BENEDICT XVI: THE UNITY OF CHIRISTIANS, "DO NOT LOSE HEART" (3)

” “With reference to the Biblical subject of the Week of Prayer for the Unity of Christians ("He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak", Mk 7, 31-37)., Benedict XVI highlighted that, by analogy with what happened to the deaf-mute healed by Jesus, "every Christian, spiritually deaf and dumb because of the original sin, receives the gift of ”Effatà’ with Baptism", and then he added, off the cuff, "through the grace of Baptism, every Christian" "becomes able to listen to the word of God and proclaim it to his brothers. Actually starting from that time, he is bound to grow in the knowledge and love of Christ so as to be able to effectively announce and bear witness to the Gospel". He then went on and noted that "this subject, by shedding light on two aspects of the mission of every Christian community – the announcement of the Gospel and the testimony of love –, also highlights how important it is to translate the message of Christ into factual initiatives of solidarity. This – he said – eases the path to unity, because one can say every relief, no matter how small, that the Christians give, together, to other people’s sufferings helps give visibility to their communion and to their loyalty to the Lord’s order".” ” ” ” ” ” ” “