Solemn Concelebration in Wroclaw (21 June 1983)

On Tuesday, 21 June 1983, the Holy Father presided at a Solemn Concelebration in Wroclaw, commemorating Saint Hedwig of Silesia. In his homily, the Pope reflected on the Beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

1. " Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied " ( Mt . 5, 6).

With this beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount, the liturgy of today's solemnity venerates Saint Hedwig of Silesia.

With this blessing I greet the city of Wroclaw in the ancient land of the Piasts. I greet the Metropolitan Church present in Wroclaw and which includes the suffragan Churches of Gorzow and Opole. In these Churches I greet the entire People of God of Lower Silesia, the Land of Lubusz and Opole, which I will have the opportunity to visit later today, as I proceed to the Shrine on Mount St. Anne.

I greet the Metropolitan of Wroclaw, Archbishop Henry, and the Auxiliary Bishops of Wroclaw, Bishop Vincent, the eldest, and Bishops Thaddeus and Adam. From Gorzow I greet Bishop William, with whom I was called to the episcopate on the same day, and Auxiliary Bishop Paul, on whom I was granted the right to lay hands and confer the Episcopal Order. I also greet Bishop Alphonsus of Opole and the Auxiliary Bishops, whom I will have the opportunity to greet later in their diocese.

I am pleased to see many Polish Bishops present, as well as visitors from abroad.

2. I have come to Wroclaw many times in the past. I came from Krakow, especially when the Archbishop and later Metropolitan of Wroclaw was the late Cardinal Boleslaw Kominek, a pastor of great merit for the Church and society in Lower Silesia; and I also came later in the time of his current successor. I know the Gothic Cathedral well, which recalls the time of Bishop Nanker, and in it I have had the opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist and proclaim the Word of God on several occasions. I would also like to greet the Metropolitan Chapter and all the clergy, both from Wroclaw and from other dioceses, as well as the religious families, both male and female. I was in frequent contact with the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Wroclaw and the Pontifical Faculty of Theology . Today I would also like to greet these institutions, which are so important for the future of the Church and for the development of Catholic culture in Lower Silesia.

When I was in Poland in 1979 , Wroclaw and Lower Silesia came to Jasna Góra , bringing with them the relics of Saint Hedwig. They are very precious and venerable relics, and they remind me of 16 October 1978 , the liturgical solemnity of Saint Hedwig, when, by the inscrutable designs of Divine Providence, I was called to the See of Saint Peter in Rome . Today, as part of my second pilgrimage to my homeland, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Jasna Góra , I am able to come to Wroclaw. And here, together with you, dear brothers and sisters, I can repeat, at the relics of your holy patroness : “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

These words also direct our hearts to the extraordinary Jubilee of Redemption, through which the entire Church wishes to draw more abundantly from the sources of Redemption.

3. The Saints are the persons of the eight Beatitudes . Saint Hedwig of Silesia, that perfect woman (cf. Prov 31:10), hungered and thirsted for justice , as we read about in the first reading of today's liturgy.

She came from Germany, from the family of the Bavarian Counts Diessen-Abdechs, and from there she went to the land of the Piasts , entering the Piasts family as the wife of Henry nicknamed the Bearded. We find ourselves at the turn of the 12th century to the 13th century. Everything that the Book of Proverbs says about the "perfect woman" applies to Princess Hedviges, as a wife and mother. And it also applies to her, throughout her life, as a widow (which is why the second liturgical reading today speaks of widowhood).

When she became a widow, she discovered that, through the call to marriage and motherhood, Christ had prepared her for another vocation, thanks to which she could completely satisfy God's will, becoming through an exclusive and complete donation to the Divine Spouse , assuming a religious lifestyle, "sister and mother" of Christ , according to His words: "Whoever does the will of God is My brother, My sister and My mother" ( Mk 3, 35) . We read these words in today's Gospel. Hedwig of Silesia fulfilled God's will to the end, becoming in the Holy Spirit "sister and mother" of Christ himself.

And this spiritual motherhood of hers had to be realized and confirmed in a particular way with regard to her own son Henry , called the Pious. He died — as we all know — in the fierce battle, in the region of Legnica, against the Tartars, who then, in the first half of the 13th century, had penetrated with their fierce armies towards the West, crossing the entire Polish land; Henry the Pious dies on the battlefield, in Legnica, but the Tartars did not continue to the West, and withdrew to the East, thus leaving the lands of the Piasts free from their control.

Mother Hedviges knew how to live the death of her son Henry with a spirit of faith , and in this she showed herself similar to the Mother of God who, standing at the foot of the cross on Calvary, offered the sacrifice of her divine Son for the salvation of the world. In this way, Saint Hedwig of Silesia also entered the history of Poland and Europe.

4. In this story, she is almost a defining figure , uniting two nations: the German nation and the Polish nation. She unites them throughout the many centuries of difficult and painful history. Amid all the vicissitudes of history, Saint Hedwig remained for nearly seven centuries as the one who interceded for mutual understanding and reconciliation, in accordance with the demands of national law, international justice and peace. It can also be said that, thanks to her intercession, the Apostolic See was able to bring about ecclesial normalization in these territories, which, after the Second World War, after so many centuries, once again became part of the Polish State, as in the time of the Piasts. We remember, in fact, that Wrocław, as a bishopric from the year one thousand, became part of the metropolis of Gniezno, and this situation lasted until 1821.

I would like to give the floor here to a son of the land of Silesia , who is the first Metropolitan of Wroclaw after the Second World War. Here are the words that Cardinal Boleslaw Kominek spoke: "Next to the Cathedral Bridge in Wroclaw, which leads to the Piast Island, there is a stone statue of Hedwig. It is located next to the bridge that joins the eastern and western banks of the River Odra. It attracts the attention of all who pass by and makes them think that we are all brothers, regardless of which bank they live on.

United in this fraternity of Christ, we greet each other. The mystery of Christ on the altar, and the brotherhood of men, whatever shore they dwell on, have gathered us together in the name of the Lord.

Let us pray to our Patroness of Silesia, that she may obtain for us, from the Holy Trinity, peace, concord and fraternity in the human family of societies and nations" ( Trzebinca , 15.10.1967).

This idea of ​​mutual understanding and reconciliation (Vershönung) was, as is known, shared by many representatives of the Polish and German Episcopates. I myself took part in one such visit, together with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a few weeks before I was elected to the See of Peter.

5. We have looked, therefore, over more than seven centuries, to Saint Hedviges, and we see in her a great light , which illuminates the human problems of the land of neighboring peoples and at the same time the problems of our homeland. In her life almost all the fullness of the Christian vocation was expressed . Saint Hedviges read the Gospel to the end and in all its life-giving truth. There was no divergence in her between the vocation of the widow — founder of the Trzebnica convent — and the vocation of the wife-mother in Henry's house of Piasts. One thing came after the other and, at the same time, one was deeply rooted in the other. Hedviges lived for God from the beginning, she lived above all on the love of God , exactly as she prescribes the first commandment of the Gospel. She lived this way in marriage as a wife and mother. And when she became a widow, she immediately saw that this love for God above all could henceforth become exclusive in relation to the divine Spouse. And she followed this vocation.

In the evangelical commandment of love we find, in fact, the deepest source of man's spiritual development. For this reason, I also wish all of you, dear brothers and sisters, my compatriots, who here in Wrocław and Lower Silesia have received this special heritage from Saint Hedwig, that your personal, family and social life may be based, following her example, on the commandment of love . This is in fact the deepest source of the moral culture of individuals and nations. And it is on moral culture that their essential progress depends. Man is a being created in the image and likeness of God; therefore, his essential development and true culture result from knowledge of this image and likeness and from the persevering formation of humanity itself in this human and at the same time divine measure.

It is necessary that you, who are present here, who were born and raised in Lower Silesia, following in the footsteps of your great Patroness, the Mother of the Piasts, begin to read, in a certain sense as if on her knees, the Gospel , as her children read it, as Prince Henry the Pious, the hero of Legnica, read it, and in this way consolidate within yourselves the deepest foundations of human and Christian morality, which is at the same time the foundation of the culture of the nation and the condition of its development.

6. "The husband's heart trusts in her" ( Prov . 31,11): this is what the Book of Proverbs says about the "perfect woman". It is necessary that we place before the eyes of the soul the image of this house of the Piasts, of that family in which Hedviges was wife and mother. The marriage and family community is built on mutual trust . This is the fundamental good of mutual relationships in the family: the reciprocal relationship between spouses and the relationship between parents and children. The deepest foundation of these relationships is, ultimately, the trust that God himself has in relation to spouses, creating them and calling them to life in the conjugal and family community.

Exactly on this trust in parents God based the relationship between children and parents. "The heart of God trusts in them." God based particularly on his trust in the mother , son-mother relationships. "The heart of God trusts in her"! God the Father wanted to guarantee the child's life, his treasure; He wanted her, from the moment of her conception, to be entrusted to the care of the person closest to her: her own mother. "The heart of God trusts in her." A family truly is one if it is built on such relationships, on reciprocal trust, on reciprocal guarantees. Only on such a foundation is it possible to institute the process of education , which constitutes the essential purpose of the family and its main function. In carrying out this duty, parents cannot be replaced by anyone, and no one can even deprive parents of this fundamental mission . At the same time, it is never useless to remember that fulfilling this duty presents parents with important demands . Parents themselves must be educated in order to educate, and they must also constantly educate themselves in order to educate others. Only under these conditions, with such an inner attitude, can the process of education be fruitful . If much can depend today — in Lower Silesia and throughout Poland — on a fruitful and effective process of education in the family, it is because all this is of fundamental importance for the future of the entire Nation , and — I would almost say — for the good of the Polish State!

7. "The husband's heart trusts in her..." we read in the liturgy for the feast of Saint Hedwig. Why does the husband's heart trust his wife? Why does the wife's heart trust her husband? Why do the hearts of children trust their parents? Such trust is certainly an expression of love, on which all morality and culture are built, starting from fundamental inter-human relationships. However, this love also depends on truth. Spouses have mutual trust because they believe in each other, because they are in the truth. Children trust their parents because they expect the truth from them, and they trust them because they receive the truth from them. Truth is therefore the foundation of trust . And truth is also the power of love. Reciprocally, love is also the power of truth. In the power of love, man is willing to accept even the most difficult, the most demanding truth . Henry was willing to accept the truth that it was necessary to give his life and his mother. Saint Hedwig knew how to accept the truth of her son's death.

8. There is also an indissoluble relationship between truth and love and all morality and human culture . It can be seen with certainty that only in this reciprocal relationship can man truly live as a man. This is important in all dimensions . It is important in the dimension of the family, which constitutes the fundamental human community. But it is also important in the dimension of the whole great society, which is the nation . It is important in the dimension of private environments, especially those which by their nature have an educational function, such as schools and universities. It is important for all those who seek to advance the culture of the nation: for artistic environments, for literature, music, theatre, the visual arts. It is necessary to create in truth and in love. It can be said that the larger the circle, the less the focus of this principle . However, no circle should be underestimated, that is, no environment, no institution, no means or instrument of communication and dissemination.

9. The entire Polish nation must live in mutual trust! And this trust is based on truth. It must, moreover, regain this trust in the wider sphere of its social existence. This is a truly fundamental problem. I will not hesitate to say that it is precisely on this—and above all on this, on trust built on truth—that the future of the Fatherland depends . It is necessary to build trust, to deepen it, day by day, inch by inch. All dimensions of social being, including the political and economic dimensions and, of course, the cultural and every other dimension, are all ultimately based on this fundamental ethical dimension : truth, trust, community. This is the case in the family. This is the case on every scale, in the nation and in the state. This is also the case in all families of humanity.

"Leave your country, your country and your father's house, and go to a country that I will show you...; I will make your name great" ( Gen. 12,1-2). Today's liturgy applies these words to Saint Hedviges of Silesia. From a foreign land he came to us and entered the Piast family and our history , to testify even today, after seven centuries, some simple truths and some fundamental principles, without which there is no truly human life; without which not only man and family, but also the nation, cannot live and develop.

10. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice! There are here in Wrocław and in Lower Silesia, and throughout Poland, many men, very many men, who hunger and thirst for justice .

I am thinking at this moment of the men who work hard every day; of the Polish fields, of the men who cultivate the land, of the educational institutions, of the University of Wroclaw and of the Higher Schools and of all the other Schools, of the men of science and culture, of the artists, of the miners, of the metalworkers, of the workers of the "PaFaWag" (a large carriage factory), of the other establishments, of the administrative staff, and of all of you who fulfil the Creator's commandment: "Subdue the earth". To all of you I offer my solidarity and that of the Church.

This hunger and thirst for justice has been particularly evident in recent years.

I strongly desire, as pastor of the Church and at the same time as a son of my Nation, to confirm this hunger and thirst , which are born from the healthy resources of the Polish spirit: from the sense of dignity of human work, from love for the Fatherland and from solidarity, that is , the sense of the common good.

I would like at the same time to preserve this just hunger and thirst for justice of the great multitudes of my compatriots from everything that deforms and weakens them. But at the same time I would also like to free them and defend them from all objections and unjust accusations, wherever they may come from.

To everything that is just hunger or thirst for justice in the life of the nation, it is necessary to respond in such a way that the entire Nation regains reciprocal trust. This cannot be destroyed or suppressed. We cannot be careless, because as our poet says: "the Fatherland is a great reciprocal duty", which obliges "the Fatherland for the man" is "the man for the Fatherland" (CK Norwid, Memorial on young Emigration ).

The Polish Nation, and in particular Wroclaw and the people of Lower Silesia, with their gaze fixed on the admirable figure of Saint Hedviges, mother of the Piasts, remember all those who died from this land during the Second World War, all those who died during these forty years, after the conclusion of the war, all those who lost their lives in the events of recent years.

Wroclaw and the people of Lower Silesia, with their gaze fixed on the admirable figure of Saint Hedwig, mother of the Piasts, in this land, confess with faith, hope and charity: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied!"

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