Pope Francis remembers in Africa that revenge is not a Christian attitude

Before the 60,000 faithful who filled the Maputo Zimpeto stadium to attend the Mbad presided over by Pope Francis, the last event in Mozambique before continuing their apostolic journey to Africa, the Holy Father called for the reconciliation of Mozambicans and the wounds of the civil war that developed between 1977 and 1992 and whose consequences are still felt in the country.

The pope recalled Jesus' message in the Gospel: "Love your enemies." These are "a few words were also addressed to us today, that we hear in this stage".

Francisco's words, pronounced in a pouring rain that did not seem to bother the dozens of faithful who listened silently to the words of the pontiff and enthusiastically supported the liturgical songs of a strong African identity, seemed prophetic to a suffering population. one of the longest civil wars in Africa after independence.

Francisco stressed that reconciliation is no longer necessary as many Mozambicans have suffered the violence of the first-person war.

"Many of you can always tell stories of violence, hatred and first-person disagreements; some in their own flesh, others of someone known who is no longer there, others even because of the fear that the wounds of the past will be repeated and tempt them. To erase the path traveled by peace.

Therefore, he acknowledged that "it is difficult to talk about reconciliation when the wounds caused by so many years of disagreement are still fresh or invite to take that measure of forgiveness that does not mean to ignore the pain or ask that memory or ideals be lost. "

Despite this, "Jesus Christ invites us to love and to do good; which is much more than ignoring the one who hurt us or making the effort not to cross our lives: it is a mandate for an active, selfless and extraordinary kindness to those who have us. it hurts. "

In addition, he recalled that Jesus also asked to bless and pray for his enemies. "That is to say that our word about them is a good word, generator of life and not of death, that we do not pronounce their name by insult or by contrast to inaugurate a new bond for peace".

"With this invitation, Jesus wants to end forever the usual practice, yesterday and today, of being a Christian and living under the law of retaliation. You can not think of the future, build a nation, a society based on the "fairness" of violence. I can not follow Jesus if the order that I am defending and that I live is "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

In his homily, Pope Francis pointed out that "no family, no group of neighbors or ethnic group, with the exception of a country, has a future if the engine that unites them, calls them and covers the differences is revenge and hatred ".

"We can not accept and unite to avenge ourselves, to make the abuser the same as ourselves, to plan retaliation opportunities in seemingly legal formats."

"The equity of violence is always a dead end spiral and its cost is very high," he insisted, "Another way is possible because it is essential to remember that our peoples have the right to peace. You have the right to peace. "

The Pontiff called for "overcoming the times of division and violence," which "presupposes not only an act of reconciliation or peace understood as an absence of conflict, but also the daily engagement of each of us who is active. leads us to treat others with the mercy and kindness with which we want to be treated, mercy and kindness especially to those who, because of their condition, are quickly rejected and excluded. "

"It's a strong and not weak attitude, an attitude of men and women who discover that it is not necessary to maltreat, denigrate or crush to feel important, but on the contrary."

Pope Francis concluded his homily by criticizing corruption and recalled that in Mozambique many people live below the poverty line, "it sometimes seems like those who approach this so-called desire to" 39, help have other interests. And he is sad when it is among the brothers of the same country who are corrupt; it is very dangerous to accept that this is the price to pay before foreign aid.