostolic faith, in the faith entrusted to each new member of the Body of Christ
during the rite of Baptism. It is this faith which unites us to the Lord, makes us
sharers in his Holy Spirit, and thus, even now, sharers in the life of the Blessed
Trinity, the model of the Church’s koinonia here below. Dear friends, we are all
aware of the challenges, the blessings, the disappointments and the signs of hope
which have marked our ecumenical journey. Tonight we entrust all of these to the
Lord, confident in his providence and the power of his grace. We know that the friendships
we have forged, the dialogue which we have begun and the hope which guides us will
provide strength and direction as we persevere on our common journey. At the same
time, with evangelical realism, we must also recognize the challenges which confront
us, not only along the path of Christian unity, but also in our task of proclaiming
Christ in our day. Fidelity to the word of God, precisely because it is a true word,
demands of us an obedience which leads us together to a deeper understanding of the
Lord’s will, an obedience which must be free of intellectual conformism or facile
accommodation to the spirit of the age. This is the word of encouragement which I
wish to leave with you this evening, and I do so in fidelity to my ministry as the
Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Saint Peter, charged with a particular care for
the unity of Christ’s flock. Gathered in this ancient monastic church, we can
recall the example of a great Englishman and churchman whom we honour in common: Saint
Bede the Venerable. At the dawn of a new age in the life of society and of the Church,
Bede understood both the importance of fidelity to the word of God as transmitted
by the apostolic tradition, and the need for creative openness to new developments
and to the demands of a sound implantation of the Gospel in contemporary language
and culture. This nation, and the Europe which Bede and his contemporaries helped
to build, once again stands at the threshold of a new age. May Saint Bede’s example
inspire the Christians of these lands to rediscover their shared legacy, to strengthen
what they have in common, and to continue their efforts to grow in friendship. May
the Risen Lord strengthen our efforts to mend the ruptures of the past and to meet
the challenges of the present with hope in the future which, in his providence, he
holds out to us and to our world. Amen.