Pope to students: Share how Christ has won your heart

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

"Studying here in Rome, you have a great opportunity to share with one another who Christ is for you, where you encountered Him, how He won your hearts and laid hold of your lives, and the variety of traditions by which you offer Him praise and acknowledge Him as your Lord."

This was at the heart of Pope Francis' remarks Friday morning in the Vatican to the students of the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration with the Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Committee's establishment.

The Pope expressed his delight in welcoming them in the days leading up to the celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and at the beginning of this new year, which marks the Committee's milestone anniversary.

Pope Francis greeting Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch

Serving One Body of Christ

The Committee provides students from the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches the opportunity to complete their formation at Catholic academic institutes, in order then to return to their own communities and to share the knowledge and experience they have gained. 

In this way, in the name of the whole Catholic Church, the Pope said, they offer "a concrete and impartial service" that benefits the sister Churches of the East and contributes to the preparation of clergy and laity who, "thanks to their studies, will serve the mission of the one Body of Christ."

Vital and direct contact with concrete communities, in which "all share the same desire to follow the one Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to serve His Church," Pope Francis underscored, "helps not only the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox students, but the Catholic ones as well, to overcome prejudices, to break down walls and to build bridges of dialogue and friendship."

"This is so important!" the Pope said. 

Diverse but united

The Pope said this makes him think of the early Christian communities, those first disciples who became Apostles, and to whom our traditions trace their origins. 

"If we look closely at them, we see that they were quite diverse: disciples of the Baptist, zealots, fishers, and tax collectors; vastly different in background, character, and sympathies! he said. "Yet it is hard to think of a group that was more united." 

"They found their cohesiveness in Jesus," he went on to explain. "Walking in His footsteps, they journeyed alongside one another."

Christ has won our hearts

Their unity in charity, the Pope said, was cemented by the Holy Spirit, Who sent them far and wide, thus binding them all the more closely to one another. He told his "friends" to follow the same path, as they journey together in Christ's footsteps, guided by the same Spirit.

During their academic term in Rome, the Pope said, they should make the most of sharing how Christ has transformed their lives.

He called on them to share with one another, "Who Christ is for you, where you encountered Him, how He won your hearts and laid hold of your lives, and the variety of traditions by which you offer Him praise and acknowledge Him as your Lord." 

"On the basis of your fraternal sharing of this experience," the Pope shared, "I believe that our past histories, marred by mistakes and misunderstanding, sins and stereotypes, can gradually be healed, in as much as they are considered anew as part of a much greater story, that of fidelity to Christ, who 'loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her.'”

Prophecy of charity, seedbed of unity

"It is my hope," he said, "that, to the praise and glory of the Lord, these years may prove to be, through mutual acceptance and fraternal respect, dialogue, and sharing, a prophecy of charity and a seedbed of unity. "

This, he suggested, will do great good for Christians throughout the world, and for the world itself, "which greatly needs to see a blossoming of new seeds of peace and communion."

Pope Francis concluded by thanking them for their visit and encouraging them "to pursue [their] studies fruitfully, without ever neglecting [their] spiritual and pastoral aspects, which are essential for formation." The Holy Father also assured them of his prayers, and asked them to remember him in their own.

Pope Francis greets individuals who took part in the Audience