Brothers and sisters

The Lord give you peace!

I am really happy to be here celebrating today, and with you, the solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, celebrating the feast of your community which has Saint Peter and Saint Paul as its patron. But I would like to invite others to go just to celebrate… or just to remember St. Peter and St. Paul. We want this celebration to be a true prayer…. When the Jews in Jerusalem pray, they move to the right, then to the left … because they believe that when you pray … the Holy Spirit, the “Ruah”, enters you, and moves you like the wind moves the “plants”, where wants the Spirit wants… takes you where the Holy Spirit wants.

So let’s really celebrate, let’s pray.. And let’s celebrate today the pillars of our faith: St. Peter and St. Paul. What does it mean to celebrate the columns of the Church? In St. Peter’s Square in Rome, in the Vatican, we first have the large images of St. Peter and St. Paul, and then of the twelve apostles, and with Christ in the middle. This in the two arms of the great portico of the Vatican. This means that the Catholic Church has its bases, its foundations in Jesus Christ, and concretely, in the foundation of the apostles. Yes, the Catholic Church is solid… the Catholic Church is a mother, and she takes care of her sons and daughters. For this reason, celebrating Saint Peter and Saint Paul means laying foundations, concrete stones as the foundation of our faith.

Jesus changed Peter’s name. From Simon for Peter. And Jesus said to Peter: Peter you are rock, and on this rock I will build my Church. Yes, our Church is founded on rock… today we live in a crisis, in the lack of concrete things. There is a great crisis, even within the Church, which wants to delude us that nothing will last forever. (young people are afraid of getting married, because they are afraid of making a lifelong decision…). St. Peter teaches us that with the power of the Holy Spirit we can overcome fear. St. Peter before Pentecost was afraid, but after Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit He began to preach in the name of Jesus, to speak in the name of Jesus… he was not ashamed of the name of Jesus….

If we truly celebrate this solemnity today, with the power of the Holy Spirit we too will begin, without shame and without fear, we will begin to be witnesses of the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus, of the life of Jesus. Saint Peter with his faith, together with the apostles they changed the world… But be careful dear young people, I would like to ask a truly provocative question: Who do we Christians notice today? How concrete are we in our faith?

And then we also celebrate Saint Paul… nice that we celebrate him together. Remembering that the identity of the Church is unity. The flavor, the light, the true identity of Christians is unity. Yes, the action of the Holy Spirit is to unite the Church. But I would like to tell you something that is not so beautiful, but I have to say: the devil exists. And the devil hates the Church. He hates his children. The devil wants to destroy the children of the Church. And the devil’s mission is to divide. In fact, the word devil in Greek means divider. The church wants to reunite her sons and daughters, the devil wants to see…. And we need the intercession of the saints… today of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to remain united.

St. Paul after he met Jesus changed his life. He used to persecute Christians before. On the road to Damascus, in Syria, he meets Jesus. St. Paul’s experience at the end of his earthly days is beautiful. When by now he sees the definitive encounter with his Lord approaching, and he says: “I am going to the One who will be able to save me in heaven.” Paul carries in his heart a great hope, Christian hope, the hope of heaven. Perhaps today, in the culture in which we live, and also in our way of living the faith, we do not give too much space to this which is true hope, paradise in God. Paul lived his earthly life spending himself without reservations, but he knew well that life wasn’t everything. For him, walking briskly through life meant living with the hope of heaven. We belong to those who live for heaven; we must remember it and we must bear witness to it.

And I would like to conclude by recalling precisely this dear young people: you are here in the university. In the midst of other peoples, other cultures and other religions. But you are Christians, and you are called to be concrete, true Christians. Be young who believe in eternal life… believe in love, true love is eternal. That every person is respected because he is the son and daughter of God, and for this humanity Jesus, the son of God became incarnate, became man…. And for this humanity the Lord Jesus gave his life… out of love. Amen.