A reading of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus said to his disciples, you have heard the commandment, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But what I say to you is, offer no resistance to injury. When a person strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer him the other. If anyone wants to go to law over your shirt, hand him your coat as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the man who begs from you. Do not turn your back on the borrower. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
That was a very good amen. This week, our blessed our holy father is going to Poland. Probably in recent history, one of the most significant and project of highest gamble, of the highest gamble. No one knows how it's going to turn out. I'm not thinking in terms of his assassination.
That I don't think is that's much less probable here than when he went into Central America at the beginning of the year. It was a strong possibility down there. It was firmly it was firmly forecast by sincere, honest, well informed people. The great challenge I hate to use that word, but the great opportunity that this visit offers the world has probably not even remotely been duplicated since 1917 when, as you know, communism came into some it began its wave of power. How it would turn out, as I said, no one knows.
And by that, I mean, what will its repercussions be upon Russia? What will its repercussions be upon the Polish people? How will they react? What will be the reaction of the Western world? And because the the the number of possibilities are numerous.
It's not just one or two. You don't just have an alternative. It's not just Poland that's dangling in this great, great gamble. It's not just Poland. It's the whole of the Western world in many ways.
Because remember, this is what happened in Poland is the first slight crack, the first slight crack in communist domination. Whether this will widen, what what its significance will be in the for the near future, or above all for the far future, Who knows? But let us not overlook some a very obvious fact. But, you know, sometimes we can miss the obvious. We can so be intent on a tree that we miss the forest.
This is a Catholic country. In the Western world, I think it's safe to say it's the most Catholic. You certainly can't speak of France anymore as a Catholic country. You can't speak of England as a Catholic country. You can't speak of Germany as a Catholic country.
Spain, yes. But it isn't actively Catholic in the sense in which Poland today is actively Catholic. Poland has gone through its hell, and it's still there. Spain has had nothing like that to relatively speaking, of course. Relatively speaking, it had its civil war.
So what I'm saying, and I'm pleading for your prayers, this is a tremendous opportunity that the Western world will come to grips and that Poland will be sort of a spearhead. Because if something good, wholesome, solid in the name of human rights, in the in the name of what we call democracy, of the basic freedoms, if something like this can emerge from Poland, it will be the first time it's happened under the communist domain dominion. First time. It and it can happen. It can happen.
And the reasons are are various, but it can happen. Not it won't it's not gonna be a tremendous revolution or anything of that sort, but it there can be some very positive steps forward. Whether it will happen, who knows? But certainly, this is a gesture. And this visit has you see, for the Western world has repercussions which we didn't get from the visits of our holy father in other places like South America or Central America or The Philippines.
This has meaning for all of us, for our lives. And so let us pray that our holy father's visit to his homeland if you want to see the hand of god operating, all you have to do is look at a situation like this. That here you have the a situation, a collection of coincidences, if you want of course, I don't believe in coincidence, but let's use the word. You have a complexity of coincidences that are beyond our imagining, and that at this moment, we have a Polish pope going back to Poland where he has a tremendous influence. An influence, of course, was bewilders, according to yesterday's paper, some of our good writers who write for newspapers.
It's a little bit they call it a mystique. But whatever it is, it wouldn't be there if he was an Italian pope or an American pope or or a Spanish pope. But he's Poland. He has gone through communism. He has lived under it.
He has fought it. He has survived it. He is loved by his people, and he is the vicar of Christ on Earth. Let us pray for him and for this journey. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen.