Korazim, Israel-Palestine, Mount of the Beatitudes; 24 March 2000 | Today, the Apostle Paul addresses these words – “Consider your calling, brothers and sisters” (1 Corinthians 1: 26 New International Translation NIV) – to all of us who gather here on the Mount of the Beatitudes. We sit on this hill like the first disciples.
In the stillness, we hear Jesus. We listen to his gentle and urgent voice, as tender as this land itself and as burning as a call to choose between life and death.
It is wonderful that you are here!
Thank you, Archbishop Boutros Mouallem, for your kind welcome. Please take my prayerful greeting to the whole Greek-Melkite community over which you preside. I extend my fraternal good wishes to the many Cardinals, Patriarch Sabbah, and many Bishops present and all the priests.
I greet the members of the Latin community, including the Hebrew-speaking faithful, the Maronite community, the Syrian community, the Armenian community, the Chaldean community, and all our brothers and sisters of the other Christian Churches; and Ecclesial Communities.
I extend a special word of thanks to our Muslim friends who are here, the Jewish faith members, and the Druse community.
Young people of Israel, of the Palestinian Territories, of Jordan and Cyprus; young people of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Europe, America, and Oceania! With love and affection, I greet each one of you!
- The first to hear the Beatitudes of Jesus bore in their hearts the memory of another mountain – Mount Sinai, where God spoke to Moses and gave the Law, “written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31: 18 NIV) on the tablets of stone.
These two mountains – Sinai and the Mount of the Beatitudes – offer us the roadmap of our Christian life and a summary of our responsibilities to God and neighbor. Both the Law and the Beatitudes mark the path to follow Christ and the royal road to spiritual maturity and freedom.
The Ten Commandments of Sinai may seem negative: “You will have no false gods before me; . . . do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness…” (Exodus 20: 3, 13-16 NIV). But in fact, they are supremely positive. Moving beyond the evil they name, they point the way to the Law of love which is the first and greatest of the commandments:
“You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind … You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22: 37, 39 NIV).
Jesus himself says that he came not to abolish but to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5: 17 NIV). His message is new, but it does not destroy what went before; it leads what went before to its fullest potential.
Jesus teaches that the way of love brings the Law to fulfillment (Galatians 5: 14 NIV).
And he taught this enormously important truth on this hill here in Galilee.
- “Blessed are you!” he says, “all you who are poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, you who mourn, who care for what is right, who are pure in heart, who make peace, you who are persecuted! Blessed are you!” But the words of Jesus may seem strange. Oddly, Jesus exalts those whom the world generally regards as weak. He says to them, “Blessed are you who seem to be losers because you are the true winners: the kingdom of heaven is yours!” Spoken by him who is “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11: 29 NIV), these words present a challenge that demands a deep and abiding metanoia of the spirit, a significant change of heart.
You young people will understand why this change of heart is necessary! Because you are aware of another voice within you and all around you, a contradictory voice. It is a voice that says, “Blessed are the proud and violent, those who prosper at any cost, who are unscrupulous, pitiless, devious, who make war not peace, and persecute those who stand in their way.” And this voice seems to make sense in a world where the violent often triumph and the devious seem to succeed.
“Yes,” says the voice of evil, “they are the ones who win.” 1
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Innsbruck, Austria; 27 June 1988 | A dignified homeland means much more than clean air, clear water, and healthy soil. The homeland for which each of us longs greets where people are kind to each other and act for each other, where they also bear each other in their weaknesses, where there is time for a confidential conversation, where one is ready to forgive. Fatherland means designing a home and workplace responsibly, paying attention to Sundays and public holidays, providing hospitality, helpfulness in the neighborhood, political culture. Such an experience may even become a premonition of our eternal homeland among believers. 2
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Israel’s PM is playing with fire on the Temple Mount
22 July 2021
Source: The Times of Israel
By David Horovitz
Published 19 July 2021
Bennett hailed ‘freedom of Jewish worship’ at the religious hotspot, a day after TV footage showed Jews at prayer there. Then he backtracked, anonymously. This is no way to govern.
Read more: Israel’s PM is playing with fire on the Temple Mount
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Saint Pope John Paul II continues from the Mount of the Beatitudes:
- Jesus offers a very different message. Not far from this very place, Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now. His call has always demanded a choice between the two voices competing for your hearts. Even now, on this hill, you choose between good and evil, between life and death. Which voice will the young people of the twenty-first century choose to follow? To put your faith in Jesus means choosing to believe what he says, no matter how strange it may seem, and choosing to reject the claims of evil, no matter how sensible or attractive they may seem.
In the end, Jesus does not merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives the Beatitudes. He is the Beatitudes. Looking at him, you will see what it means to be poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, to mourn, to care for what is right, to be pure in heart, to make peace, to be persecuted. This is why he has the right to say, “Come, follow me!” He does not say simply, “Do what I say.” He says, “Come, follow me!”
You hear his voice on this hill, and you believe what he says. But like the first disciples at the Sea of Galilee, you must leave your boats and nets behind, and that is never easy – especially when you face an uncertain future and are tempted to lose faith in your Christian heritage. To be good Christians may seem beyond your strength in today’s world. But Jesus does not stand by and leave you alone to face the challenge. He is always with you to transform your weakness into strength. Trust him when he says: “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 9 NIV)!
- The disciples spent time with the Lord. They came to know and love him deeply. They discovered the meaning of what the Apostle Peter once said to Jesus: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John6: 68 NIV). They discovered that the words of eternal life are the words of Sinai and the words of the Beatitudes. And this is the message which they spread everywhere. 1
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Luanda (Angola), 7 June 1992 | Young people of Angola,
Dedicate your life to worthy and just causes!
Build a homeland that rests on authentic human and Christian values so that the world of tomorrow does not accuse you of having left it a homeland devoid of ideals and alienated in pseudo-values.
Build something that has value!
Love one another and help each other, with particular attention to the poor and marginalized.
Do not accept social divisions in your code of relations: they are a sad legacy of the past.
Let the differences be attributes that enrich and give multiformity to the Angolan people and not a reason for division and discord. Be a united people, build a single nation in which everyone can consider themselves brothers. 3
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From Israel-Palestine | It is your turn to go out into the world to preach the message of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. When God speaks, he speaks of things that have the greatest importance for each person, for the people of the twenty-first century no less than those of the first century. The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes speak of truth and goodness, of grace and freedom: of all that is necessary to enter into Christ’s Kingdom.
Young people of the Holy Land, Young people of the world: answer the Lord with a heart that is willing and open! “I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1: 38 NIV). 1
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