1. “Our Father, who art in heaven . . .”.
We stand at the altar around which the entire Church in Sarajevo is gathered. We say the words taught to us by Christ, Son of the Living God: Son consubstantial with the Father. He alone calls God “Father” (Abba – Father! My Father!) and He alone can authorise us to address God as “Father”, “Our Father”. He teaches us this prayer in which everything is contained. Today, we wish to find in this prayer what can and must be said to God – our Father – at this moment in history, here in Sarajevo.
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
"I, Bishop of Rome, the first Slavic Pope, kneel before You to cry out: 'From pestilence, from hunger and from war, deliver us!'"
2. Our Father! Father of men: Father of peoples. Father of all peoples who dwell on earth. Father of the peoples of Europe. Of the peoples of the Balkans.
Father of the peoples belonging to the family of the South Slavs! Father of the peoples who, here on this peninsula, have been writing their history for centuries. Father of the peoples, sadly affected not for the first time by the cataclysm of war.
“Our Father . . .”. I, Bishop of Rome, the first Slavic Pope, kneel before You to cry out: “From pestilence, from hunger and from war – deliver us!”. I know that many join me in this plea. Not only here in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but throughout Europe and beyond its borders. I come here carrying with me the certainty of this prayer that is uttered by the hearts and lips of countless brothers and sisters of mine. For a long time, they have been waiting for this “great prayer” of the Church, of the people of God, to be said in this place. For a long time, I myself have been inviting everyone to join in this prayer.
How can we forget the prayer offered in Assisi in January last year? And then the one raised in Rome, in St Peter's Basilica, in January this year? Since the beginning of the tragic events in the Balkans, in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the guiding thought of the Church, and in particular of the Apostolic See, has been prayer for peace.
3. Our Father, 'hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come...'. May your holy and merciful name shine forth among men. May your kingdom come, a kingdom of justice and peace, of forgiveness and love.
"Thy will be done . . .".
May your will be done in the world, and especially in this troubled land of the Balkans. You do not love violence and hatred. You abhor injustice and selfishness. You want men to be brothers and to recognise you as their Father.
Our Father, Father of every human being, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Your will is peace!
4. Christ is “our peace” (Eph 2:14). He taught us to call God “Father”.
He who by his blood conquered the mystery of iniquity and division, and by his Cross broke down the massive wall that separated men, making them strangers to one another; He who reconciled humanity with God and united men among themselves as brothers.
This is why Christ was able to say one day to the Apostles, before his sacrifice on the Cross: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you" (Jn 14:27). It was then that he promised the Spirit of Truth, who is at once the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Peace!
Come, Holy Spirit! “Veni, creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita . . .!” “Come, Creator Spirit, visit our minds, fill with your grace the hearts you have created.”
Come, Holy Spirit! We invoke you from this city of Sarajevo, a crossroads of tensions between different cultures and nations, where the fuse was lit at the beginning of the century that sparked the first world war, and where, at the end of the second millennium, similar tensions are concentrated, capable of destroying peoples called by history to collaborate in harmonious coexistence.
Come, Spirit of peace! Through you we cry out: 'Abba, Father' (Rom 8:15).
5. "Give us this day our daily bread . . .".
To pray for bread is to pray for everything necessary for life. Let us pray that, in the distribution of resources among individuals and peoples, the principle of universal participation in the goods created by God may always be realised.
Let us pray that the use of resources for armaments will not damage or even destroy the heritage of culture, which is the highest good of humanity. Let us pray that restrictive measures, deemed necessary to curb conflict, will not cause inhuman suffering to the defenceless population. Every person, every family has a right to their "daily bread".
6. "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us . . .".
With these words we touch on the crucial issue. Christ himself made us aware of this when, dying on the cross, he said of his killers: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).
The history of individuals, peoples and nations is full of mutual resentment and injustice. How important were the historic words addressed by the Polish bishops to their German confreres at the end of the Second Vatican Council: "We forgive and ask forgiveness!" If peace has been achieved in that region of Europe, it seems that this has been thanks to the attitude effectively expressed by those words.
Today we want to pray for a similar gesture to be renewed: "We forgive and we ask forgiveness" for our brothers and sisters in the Balkans! Without this attitude, it is difficult to build peace. The spiral of "guilt" and "punishment" will never end unless, at some point, forgiveness is granted.
Forgiving does not mean forgetting. If memory is the law of history, forgiveness is the power of God, the power of Christ acting in the events of individuals and peoples.
7. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil . . .”.
Lead us not into temptation! What temptations do we ask the Father to keep us from today? They are those that make the human heart a heart of stone, insensitive to the call of forgiveness and harmony. They are the temptations of ethnic prejudice, which make us indifferent to the rights of others and to their suffering. They are the temptations of extreme nationalism, which lead to the oppression of others and the desire for revenge. They are all temptations that express the culture of death.
Faced with the desolate spectacle of human failure, we pray with the words of our Venerable Brother Bartholomew I, Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople: 'Lord, let our hearts of stone be broken at the sight of your sufferings and become hearts of flesh. Let your Cross dissolve our prejudices. With the vision of your agonising struggle against death, may our indifference or rebellion flee' (Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, Good Friday 1990, Opening Prayer).
Deliver us from evil! Here is another word that belongs entirely to Christ and his Gospel. "I have not come to condemn the world, but to save the world" (Jn 12:47). Humanity is called to salvation in Christ and through Christ. The nations that the current war has so terribly divided are also called to this salvation!
Let us pray today that the saving power of the Cross may help us overcome the historic temptation of hatred. Enough of the countless acts of destruction! Let us pray, following the rhythm of the Lord's Prayer, that the time of reconstruction, the time of peace, may begin.
May the dead of Sarajevo, whose remains lie in the nearby cemetery, pray with us. May all the victims of this cruel war pray, invoking reconciliation and peace for the survivors in the light of God.
8. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God!” (Mt 5:9). This is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel passage. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we will truly be blessed if we become artisans of that peace which only Christ can give (cf. Jn 14:27), indeed which is Christ himself. “Christ is our peace.” We will become builders of peace if, like him, we are willing to forgive.
“Father, forgive them!” (Lk 23:34). From the Cross, Christ offers forgiveness and asks us to follow him on the arduous way of the Cross to obtain his peace. Only by accepting his invitation can we prevent selfishness, nationalism and violence from continuing to sow destruction and death.
Evil, in all its manifestations, is a mystery of iniquity, in the face of which the voice of God rises clear and decisive, as we heard in the first reading: “Thus says the High and Lofty One . . . I dwell in a high and holy place, but I am also with the oppressed and the lowly” (Isaiah 57:15). These prophetic words contain an invitation to all of us to examine our consciences seriously.
God is on the side of the oppressed: he is close to parents who mourn their murdered children, he hears the helpless cry of the defenceless who are trampled underfoot, he is in solidarity with women humiliated by violence, he is close to refugees forced to abandon their land and their homes. He does not forget the suffering of families, the elderly, widows, young people and children. It is his people who are dying.
Such barbarism must be stopped! Enough with war! Enough with destructive fury! It is no longer possible to tolerate a situation that produces only death: killings, destroyed cities, ruined economies, hospitals without medicines, the sick and elderly abandoned, families in tears and torn apart. A just peace must be achieved as soon as possible. Peace is possible if moral values are recognised as taking precedence over claims of race or force.
9. Dear Brothers and Sisters! At this moment, together with you, I raise to the Lord the cry of the psalmist: 'Help us, God, our saviour, for the glory of your name, save us and forgive our sins' (Ps 79:9).
Let us entrust this supplication to her who "stood" silently and prayerfully beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25). Let us look to the Blessed Virgin, whose Nativity the Church joyfully celebrates today.
It is significant that my visit, long desired, has been able to take place on this Marian feast day so dear to you. With Mary's birth, hope blossomed in the world for a new humanity no longer oppressed by selfishness, hatred, violence and the many other forms of sin that have stained the paths of history with blood. We ask Mary Most Holy that the day of full reconciliation and peace may also dawn on your land.
Queen of Peace, pray for us!
[Pope John Paul II, in connection with Sarajevo, 8 September 1994]
