(ANS – Vatican City) – Yesterday afternoon, the 15th of October, during the 12th General Congregation of the Synod of Bishops – The new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith – Angelo Amato, s.d.b., Prefect of the Congregation for the causes of Saints had this to say: below is a brief summary of his speech.

In the “Lineamenta” there are about 40 references to both sanctity, as conversion to Christ and as full reception of his grace, and Saints as indispensable protagonists of the new evangelization: “the key element in the work of the new evangelization is for every Christian to answer the call to holiness” (Instrumentum Laboris, no 158). The theme of the sanctity of the Church in her being and in the behaviour of her children constitutes a recurring theme of the document.

Why this insistence? Because in the Saints the Church offers the people an edifying display of the Gospel lived out, witnessed to and proclaimed undisguised.
 
Indeed, the Saints evangelize with their virtuous lives, nourished by faith, hope and charity. They personify the evangelical beatitudes, which are a faithful reflection of Christ: blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle, the pure of heart, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted. They respond with extraordinary creativity to the commandment to love God and neighbour: I was hungry and thirsty and you gave me food and drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, sick and in prison and you visited me.

The saints embrace humanity with their love, rendering coexistence better, more peaceful, more fraternal. This is why the days of our calendars are marked with the names of the saints. The history of the Church, in the East as well as the West, in the North as in the South, records saints of every age, country, race, language and culture, so that the grace of God the Trinity might be like the morning dew.

It is found on all the plants in the garden, yet on the rose it is red, on the leaves it is green, on the lilies it is white. It is the same with sanctity which, though being unique as a Divine gift, lightly penetrates and transforms the hearts of children of the Church all around the world, in Asia as well as Africa, in America as well as in Oceania or Europe. There are holy martyrs, holy confessors, holy doctors in the Church. All are witnesses to Christ and evangelizers.

Published 16/10/2012