Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale282

of the Lord's sacrifice. I thank the President of CEAST, Archbishop Damião

Franklin, for his kind words of welcome, and, in the person of their Pastors, I

greet all the faithful in the nations of Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique,

Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Today's first reading has a particular resonance for God's people in An-

gola. It is a message of hope addressed to the Chosen People in the land of

their Exile, a summons to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Lord's Temple.

Its vivid description of the destruction and ruin caused by war echoes the

personal experience of so many people in this country amid the terrible

ravages of the civil war. How true it is that war can "destroy everything

of value": 2 families, whole communities, the fruit of men's labour, the hopes

which guide and sustain their lives and work! This experience is all too

familiar to Africa as a whole: the destructive power of civil strife, the descent

into a maelstrom of hatred and revenge, the squandering of the efforts of

generations of good people. When God's word - a word meant to build up

individuals, communities and the whole human family - is neglected, and

when God's law is "ridiculed, despised, laughed at",3 the result can only be

destruction and injustice: the abasement of our common humanity and the

betrayal of our vocation to be sons and daughters of a merciful Father,

brothers and sisters of his beloved Son.

So let us draw comfort from the consoling words which we have heard in

the first reading! The call to return and rebuild God's Temple has a particular

meaning for each of us. Saint Paul, the two thousandth anniversary of whose

birth we celebrate this year, tells us that "we are the temple of the living

God".4 God dwells, we know, in the hearts of all who put their faith in Christ,

who are reborn in Baptism and are made temples of the Holy Spirit. Even

now, in the unity of the Body of Christ which is the Church, God is calling us

to acknowledge the power of his presence within us, to reappropriate the gift

of his love and forgiveness, and to become messengers of that merciful love

within our families and communities, at school and in the workplace, in every

sector of social and political life.

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2 Cfr. 2 Chr 36, 19. 3 Ibid., v. 16. 4 2 Cor 6, 16.