The question that haunted Martin Luther about God’s mercy is “the decisive question of our lives,” while the doctrine of justification “expresses the essence of human existence before God,” Pope Francis told a joint Catholic-Lutheran gathering in Lund, Sweden today.
Francis’s words at a joint prayer service at the city’s eleventh-century cathedral to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Luther’s protest at Wittenberg in 1517 are the most positive yet.
He also spoke in unprecedented terms of both sides in the Reformation divide professing and upholding “the true faith.” . . .
While he made no mention of persisting divisions over the Eucharist, the issue is raised in a joint statement signed at the end of the prayer ceremony pledging both churches to continue to work together towards a common Communion.
In 1999 the two Churches reached a groundbreaking agreement over the major theological issue behind the sixteenth-century rift. . . .
Speaking in Spanish, the pope pointed to two positive consequences of the Reformation. While separation has led to suffering and misunderstanding, “it has also led us to recognize honestly that without [Jesus] we can do nothing,” he said, and therefore “has enabled us to better understand some aspects of our faith.”
The Reformation also “helped give greater centrality to sacred scripture in the Church’s life,” he added.
Luther’s own spiritual experience, in which he was haunted by the question of how to obtain God’s mercy, “is the decisive question for our lives,” Francis said, adding that in the concept of “by grace alone” Luther “reminds us that God always takes the initiative, prior to any human response, even as he seeks to awaken that response.”
The declaration on justification says that both Catholics and Lutherans confess that “by grace alone, in faith and in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit.”
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