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The Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Pavle consecrated the church of the community in Ljubljana on Sunday, 23 October. He did so during a solemn Mass celebrated in the presence of Cardinal Tomas Spidlik, Archbishop Alojzij Uran, metropolitan of Ljubljana, the Apostolic Nuncio in Slovenia Msgr. Abril y Castellò Santos, the President of the State of Slovenia Drnovsek and some Orthodox bishops. During the rite, Patriarch Pavle placed in the altar the relics of St. Athanasius that had been brought from the Vatican by the representative of the Holy See. The Orthodox community particularly wished to have some relics of a saint of the first millennium, i.e. of the period before the separation between Western Church and Oriental Church that occurred in 1054. This gesture is very significant from an ecumenical point of view, because it expresses the desire of proceeding together towards unity, round saints common to both traditions. It is an invitation to overcome the barriers that divide, and seek the common roots that unite us, above all the rich heritage of our common faith in Christ. The word relic means what is left behind of a deceased person. But it is not only his physical remains that he leaves behind. What remains, when a person has embodied in his life the evangelical ideal in an extraordinary way, is above all the eternal life and the fame of sanctity. The late-lamented Pope John Paul II thus canonized many saints, more than all the previous popes put together, if only to make us see that the call to sainthood belongs to us all, not just to the elect. The saints unite us and teach us how to change society with an interior strength that comes from deep faith in the risen Christ. St. Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church, was more than once exiled, forced to flee and go underground precisely due to his faith in the divinity of Jesus. He defended this truth that is a mystery from which our salvation depends. For if Jesus is not the Son of God, we are neither redeemed nor saved, salvation being the work of God. The discussions of St. Athanasius may seem antiquated, but have something in common with our present-day life: the problem of atheism and the lack of faith that lead to the consequences we know. Man no longer has the ideals that give him the strength to live. The difficulties of the European society in which we as Christians live derive from the fact that contemporary man has difficulty in finding his personal vocation and is losing himself. He has forgotten whence he comes, why he lives and what is the purpose of his life. He has difficulty is finding his roots as a man and also as a Christian. In historical perspective it is clear that the saints, such as St. Athanasius, have changed society, each in his own way. We can learn from them that only a commitment founded on deep faith bears fruit. The common path of all the local Churches of Europe towards the Third Ecumenical Assembly that will take place in Sibiu in Romania in 2007 is a strong invitation to us all to rethink how we can contribute to Christian unity and be a sign of hope for society today. Post-modern man in Europe, who finds himself in economic, political and social difficulties, must rethink his roots. It is not enough to ratify the European Constitution or mention the Christian roots in the Constitution. We need to believe and have the evangelical ideals. We need to dedicate ourselves to a life lived according to the examples of the saints and bear witness to our faith that today too there is a God.
