Baptism, we have passed from the slavery of sin to new life and hope. In the

communion of the Church, Christ's Body, we look forward to the vision of the

heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, where God will be all in all. From this holy

mountain Moses directs our gaze on high, to the fulfilment of all God's

promises in Christ.

Moses gazed upon the Promised Land from afar, at the end of his earthly

pilgrimage. His example reminds us that we too are part of the ageless pilgrimage

of God's people through history. In the footsteps of the prophets, the apostles

and the saints, we are called to walk with the Lord, to carry on his mission, to

bear witness to the Gospel of God's universal love and mercy. We are called to

welcome the coming of Christ's Kingdom by our charity, our service to the poor,

and our efforts to be a leaven of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace in the world

around us. We know that, like Moses, we may not see the complete fulfilment of

God's plan in our lifetime. Yet we trust that, by doing our small part, in fidelity

to the vocation each of us has received, we will help to make straight the paths of

the Lord and welcome the dawn of his Kingdom.

And we know that the God who revealed his name to Moses as a pledge

that he would always be at our side 1 will give us the strength to persevere in

joyful hope even amid suffering, trial and tribulation.

From the earliest times, Christians have come on pilgrimage to the sites

linked to the history of the Chosen People, the events of Christ's life and the

nascent Church. This great tradition, which my present pilgrimage is meant

to continue and confirm, is grounded in the desire to see, to touch, and to

savor in prayer and contemplation the places blessed by the physical presen-

ce of our Savior, his Blessed Mother, the apostles and the first disciples who

saw him risen from the dead. Here, in the footsteps of the countless pilgrims

who have preceded us in every century, we are challenged to appreciate more

fully the gift of our faith and to grow in that communion which transcends

every limit of language, race and culture.

The ancient tradition of pilgrimage to the holy places also reminds us of

the inseparable bond between the Church and the Jewish people. From the

beginning, the Church in these lands has commemorated in her liturgy the

great figures of the Patriarchs and Prophets, as a sign of her profound ap-

preciation of the unity of the two Testaments. May our encounter today

inspire in us a renewed love for the canon of Sacred Scripture and a desire

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1 Cfr. Ex 3:14.