Homily at Cotonou, Benin (17 February 1982)

On Wednesday, 17 February 1982, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass at Cotonou, Benin. In his homily, the Pope took as his theme the words of Jesus,  “Make disciples of all nations.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

1. Let us give thanks to God!

May this good news of Jesus always be your joy! May his Gospel always penetrate, with its clarity and strength, the depths of your hearts, your families, your customs, all the realities of your life as a Beninese! May he be your salvation! And may it keep you very united!

Dear Beninese, this is the message that we will meditate on. But first of all a word of cordial greetings. You are renowned for your exquisite hospitality. I benefited from it this morning. Allow me then, in my turn, to begin by greeting the foreigners, who are your hosts, our Togolese friends.

Dear Sons and Daughters of Togo, you came on purpose, with your bishops, like two years ago in Accra, to pray with the Pope. I see a little sadness in your eyes: unfortunately, this time again, I will not be able to come to your house. I hope to do it later, God permitting. I know that you have numerous and vibrant Christian communities in your country. You are already very present in my thoughts and in my heart. Tell your compatriots when you return. And the homily that I am going to address now to your neighbors in Benin will also apply, in large part, to yourselves.

2. “Make disciples of all nations.”

Dear Sons and Daughters of Benin, the Good News entrusted by Christ to his Apostles on Ascension Day has come here. Benin, in turn, after so many other peoples, like that of Rome of which I am the bishop, like that of Poland where I have my roots, welcomed the bearers of the Good News. “How beautiful it is,” says the Scripture taken up by Saint Paul, “to see the messengers of the Good News running!” That was one hundred and twenty years ago. The missionaries who arrived among you did not come of their own accord: they were sent. “How can we preach without first being sent?” They were sent by the Church, in the name of Christ who said: “Go into all the world”. Give freely what you yourself have received freely.

Your country had lived a long time without knowing the Gospel. “How can we believe without first hearing? And how can we hear without a preacher?” And yet his long journey had not been without human values, without religious values. An ancestral wisdom governed family relationships, village and city life. A profoundly religious spirit characterized and still marks the inhabitants of this country. God was not far from each of them, for they were also of his race, as Saint Paul said about the Athenians. Their millennial history, which is lost in the mists of time, their certain trials, had matured and prepared them. Mystery of Providence, which in any case allowed the true face of the Savior to be revealed to them, to dispel the shadows and uncertainties, to convert what, as among other peoples followers of a natural religion, had to be straightened out, purified, elevated, to establish hearts in the love of God and in the love of brothers as Jesus had taught. A new stage began.

3. Today, above all else, we give thanks to God for these one hundred and twenty years of evangelization. Already my predecessor John XXIII sent you, on September 8, nineteen hundred and sixty-one, for the centenary, a beautiful letter brought to you by the Cardinal Dean of the Sacred College. I make his message my own. Today, the Pope comes physically among you, to celebrate the wonders of God and strengthen your walk in faith. Providence allowed it by saving me from the attack of May 13, and for that too you give thanks with me.

Who will ever tell of the secret efforts, strewn with joy and sacrifice, of the pioneers of the Gospel and their successors, during this Christian period? It took a lot of patience, a lot of faith, above all a lot of love for the Beninese, to want to help them gradually access the fullness of Christian life and responsibilities in the Church. Their bodies lie in the earth of this country. “If the grain thrown into the ground dies, it bears much fruit.” Today, the Church, like a well-rooted tree, has grown from the children of this people. It now has its priests and its bishops, its religious, natives of the country. And even a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals! Without going over the whole story, let us instead look at the Church in Benin as it presents itself now.

It is not giving in to triumphalism to highlight the positive aspects which characterize it, thanks to God, and which are reasons for hope, on which we must base progress. The Church in Benin has experienced slowness, trials, temptations, perhaps abandonment. She remains lucidly aware of her weaknesses and her shortcomings. But doesn't she find a new vigor, a new vitality? A movement of conversion continues to take place among you, dear Brothers and Sisters of Benin. Faith is strengthening among many of you, it is deepening; you feel the need for it more. You have learned and you will learn to know it better, to take account of it. You know the price and the vital necessity of participation in religious celebrations. We even see prayer groups of young people and adults multiplying.

Priestly vocations – this is a good sign – are emerging in greater numbers. Many lay people agree, on a voluntary basis, to be catechists for their brothers. Others are preparing for an apostolate directed towards their student, worker or agricultural environment. Catechetical means are experiencing a revival using ways adapted to your genius, such as the famous royal song “hanyé”. Likewise, the liturgy is lively, with expressive rites, while remaining very dignified and prayerful. The testimony of charity continues to be exercised in certain areas of social life, where possible, in particular in health works, hospitals and dispensaries. You are, with your compatriots, more concerned with promoting justice, peace and prosperity in your country.

Should we say that a new spring is opening for this Church? I wish this with all my heart with you. Let's entrust it to the grace of God. And this is what I have come to encourage first of all, by inviting you to develop it, to strengthen it.

4. However, Brothers and Sisters of Benin, be vigilant!

A new stage opens before you. Evangelism must continue, extend to others, and above all reach more deeply into the realities of your own life.

Don't you have many of your compatriots who do not yet really know the Gospel, and who therefore cannot give their faith to it? Certainly, the obedience of faith must always be done in the mystery of conscience, free from any external constraint. But precisely, how can we freely join the Church of Christ, if we have not had the opportunity to hear the faith preached, and above all to see it lived by a community of neighbors, of friends? I am thinking in particular of certain regions in the North of the country, where the first evangelization has not yet really taken place.

Even if, thank God, foreign missionaries bring you precious help, it is increasingly up to the Beninese, especially the priests and nuns, to bring the Good News to other Beninese, from diocese to diocese, and even, why not, beyond your borders, for example to other Africans. I invite you to this sharing of faith. Does not the fact that Cardinal Gantin was called to Rome, first to the service of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, then to promote justice and peace in all countries, stimulate your Church to be more and more missionary?

5. But I want to talk even more about the second stage of evangelization. Certainly, Saint Paul gets to the point when he says: “If you affirm with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved”. It is into this faith that you were baptized. But the same apostle often visited the communities he had founded so that baptism, that is to say the initiation of the Christian, had an impact throughout life, and he dedicated the second part of each of his letters to describe the progress of Christian morals. Jesus himself had not only said: “Baptize”, but “teach them to keep all the commandments which I have given you”.

Evangelizing then means imbuing with the spirit of the beatitudes – simplicity of life, righteousness, purity, justice, peace, courage and above all love – the daily relationships of people among themselves and with God, of groups among themselves, in families and the society; and this to the point of deeply marking, from within, by the light and the force of the Gospel, the most intimate and most rooted realities, the habits, the criteria of judgment, the determining values, the points of interest, the lines of thought, the inspiring sources and the models of life, without excluding the institutions which influence them, in a word the cultures. The grafting of the Gospel causes the tree nourished with African sap to bear new fruit. Then men and women acquire their authentic human and Christian personality, consistent with themselves, that is to say here with their African soul.

This is how, for example, we must extend the evangelization of individuals to families, or rather to all family life, so that – grafted onto other ancestral virtues such as solidarity between families and the joy of fertility – the personal love of the spouses shines ever more clearly, lived in the respect, unity and indissoluble fidelity of the couple, the concern for education, and everything that flows from the Gospel, as I recalled, at the following the Synod, in my last apostolic exhortation.

Evangelization must likewise enlighten, purify and elevate all the customs and traditions which so strongly permeate the souls of your compatriots, in order to take on all that can contribute to a life more in conformity with the Christian faith and, ultimately, more profoundly human. Consciences must be carefully helped in this discernment: thus, freed from fear, the faithful will be able to progress in peace, by bringing out the best of themselves, with the cultural riches that they can and must keep, but in accepting the demands and, if necessary, the ruptures imposed by the Gospel. Thus Christians will be truly worthy of Christ, keeping the vigor of the salt or the leaven in the dough, and their faith will not fade into the ambiguity of a perilous syncretism.

We still need to evangelize the realities of work and social life. Christians will be lucid about materialism and the immoderate concern for money which risk not only making them lose their soul, but deteriorating social relationships, encouraging lies, corrupting professional conscience, causing people to neglect the sense of duty – everyone content to claim their rights – to make people lose the sense of the common good and that of gratuity in human relations so dear to the Beninese. Yes, Christians, for reasons of faith and love of their homeland, must be at the forefront of those who want at all costs to promote or reestablish these values, without which society would deteriorate. May they also set an example of great attention to the poor, contributing effectively to ensuring that they always have enough to eat, clothe themselves, care for themselves, educate themselves and live as sons of God.

6. If time were given to me, I would have liked to address detailed encouragement, based on these principles of evangelization, to all categories of God's people. But your bishops, who have my full confidence, will take care to develop this discussion, in the same spirit. I am so happy to be surrounded by Monsignor Christophe Adimou, Archbishop of Cotonou, and his coadjutor, Monsignor Isidore de Souza, by Monsignor Lucien Agboka, Bishop of Abomey, by Monsignor Nestor Assogba, Bishop of Parakou, by Monsignor Vincent Mensah , Bishop of Porto Novo, of Monsignor Robert Sastre, Bishop of Lokossa and of Monsignor Patient Redois, Bishop of Natitingou.

I therefore content myself with saying to you, with them:
Dear priests, renew with joy the wonderful gift of your life to the Lord. The Christian people revere you, love you and count on you. With the Lord, be good shepherds, very available and close to your people, from humble as well as cultivated environments. Stay very attentive to lay Christians, whose trust and generosity will be a springboard for your priesthood. Also deepen the study of the realities and cultures that you encounter, to determine, with your bishops, a relevant pastoral ministry, and the dialogue that is appropriate with all those who believe in God.

Dear seminarians, I am delighted to see your number increase, both at the major seminary of Ouidah and in the minor seminaries of Adjatokpa, Djimé and Parakou: it is crucial for the future of the Church. And what a providential coincidence: it was exactly sixty-eight years ago today that the Ouidah seminary opened, which I would have liked to visit! He trained practically all your elders, all the priests, seven Beninese bishops – I say seven because we must also include Cardinal Gantin – and the bishops of Togo. We recognize the tree to its fruits! I also remember the admirable figures of priests who have joined the house of God: Father Thomas Moulero, Father Gabriel Kiti, Father Dominique Adeyemi, Father Lucien Hounongbé, and the venerated Monsignor Moïse Durand who has just left us.

Consider it a signal grace to serve the people of God in the priesthood, with no other ambition than to devote yourself entirely to the urgent work of evangelization of which I have just spoken, and to give your compatriots the very life of God.

May deacons and religious brothers also know how to pursue with zeal their ministry or service which has an important place in the Church.

And to you, dear Sisters, I say a special word: to the joy which radiates so spontaneously in the hearts and on the faces of Beninese Christians, you obviously add that of being free to love the Lord with an undivided heart, to lead a simple, evangelical life, marked by trust in God, love of the poor, service to the Church, missionary sense. May your testimony shine ever brighter!

I have not forgotten the contemplative monks, the Trappists of Kokoubou and the Benedictines of Zagnanado, the Trappistines of Parakou and the Benedictines of Toffo. Let us thank these men and women for praying day and night for Benin and for the entire Church, in these high places of adoration and intercession which manifest the gratuitous love of God.

Dear lay Christians, fathers and mothers of families, children and young people, catechists, community leaders, men and women who exercise the apostolate in multiple ways, the Church is counting a lot on you. I encourage you to complete the training that will enable you to perform your Church service even better. Continue to bear witness without fear to your faith which deserves the respect and esteem of all your compatriots. Take, in agreement with your priests, the responsibilities which are necessary to support the faith, prayer and Christian action of your brothers and sisters, to evangelize the concrete and daily realities which are your lot. I am thinking in particular of the magnificent role that women can play in their home, in their parish, and among other African women.

Finally, may all those who are held back by illness, physical or moral suffering, trials of all kinds, prison, feel close to the heart of the Pope, who would like to bring them the comfort that Jesus gave in preference to the afflicted. None of their sorrows are lost in the communion of saints!

7. Before ending, I leave you an instruction, which is the final instruction of Jesus, and that so often repeated by the Apostles Peter and Paul: Stay very united among yourselves. On this, be vigilant, within and without. Oh yes, may the unity of faith and charity among you always prevail over the diversity of methods, over the grievances which may arise between Christians, over jealousies, over the spirit of sect which would ruin the Church! And remember that the Church has known, since the beginning of its history as well as now, difficulties and trials of all kinds, of which division has not been the least. Agreeing to allow the seeds of distrust and opposition to creep between Christians is always fatal to Christian communities, which soon become weakened and vulnerable. Rather, bear witness, in peace and without hatred of anyone, to your fraternal solidarity. You will be united among yourselves, united around your bishops, united with the successor of Peter, guarantor of fidelity and unity.

Finally, I encourage Catholics to maintain the good relationships they have with those who share faith in Christ.

8. Is any program too ambitious or too cumbersome? To our human forces, it might seem so. But Christ told us in today's Gospel: “I am with you always until the end of the world”, And Saint Paul's letter also said: “None of those who believe in him will not have to regret it”. If you are faithful to Christ, he cannot abandon you. He will never cease to cooperate, mysteriously, in all your work of evangelization. Don't be afraid. With Him, be in hope, in peace, I dare say, in joy, this joy of Christians which already clearly animates you.

Cardinal Gantin remembers, undoubtedly with many other Beninese, three key words that Monseigneur Parisot, his predecessor at the see of Cotonou, liked to repeat. They certainly do not claim to synthesize the Christian mystery, but they are significant of a deep spiritual life: “The Cross, the Host, the Virgin”. You will surely carry the Cross, you already carry it, but not alone: ​​with Christ, with all your brothers of the universal Church, some of whom know the ordeal well, and it then becomes a source of life. The Virgin, you pray to her, you will pray to her even better: she inevitably guides her children on the path of her Son; she obtains for them the Holy Spirit; she will watch over you as she watches over my country. Isn't the Host the summit of our worship? It is the living Christ who now brings us together, who offers himself for us, who transmits his Life to us.

E ni kpa Mawu Praised be God
E ni kpa Gesù Cristù Laiué be JesusiOrist
E ni kpa Maria Praised be Mary

Amen!

© Copyright 1982 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

 Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana