Dialogue
“When we see others living a holy life, when we recognize the working of the Holy Spirit in other Christian confessions, we cannot fail to rejoice”. In his address to the Methodist World Council, the Pope cited John Wesley, recalling that his “example and his words encouraged many to devote themselves to reading the Bible and to prayer, and in this way to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ”. “Faith becomes tangible above all when it takes concrete form in love, particularly in service to the poor and the marginalized”, he went on to say: “When, as Catholics and Methodists, we join in assisting and comforting the weak and the marginalized – those who in the midst of our societies feel distant, foreign and alienated – we are responding to the Lord’s summons”. “As we look to the future, beyond the past fifty years, one thing is certain: we cannot grow in holiness without growing in communion”, Pope Francis argued: “This is the journey that awaits us in the new phase of the dialogue, devoted to reconciliation”. “We cannot speak of prayer and charity unless together we pray and work for reconciliation and full communion”, the hope expressed by the Pope: “May your discussions about reconciliation be a gift, and not only for our communities but for the world. May they be an incentive to Christians everywhere to be ministers of reconciliation. The Spirit of God brings about the miracle of reconciled unity. He does so in his own way, even as he did at Pentecost, awakening a variety of charisms and ordering everything in a unity that is not uniformity but a communion. We need, then, to remain together, like the disciples awaiting the Spirit, and as brothers and sisters on a shared journey”. “The task is not yet ended, and we are called to look ahead as we continue our journey”, Pope Francis concluded: “We have learned to see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ; now is the time to prepare ourselves, with humble hope and concrete efforts, for that full recognition that will come about, by God’s grace, when at last we will be able to join one another in the breaking of the Bread”.
