Homily of Walter Cardinal Casper
At the Concluding Mass of the
Seminar Asian Bishops’ Conferences
On February 10, 2007, 6:30 pm, at the Manila Cathedral

I.

It is a great joy for me to be here with you today and to have the opportunity to celebrate with you this Eucharist. Coming from Rome I wish to extend to all of you my heartfelt greetings! I am pleased to convey to you the cordial greetings and the apostolic blessing of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy Father is indebted to the Catholics of the Philippines, and he is grateful for your faithfulness and your prayers.

It is a special joy for me to celebrate this concluding Eucharist of the Seminar with the Bishops’ Conferences of the Philippines and several other Asian countries, looking at the unity of all Christians. Our focus during this seminar was the testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, who on the eve of his death prayed to his Father “that all may be one, so that the world may believe” (John 17:21).

The unity of all the disciples of Christ was one of the main concerns of the Second Vatican Council. The Council stated that the divisions among the Christians are a main obstacle for the mission of the Church. Therefore, Christian unity was a pastoral priority of the late Pope John Paul II, in the same way as it continues to be a main concern of the present Pope Benedict XVI. In the decades since the Council, we have made—thanks to God—remarkable progress, we have rediscovered the brotherhood of all Christians.

So it is right that we end this Seminar now with the Eucharist. For we have reason to celebrate the Eucharist, that is, we have reason to give thanks to our Lord, to praise him for what we have received in this week of encounter, of common reflection and commitment. Many have contributed to this success, there are many to whom we must be grateful. The Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences have helped and supported us enormously. But in the end it is God’s blessing and his grace, which brings all things to a good end. We cannot “make” the unity of the Church and we cannot not organize it; the unity of the Church is a gift of God’s spirit.

The apostle Paul tells us that we can plant the seed, that we can also water it, but that God makes it grow (cf 1 Cor3:7). This week we planted and we watered; we have also experienced God’s blessing upon us. So we have reason to give thanks and to pray for God’s further blessing that the seed will grow for the good of the Church here in the Philippines and in all Asia.

We ask all the faithful to join our concern and to join this our prayer. For the task of working and praying for the unity of all the disciples of Christ is a common task, which concerns everybody within the Church; it is the will of our Lord and therefore a common commitment, which obliges every Christian, each of us in his or her own way.

II.

The Gospel reading this Sunday gives us constructive and helpful hints to further reflect on what we have discussed this week. We have listened to the Gospel on the beatitudes according to the Gospel of Saint Luke. This is one of the main passages of the Gospel; it touches on the very heart of our Lord’s message. It is in the true and original sense of the word “good news.” This passage tells about the values of the Kingdom of God. They are very different, they are even contrary to the values of this world. Whoever reads and listens carefully to this Gospel will be immediately aware that it contains a real revolution. Where else in this world are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the excluded, the persecuted called blessed? Nowhere else is this the case. On the contrary! Blessed are the rich, those who have to eat, who are joyful, who are welcomed by others and who are everybody’s darling. Really, what Jesus here proclaims is the contrary, it is a revolution.

Nevertheless, it is not a political revolution and not a political program. Jesus refuted always to be understood as a political Messiah. He proclaimed the Kingdom of God, which we as weak human beings cannot bring about, cannot organize or produce. It is a gift, which only God himself gracefully can give. The Kingdom of God means: God comes to us, He is our God, the merciful God with us and for us. God’s kingdom means also: God has to come first; He is the supreme and all embracing reality. It means what Jesus in the first and greatest commandment asks for: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength’ (Mark 12:30).

Where God has the first place, where he is loved more than anything else and above all other things, there the kingdom of God becomes reality. But this means a very revolution of our hearts and of our minds. This calls for purification and conversion of our hearts, of our thoughts, of our deeds and of our whole life. This means to empty ourselves and give away our trust in the goods of this world and to put all our trust alone in God. Dong so we live the values of the Kingdom, which today’s Gospel tells us about. Living them, we will find that they are a true blessing, that they lift up our hearts, give us comfort and consolation, and convey joy and peace in the depth of our hearts. Then it becomes true: Blessed are you!

But the first and greatest commandment goes on to say: “The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). When God is so merciful and graceful to us, how can we not be the same? How can we not do to others what we would like them to do to us, when we are in trouble? How can we not be touched and troubled by the poverty and misery of others, how can we not feed them when they are hungry, comfort them when they are weeping, how can we not welcome them when they feel excluded, alone, repudiated or even persecuted? Where such love and such charity takes place, there is more than human solidarity, there is God, there is the Kingdom of God, there is the justice, the joy, the peace and the blessing of the coming Kingdom of God.

III.

There are many urgent situations and many urgent challenges in today’s world in which this Gospel message can be fulfilled. I cannot even begin to mention them all. During our Eucharist marking the conclusion of our Seminar, I would like to apply this message only to one question: the question of Christian unity.

If there is only one question to be asked in this context, we should ask: Why do we have all these divisions, which are against Christ’s will and which are a scandal in the eyes of the world? Often they create conflicts and suffering within the same family. The Council gives us an answer: These divisions are signs of a lack of love; a lack of love towards God and a lack of love towards our neighbor; this lack is not only on the part of the others but also on both sides. They are a sign that we all do not take seriously enough and o not live enough according to the values of the Gospel.

What can we do? What should we do? What are we, as Christians obliged to do? It is evident that it does not help to maintain and defend our faith and the truth of our faith; we have to defend our Church against unjustified attacks. But we should be aware that all of us, and that means also ourselves, need inner conversion in order to live more convincingly, more intensively, more courageously, these Gospel values and the truth of our faith.

The Council calls this spiritual ecumenism. This means personal conversion by overcoming old prejudices and misunderstandings about others, personal sanctification by reading and listening to the word of God, participation in sacramental life, growing in the love of God and the love of neighbors, and above all, by praying for the unity of all Christians. Such spiritual ecumenism is the very heart of ecumenism and the presupposition for the success of every ecumenical dialogue. Through spiritual ecumenism every single person can contribute to the realization of Jesus’ prayer that all may be one.

Thus, when we turn to the new challenge of Pentecostals and sects, we should not only ask: What is wrong with them? But we should also ask ourselves: What is wrong with us?

What is lacking in us? Why do people leave out Church and look elsewhere? What do these people feel is lacking in us and what do they expect from others? What and how can we change, evidently without giving up anything of what is essential? How can we improve the spiritual character of our worship and of our parish life. How can we make it more lively and engaging? What can we do in order to be present when people are in need/ What is possible in order to convey the experience that the Gospel values are a lived reality in us and that the Holy Spirit is at work in our Church, in such a way as it might be said of us: Blessed are you!?

But after all these questions, which may be painful, as Catholic Christians we have no reason to be downhearted. No. We have every reason to be grateful. We are blessed. We are blessed and gifted with the apostolic faith, blessed and gifted with the sacraments, particularly with the Eucharist, we are blessed and gifted with a worldwide Catholic communion with and under the successor of Peter, blessed and gifted with the communion of the Saints, especially of our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, to whom this Cathedral is dedicated. Let us pray to her, the mother of God and the mother of the Church, mother of us all, mother also of the unity of all the disciples of her son Jesus. To her we entrust our concern for unity. To her we entrust that our Seminar will bear fruits for the Church in the Philippines and in all Asia. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Amen.