Acta Ioannis Pauli Pp. II 701

3. As Bishops, you have come to Rome to invoke the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to find strength at their tombs. With them it is fitting to turn immediately to Jesus. With Peter you confess to Jesus and before the world : "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". 2 And with Paul you reiterate your deep conviction that Jesus is for all of us "our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption". 3

This conviction about Christ explains your whole ministry and all your efforts to bring his name before your people. It explains your desire to preach his Gospel of salvation. Your faith in the Son of God sustains you in the toil involved in gathering your people together by word and sacrament into one ecclesial family, one communion. Be- cause you yourselves have accepted the mystery hidden for centuries and revealed in Christ, you are spurred on to communicate Christ to others, proclaiming the content of his revelation as the great original contribution of Christianity.

4. Because Jesus is our redemption and our all, your ministry is placed under the sign of hope. You hope in God's word ; you trust in his promises. You rely on his help each day, just as your missionary predecessors did before you. Your sentiments are indeed identical with those of the Apostle Paul : "For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God". 4 With this apostolic hope, dear Brothers, go forward zealously in your pastoral labours. Pro- claim incessantly the mystery of Christ and his Church, in accordance with the lofty teaching of the Second Vatican Council, and in fidelity to all of its directives.

Continue in your ministry of forming Christ in the young generation and of offering to them the full challenge of his Sermon on the Mount. God will certainly reward you and all who have worked with you in promoting Catholic schools and the many services that these schools render to the Catholic community and to society in general.

Do not cease to present Christ's teaching on justice and fraternal love to all men and women of good will at every level of society. By so doing you will promote the harmony and well-being of the nations themselves of which you are a part.

2 Mt 16:16. 3 1 Cor 1:30. 4 1 Tim 4:10.