22 May 1986
Berlin, Germany

My dear Sisters,

Who can think of Berlin without thinking of its wall? The wall that divides this city speaks to us and to the world of war and of peace, of division and of unity, of love and of heroism, of suffering and of death. If the wall of Berlin could speak, what stories could it not tell. Each one of you listening to me could tell stories about many human dramas that you have seen or heard about, which were enacted on the wall that divides the city.

When St. Paul was reflecting on the meaning of the life of Jesus Christ, and particularly on His redeeming death, he wrote to the Ephesians: "Christ Jesus is our peace, Who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility." (Eph 2:14).

Between the Jews and the Gentiles St. Paul saw a wall which divided them. It was Jesus Christ through His death Who dismantled that wall which was a sign of disunity. There is another expression of that same truth to be found in the Gospel of St. John who remarks that Jesus died "not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad." (Jn 11:52).

A wall can be built to protect or to divide. Think of the parable of Our Lord Who compared His people to a vineyard around which in His love He built a wall. But a wall can also be built to divide people. The wall of Berlin was built, sadly, to divide people. In the hearts of all of you there must live the hope that some day some Messiah-like figure will come and have the wall of Berlin dismantled. Meantime you must live in its shadow.

A wall can be a sign of protection or division. The Christian must build walls that will protect people and values. A Daughter of Charity will build walls of protection around the poor people she is asked to serve. By the care, the love, the sympathy, the interest you show in the people you serve, you are building walls of protection. Because you are building walls of protection around the poor, Jesus Christ addresses to each of you the opening words of today's Gospel: "Any man who gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ will not, I assure you, go without his reward." (Mk 9:41). To many people every day you are giving much more than a drink of water. Every day Jesus Christ assures you that He personally will reward you for your work. Draw confidence from that assurance. Continue to build walls of protection around the people who look to you in a thousand ways to be saved from the harshness of existence and the insecurity of life.

Besides the walls of protection that we are building, there are also walls of division and these must be pulled down. Perhaps we do not design walls of division, but it is easy to lay bricks on walls of division that are already there. Within our communities it is easy to erect walls of division, little walls, but walls nonetheless. At the end of the day Jesus Christ quietly asks us (if we make time to listen to His quiet voice), what walls of division did you raise today within the community by your words, acts or omissions? At the end of each day He asks us to reflect on the sentiment of St. Paul: "Christ Jesus is our peace. He has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility." (Eph 2:14).

Whether we build protective walls or pull down dividing walls, it is from the Eucharist that we will get our strength. Bread gives us strength to build protective walls around the needy or those who come to us for help and support. Everything in the Eucharist speaks to us of unity. "Because there is one bread," wrote St. Paul, "we who are many are one body." (1 Cor 10:17). At each Holy Communion Jesus Christ asks us to accept Him in His totality, in His body, blood, soul and divinity, and He also asks us to accept the members of His body. In each Holy Communion, using a phrase of St. Paul, He asks us, "Is Christ divided?" (l Cor 1:13).

Let me end, my dear Sisters, by quoting a few sentences from two letters of St. Vincent. To one of his missionaries he wrote: "I pray the Holy Spirit, Who is the union of the Father and the Son, that He will also be yours everywhere. You ought to pray for that intention unceasingly and, in addition to your prayers, to pay great attention in trying to unite yourself with heart and deed to each one in particular and to all in general. The evil of communities, especially of a small community, is ordinarily envy. The remedy for that is humility. You ought to try to advance in that virtue, as well as in those other virtues which are necessary to bring about this union." (Coste V, Fr. ed., p. 582).