Holy Mass for German-Speaking and Romanic Switzerland (16 June 1984)

On Saturday, 16 June 1984, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in Lucerne, for the German-speaking and Romanic Catholics of Switzerland. In his homily, the Pope encouraged them to have hope in the midst of their anxieties. “Christian hope gives us strength and confidence to make our way through a world that fills many with fear and terror and whose values ​​seem to be dissolving.”

Dear brothers and sisters!

It is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who brings us together here today in such large numbers to praise God in festive communion with him, to hear his liberating message and then to return with renewed confidence to the place where we live and work. I would like to assure each and every one of you that I am very happy to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass here with you. The impressive landscape of Lucerne, this old political and cultural center of central Switzerland, which was the seat of a nuncio of the Bishop of Rome for almost 300 years, offers a worthy setting for our meeting today.

1. The message of the Gospel takes us today to Nazareth. We witness how Christ publicly declares for the first time that the messianic prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in him. We experience how he rises on the Sabbath day in the midst of his countrymen and reads the well-known words from the book of Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" ( Luke 4:18-19).

Then, when "the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him" ( ibid . 4:20), Jesus said: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." It was fulfilled in him ( ibid . 4:21): the entire subsequent ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, from that moment until his death on the cross and resurrection, will confirm this.

The Holy Spirit who rested on him was not to remain limited to him alone. On the day of Pentecost, Christ gave him to the Apostles and his first disciples as the fruit of his redemptive passion, and he continues to give him to them in order to lead the Church and men ever more "into the whole truth" ( Jn 16:13). In this way, the messianic period of Jesus Christ continues, which began in Nazareth when he, believed to be the son of the carpenter, applied to himself the words of the prophet Isaiah.

This event in Nazareth is repeated in many places on earth, among different peoples. Christ appears before people again and again and says the same words to them: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me . . ." Today he said these words to us, here, on Swiss soil. In this Eucharistic celebration he becomes present to us as the anointed and sent one of the Lord himself and becomes a source of hope for us through his Good News and his Eucharistic food.

2. Christian hope gives us strength and confidence to make our way through a world that fills many with fear and terror and whose values ​​seem to be dissolving; through a world in which people feel less and less secure, in which international conflicts between East and West, between North and South are becoming more acute and the impoverishment of a large part of humanity through hunger and poverty is increasing. The tremendous technological achievements and their possible misuse, as well as conventional and nuclear armaments, threaten to put the survival of humanity itself in question. This global threat to humanity is a challenge for all nations, for those responsible for the peoples and for each and every one of us. Are we sufficiently aware of this? Here in Europe too - also with you in Switzerland?

I have come to you in a country that is in some respects unique: more than 170 years ago your country was last involved in a foreign war; almost 140 years ago your country last suffered a civil war; almost 70 years ago your state was last shaken by a general strike. I am in a country that has become a haven of peace and prosperity thanks to the hard work of its citizens and the fortunate circumstances of its history. Switzerland therefore appears to be a unique, blessed, happy country.

But is it really such a happy country, an island of security in the midst of the threatening world? Do you not also in Switzerland experience the collapse of values, the decline of ethical norms, the fear of the future, the feeling of meaninglessness, the loss of security, the fear that progress and wealth can no longer be controlled? Isn't there a growing degree of hopelessness behind all these phenomena?

The neutrality of your country does not protect you from being drawn into the global intellectual and political conflicts of our day. You too are faced with decisions and great tasks. What can be done, for example, to stop the slow erosion of basic moral values ​​in social coexistence; to give individuals and families the courage to live and confidence in the future? Or to ensure that your country's prosperity contributes to an ever more effective service of peace for the international community? Are you aware of the values ​​that absolutely deserve your attention and special care, such as loyalty, reliability, family spirit, respect for life from conception to death, solidarity among citizens, responsible treatment of nature and living space?

Through God's revelation and his own conscience, man has learned to know and appreciate many high ideals for a dignified and fulfilled existence. However, he seems to increasingly lack the strength to consistently put them into practice. Modern man has managed to solve countless problems, but new ones keep piling up before him, to his horror: he begins to doubt the steady progress of his works, and his initial boundless optimism turns into paralyzing fear.

In this difficult situation for us all, the Christian faith comes to our aid in a special way. It gives us the courage we need to continue on our path with hope and prudence, trusting in God, who is also the Lord of our history.

3. The words of the Apostle Paul, written to the Christians in Rome over 1900 years ago and read to us today, are still valid today: "We know that the whole creation groans in childbirth until now. And we ourselves, though we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan in our hearts, eagerly awaiting the redemption of our bodies as sons" ( Rom 8:22-23).

How true it is that man "sighs": man who is so often abused, persecuted and frightened; man who does his best and yet only achieves piecemeal results and - even with the best will in the world - often has to struggle forward against tough opposition! How much we all hear this sighing: from our own hearts as well as from the people around us, even from "the whole of creation", from the mistreated, exploited nature, from the plants and animals struggling for air and living space!

And yet Paul hears in this world's lamentation a groaning that indicates "birth pains": something positive is being prepared in it; something is to be born here; everything here is waiting in pain for a final breakthrough. The groaning is inspired by hope. The apostle says even more clearly: "We wait to be revealed as sons (and daughters) with the redemption of the body." He is therefore speaking of a reality that is already present in us, but has yet to become "revealed," has yet to fully assert itself. He calls this reality the "firstfruits of the Spirit." This is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who, as the risen and exalted Lord from God, moves and pulsates through creation with the light and life-giving glow of his Spirit wherever he is shown a willingness to believe and love. Every believer, every community of Christ already carries the spirit of Christ within them, but initially only as a "firstfruits gift," as the apostle says, as a beginning, as an impetus for deepening and development, as a seed and leaven. The laborious period of growth makes us sigh; the inner life with God that is already effective awakens in us at the same time strong hope and deep joy. With Paul we thus confess to a Christian realism: "We are saved, but in hope" ( Rom 8:24).

4. Each of us is involved in this painful struggle for the birth of a more humane, more Christian world within and around us. Above all, we must honestly admit that there is sin and guilt in our lives. Many of the fears and needs of our time have their roots in human guilt. As Christians in particular, we are called to constant conversion and deep faith so that our testimony for Christ, the Saviour of mankind, becomes luminous and convincing. We must strive to ensure that the spirit of Christ, which we already possess as a "firstfruits gift", breaks through more and more in our thoughts and actions.

Be "open to the spirit of Christ": the motto you chose for my pastoral visit to Switzerland calls you to do this. Open to the spirit of Christ, who teaches us to understand the Saviour and his word ever more deeply. Open to the spirit of Christ, so that as sons and daughters of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we may bear witness to the true salvation of the world. Open to the spirit of Christ, who is a spirit of hope. Anyone who sees the future only as dark, who claims that man and the world no longer have any meaning, has forgotten God. God does not abandon the world, his plans for it do not fail. God "so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" ( John 3:16). We as the Church are the pilgrim people of God, whose path is Jesus Christ, whose goal is God himself in his glory.

Of course, Christian hope does not take away all darkness, does not make suffering and hardship, worries and fears disappear. On the contrary, it is God himself who takes our suffering and hardship seriously. Before the bright Easter festival comes the dark Good Friday, the cross of Christ. In the same way, our hope is always marked by the cross; but by the cross that already carries within it the promise and victory of the resurrection. The person who believes and hopes knows that even in all adversities and trials he is surrounded by the infinite, loving God.

5. Anyone who has been given such a hopeful faith is also clear-sighted about the manifold work of the Spirit of Christ in our day and in countless known and unknown places in the world. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; . . . the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me" ( Luke 4:18), Jesus called out in Nazareth. In all who follow him, who make his life plan their own, he continues this mission through his Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord also rests upon us; he has anointed us in the holy sacraments of baptism and confirmation and thus made us like Christ, the Anointed One. The Spirit of God wants to drive and strengthen us too, so that we - especially today - can bring salvation and hope into our world.

The reality of redemption is revealed in the presence of the Spirit: the Spirit of truth, who convicts the world of lies; the Spirit of consolation, by whose power Christ constantly proclaims the Good News to the poor, giving hope to those whose dignity is disregarded and who no longer see any future. God's Spirit frees man from the captivity of guilt, from the entanglement of selfish thoughts and aspirations. He frees us to make good and redemptive use of human freedom. Even today, the Spirit of Christ opens the eyes of the blind to the true values ​​of life, to God's presence and action in creation and in the course of history. He gives strength and confidence to the broken, especially to those who suffer and are persecuted for their faith. Through the action of his Spirit, Christ allows the "year of the Lord's favor" to continue in the life and history of mankind, the year of the grace of the covenant and friendship with God.

6. In this action of the Spirit among men, Christ's messianic mission continues. He proclaims and establishes in the world the Kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of truth and love, a kingdom of justice and peace. At the same time, in it "the Spirit also takes care of our weakness", as the Letter to the Romans says ( Rom 8:26). His help reaches the life of man from within and, above all, gives him new strength to pray: when we do not know what to pray for in the right way, "the Spirit himself intercedes for us . . ." ( ibid .). God himself comes to the aid of our weakness and, through his Spirit, completes what we begin only fragmentarily and imperfectly. Our stammering prayer is thus taken up in the eternal adoration of the divine Spirit and thus becomes a prayer that has the promise of being heard. This prayer in the power of the Spirit brings hope to this world full of fear and threatened by the loss of values. It has the power to change this world!

On the day of creation, man was given the task of transforming the entire visible world, especially the earth, with the "work of his hands." Today, man looks at the fruit of his labor with fear: where has he come with the transformation of the visible world? What future awaits our planet?

In the face of this uncertainty and danger, let us reflect once again on the power of prayer! The Lord has entrusted man with prayer so that he may transform the world from his heart; so that he may transform it in the Holy Spirit; so that he may make it more human; so that he may build in it, together with Christ, the Kingdom of God. For us Christians, prayer is above all our strength; it is the source of our hope.

So I ask you, as a gift and grace of this service, what the Apostle Paul once asked for the believers in Rome: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." And I add: so that you may abound in God, so that you can share the riches of your faith and hope with others "by the power of the Holy Spirit." Amen.

7. With great joy I greet you here in Lucerne in your language.

The Romansh region is a country with an ancient Christian tradition. This is evident in many religious monuments and sanctuaries, in parish life, in religious songs and in literary works. This makes me very happy and I invite you all to deepen your faith in your private life, in your families, in the Church and in the State. Open yourselves to the Spirit of Christ!

I express a special thanks to all those who are at the service of the local Church and the missions.

With the ancient greeting “Allegra” I implore the Lord’s blessing upon you!

© Copyright 1984 - Vatican Publishing House

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Publishing House