Holy Mass with Conferral of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation

On Sunday, 11 August 1985, in Garoua (Cameroon), the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass with the conferral of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation. In his homily, the Pope spoke on the meaning of Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist.

1. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” ( Mt 28:19).

These are the words that Christ addressed to the apostles, as a supreme command, at the moment of concluding his mission as God's envoy, as the Son of God, to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given (cf. Mt 18:18).

It is with the strength of this power that the apostles must bring his Gospel to the world. They have the mission to teach and baptize , to teach men to observe all the commandments that Christ has given them. He himself remains with them until the end of the world. And with the whole Church.

2. Today the Church of Cameroon, in the presence of the Successor of the Apostle Peter, wishes to remember and meditate on how the Lord's delivery was realized among the sons and daughters of your country, and in particular in your province of Garoua.

This missionary sending actually takes on a surprising significance in this land of Northern Cameroon. Forty years ago the Gospel was completely ignored in this entire region.

The Catholic communities of the other provinces had already been making good progress for half a century. Protestant missionaries had preceded the Catholics in spreading the Gospel in Southern Cameroon and also to a certain extent in the North. But the Holy See, sensitive to the needs of evangelization here and in the neighboring regions of Chad, decided in 1946 to entrust the responsibility to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Monsignor Yves Plumey, whom I greet with veneration, was at the head of these brave pioneers. In this vast territory of numerous ethnic groups, each of which has its own traditions and language, they came to live in the cities, in the grouped villages, and also in the northern savannahs and mountains. From the beginning they were able to count on native friends and collaborators, who made this country familiar to them. In several dozen years, they did their utmost to multiply the mission posts, schools, and dispensaries. They raised many catechists. They taught and baptized the people who welcomed them with joy and trust, in the midst of so many human trials. It is right, now, to pay homage to the Oblate fathers and brothers: French, Canadian, Polish, to the “fidei donum” priests, to the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, to the Daughters of Jesus of Kermaria, to the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Saint-Jacut, to many other religious men and women and lay missionaries who later came to collaborate with them.

When Pope Pius XII took stock of the development of the missions, he had already shown that they are a provisional stage in the history of the Church; one day they will have to give way to a fully constituted indigenous Church, with its episcopate, its clergy, its laity. The catholicity of the Church will be fully realized only with the constitution of the Church within the different nations of the world (cf. Pius XII, Evangelii Praecones , June 2, 1951).

This objective is difficult to achieve during the first evangelization. Yet already a certain number of sons and daughters of this country have become catechists, religious men and women, permanent deacons, seminarians, priests and, in certain dioceses, Cameroonian bishops. Alongside the two missionary bishops, Monsignor Jacques de Bernon, Bishop of Maroua-Mokolo, and Monsignor Jean Pasquier, Bishop of Ngaoundéré, I am happy to greet Monsignor Christian Wiyghan Tumi, Archbishop of Garoua, whom I thank for his warm welcome, and Monsignor Antoine Ntalou, Bishop of Yagoua. Beginning with Garoua, erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1953 and an archdiocese in 1982, the four dioceses provide the province with a structure that allows the extension of evangelization in depth. Yes, the proclamation of the Gospel has borne early and very beautiful fruits here, as in the early apostolic times.

Alongside the Catholic communities of Northern Cameroon, I greet our brothers and sisters in faith, who have come from the neighbouring regions of Chad and Nigeria . We are happy to see you here with us, because we have not ceased to bring your intentions to prayer.

3. We have emphasized the merits of the pioneers, but it is to God that we give glory : it is he who, at the appointed time, extended his mercy to your country, as he did for each of our countries. It is his Holy Spirit who inspired zeal in his envoys and faith in the hearts of those who welcomed them. You have always been in the mind of God, and the object of his love. I would willingly say, with Saint Peter who baptized the centurion Cornelius: "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" ( Acts 10:35). It is a great grace to know him according to the truth that he revealed with his Son Jesus, to be visibly pleasing to the people of God "to proclaim the works of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" ( 1 Peter 2:9). The liturgy places on our lips the song of thanksgiving that should be our constant prayer: “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless his name” ( Ps 96:1-2).

4. Today on the path of evangelization, which has its origin in the sending out on mission on the day of the Ascension and which runs through the history of this African land, I, the Successor of Peter, and your bishops united with me, take a further step. A new group of catechumens will soon receive the three sacraments of Christian initiation : Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.

Dear friends, you have been preparing for a long time for this grace that will mark your life definitively. With a few simple words, I want to address you especially, to revive your conscience.

These sacraments consecrate in each of you a personal, new and definitive bond with Jesus Christ. You are incorporated into the family of his disciples; you become members of his mystical body.

Baptism , first of all, purifies you and immerses you in the life of God. Christ unites you to the essential event of his life, to his Passover, to his passage from this world to his Father. He unites you to his death – and you know that he died to free men from their sins – and he unites you to his resurrection, which made him enter into a new, glorious life, at the right hand of his Father.

You who are about to be baptized, you will begin by professing your faith in Christ the Savior, by promising to reject sin, which leads to evil, and Satan, the author of sin. Then, through water and the Holy Spirit, God will purify you from all that has been sin in your life, and from the original sin which, from Adam, has been an obstacle to God in the heart of man. By forgiving you, God frees you from the slavery of evil, from the fear that too often marks your lives, from eternal death. And above all, thanks to the risen Christ, you receive in yourselves a new life, the life of God, which will develop in all that you do according to the Gospel. You easily understand why God has chosen water to manifest this rebirth: do you not know the vital power of water, when the great rains come to rebirth your sun-scorched land? In truth, you are wearing Christ, and this is what the festive garment you are wearing today means. You will be consecrated to Christ with the anointing of the sacred chrism. You will receive his light.

Through Christ, God adopts you as his children. The Holy Spirit is present in you. The Holy Trinity dwells in you. You enter the family of God. And you enter the family of the members of Christ, in the Church which is his body. Of this, you bear the sign forever.

From now on, the Church will continue to transmit to you the gifts of God at every stage of your life, with the different sacraments. And you yourselves assume your place as active members of the Church, with the rights and duties of Christians. You participate in the mission of the Church: you bear witness to your faith with your whole life, in your family, in your village, in your neighborhood, in your workplace or in your school.

5. I also address you as confirmands. Confirmation completes Baptism. It perfects the Christian. The imposition of hands and the anointing with sacred chrism – the holy oil of Christ – are the effective signs of the gift of the Holy Spirit .

Before I sign your foreheads with the sacred chrism, I will lay my hands on all those to be confirmed. This is the gesture that comes to us from Jesus through the apostles. Peter and John went to lay their hands on the first baptized to invoke upon them the Spirit of holiness with all his gifts (cf. Acts 8:17). With this gesture, dear confirmand friends, it is the Lord who takes possession of you, who protects you with his hand; it is he who guides you and sends you on a mission, as if he were saying to you: “Do not be afraid, I will be with you”.

And for each of you I will pronounce the words: “Receive the seal of the Holy Spirit which is given to you as a gift”. You participate in the grace of Jesus who said in Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for this reason he has anointed me” ( Lk 4:18). The Holy Spirit has been given to you so that your whole Christian being may be enlightened and strengthened .

Yes, the Holy Spirit completes your likeness to Christ. He marks you deeply with his imprint as a child bears the likeness of his parents, and you know that the cross is the sign of Christ. He becomes your interior Master who constantly brings you the light of Christ, to guide you towards the whole truth. It is he who helps the Christian to understand and enjoy the word of God, to pray, to continue to believe that Jesus is the Savior, to hope in all trials.

It is he who spreads love in your hearts, so that you may love in the manner of Christ and live in communion with all the members of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church.

It is he who, consequently, gives you the strength to be witnesses of Christ in the midst of the world. Jesus said to the apostles: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth” ( Acts 1:8). You will ask the Holy Spirit to fight the evil that always gnaws at us and what is around us. Christian life is a struggle. You will ask him for the courage to show yourselves as Christians, to say with pride that you are disciples of Christ, to live according to the faith, charity, justice, purity of Christ, in a world that does not always share these beliefs. You will receive the strength of witnesses, not to impose yourselves on others, but as friends of Christ who in some way spread their good odor wherever they live, like the perfume contained in the sacred chrism. What you must radiate is the peace, joy and love of Christ.

Confirmation is the sacrament of growth, of the adult state of the Christian, and of his full responsibility in the Church.

6. Baptized and confirmed adults, along with children from Christian families, also receive the Eucharist for the first time.

Dear communicants, here too the bond with Christ is deepened. He admits you into the intimacy of his banquet; he truly offers you his most holy body and his blood, under the sign of food. He says to you: “Behold my body, given for you”, offered in sacrifice for you. He invites you to offer yourselves with him as a living host. He wants to dwell in you so that you may remain in him. He wants you to live from his life, as the branch lives from the sap of the vine, as in the body the life of a member depends on the head. And this life ends in eternal life. He wants to enable you to say, with Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” ( Gal 2:20). And he tightens your bonds with all those who share in the same bread of life, to form a single body, “so that all may be one”. Yes, the sacrament of the Eucharist is the sacrament of love, the sign of unity, the bond of charity. He is the source, the heart and the summit of Christian life, as demonstrated by the International Eucharistic Congress in Nairobi, inaugurated today and in which I will participate.

You yourselves, dear friends, approach the Eucharist often and worthily, especially during the Sunday assembly. With Christ present in you, live in holiness, in joy, in thanksgiving!

7. And we, while carrying out this sacramental service in the name of the risen Christ, at the same time raise "prayers of petition, intercession and thanksgiving for all men", as St. Paul asked Timothy, in particular "for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and dignity" ( 1 Tim 2:1-2).

Yes, the task of the common good of all the Cameroonian people is an arduous and delicate service, and it is normal that we help with our prayers those who undertake it at different levels. It is a matter of making the many ethnic groups that make up the nation live in peace, harmony, mutual respect, brotherhood, and cooperation. Like many countries in the world, and especially in Africa, Cameroon aspires to full and profitable development for all, where prosperity is equally distributed, where technology is at the service of humanity, where injustices are constantly overcome, where all discrimination is banished, where every person has their chances of success, where, in particular, the dignity of women and children is respected, where the young, so numerous, can find a home, employment, responsibility, where we unite to fight together the natural disasters of drought and disease, where refugees and emigrants find their place. Yes, the task is difficult, but Cameroonians have already tried to face it in many fields. They must not be discouraged! We pray to God to inspire wisdom and courage in all citizens and all those responsible, so that the problems are solved with respect for moral and spiritual values, and especially religious freedom.

8. God also wants " all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth ", says St. Paul again ( 1 Tim 2:4). From the mountain of Galilee, it is to all nations that Christ sent his apostles, to make disciples. Christians therefore feel the duty and the right to announce everywhere what they have received as good news, as a message of salvation. This is what explains their zeal in this country. In reality, it is the happiness and the good of their brothers that is at heart. The sacrament of Confirmation reminds us of this mission to bear witness.

But the Christian's testimony has nothing to do with what is called propaganda. He wants to base himself loyally on the truth received from Christ, through the Church. He proposes the message as a respectful appeal to the conscience of men who all have the duty to seek the truth, but he is keen to exclude any external constraint, incompatible with the free consent given to God in faith.

This is what the Catholic Church calls religious freedom , which is a fundamental human right and at the same time a requirement of religion itself. It pays homage to governments that know how to ensure it for all.

Affirming her conviction that Christ is the only Mediator between God and men, the Church respects those who come to God through other ways, according to their conscience; she esteems their sincerity, their generosity, and loves to cooperate with them for the good of all.

It is in this sense that I greet here the children of Islam , who have wished to associate themselves with this important ceremony of initiation of their Christian brothers. Dear friends, we share with you the faith in the one living God, merciful and omnipotent, creator of heaven and earth. You have a veneration for Jesus and honor the Virgin Mary his Mother. We can progress in a sincere dialogue to better understand our mutual religious heritage and live in the friendship of which God shows us the path.

I express my esteem to all men and women of good will who manifest their religious sentiments within the framework of traditional religions received from their ancestors. I thank them for their benevolence and I pray to God to fulfill the expectations of their hearts.

Above all, I address a cordial, special greeting to our Protestant friends . Let us recognize together the Savior Jesus Christ whose Gospel we receive, one and the other, through preaching, and grace through Baptism. The heritage of our faith includes many common elements that we must deepen. With you, dear brothers and sisters, let us seek to progress, in truth, towards full communion.

9. At the end of our meditation, our eyes remain fixed on this mountain from which Christ ascended to his Father . And we keep in our memory his last word on earth: “ I am with you always , to the close of the age” ( Mt 28:20). This is what he said to the apostles. This is what he said to all of us.

Yes, raised above all, near God, he remains mysteriously with us. The sacraments are the guarantee of this. He does not cease to draw to him those who give him their faith. He has become like “the mountain of the temple of the Lord” that the prophet Isaiah saw in his vision: “All the nations will flow to it... Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths” ( Is 2:2-3).

Let us give thanks to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for the Cameroonian people who seek the roads that lead to the mountain of the Lord, to his temple, and who desire to follow his paths!

Amen.

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