The Importance of Testimony

The Importance of Testimony

My dear friends, the theme of this afternoon's reflection is the importance of testimony, and I believe that the further we advance in this spiritual renewal in the Holy Spirit that we are living throughout the whole Church, the more we see the importance of testimony for building up the faith, for building the Christian community.

And when we go to the Gospel to find what Jesus said from the very beginning of his evangelization, we see that from the very beginning, Jesus began to call for testimony. When the disciples of John the Baptist went to meet Jesus, as we read in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 7, verse 18, it is said: "The disciples of John told him all about this. Calling two of his disciples to him, John sent them to say to the Lord: 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?'"

When they came to him, these men said: "John the Baptist sends us to tell you, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?'" At that very hour Jesus cured many people of diseases, of infirmities, of evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. Then he answered the messengers: "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the Good News is proclaimed to the poor, and blessed are those who, after meeting me, do not turn back disheartened."

From the very beginning of his public life Jesus was asking: "Go and tell, recount what you have seen and heard," because testimony has an extraordinary power to make the love of God known to our brothers and sisters. When one is a witness, one has a power of conviction that one cannot have through ordinary argument alone.

When you see an automobile accident, for example — if there is an automobile accident and you are present, and the police arrive and everyone is looking for who is responsible for the accident, if you were present you can say: "I am a witness because I saw it and I know that the responsibility lies with such-and-such a person." The witness comes to bring light into the darkness. When one does not know quite where the responsibility for that accident lies, it is the witness who comes to bring light.

And when the Lord told us: "You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth," he was telling us quite simply that we were to be his witnesses, the witnesses who bring light into the darkness, the witnesses who can say: "I saw it and it is true!"

And Jesus, when he wanted to identify himself as Messiah and Savior, did not begin to argue with arguments of high theology, did not begin to debate but rather to give signs, so that these signs would be what proves that he truly is the Messiah and Savior. The apostles too went about recounting what Jesus had done. They were the witnesses, and Jesus asked us to be his witnesses everywhere.

But in order to be authentic witnesses, bold witnesses, Jesus gave us an extraordinary power when he said to his disciples, before ascending to heaven: "Do not depart from Jerusalem, wait — in a few days you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit." As we read in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1: "It is in the Holy Spirit that you will be baptized within a few days." So the apostles, who did not understand very well what the Lord meant, with their political turn of mind, began to believe that Jesus was speaking of the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel.

And Jesus told them: "No, it is not about that, but you are going to receive a power: that of the Holy Spirit who will descend upon you, and you will then be my witnesses." The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, that outpouring of the Spirit that we enjoy in our lives, that we enjoy today in a most privileged way throughout the universal Church, is the power from on high given to us to be witnesses, to testify. The Lord wants witnesses everywhere, and he wants to give us the strength to be bold witnesses, and so he gives us his Holy Spirit.

His Holy Spirit who transformed the apostles at Pentecost.

Let us recall how Saint Peter was so fearful that, at the moment when Jesus had been condemned to death, when Jesus was going up to Calvary with his cross, a humble servant girl from the household thought she recognized Peter as one of Jesus' companions, and she said: "You too are one of them, one of the disciples, one of Jesus' friends," and Peter denied it, saying: "I do not know this man." And in claiming that he did not know him, he was afraid, he was full of fear. And three times he denied Jesus, and the rooster crowed. And Peter recognized that he had denied his master.

But he had not had the strength to declare himself a disciple of Jesus because he had not yet received that power from on high. But on the day of Pentecost, while the disciples were gathered in the Upper Room in prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus, they were awaiting that promise of the Father that Jesus had promised them, saying: "Do not depart from Jerusalem, wait — you will receive the power from on high, you will receive the Holy Spirit." And then, in the Upper Room, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the early Church on the occasion of that Baptism in the Holy Spirit of the whole early Church, of the apostles and the first disciples who were gathered there, they received this power from on high, and they came out of the Upper Room and went to the public square to proclaim Jesus the Savior, Jesus risen, living and true!

With boldness, to proclaim that Jesus is the Savior — this strength of the witness, the power that would drive them to testify to the ends of the earth. And today, my dear brothers, we see how the Holy Spirit renews throughout the whole Church this power of testimony. Because testimony has an extraordinary power of edification in the Kingdom. I could tell you that when one testifies, hearts open and our friends begin to discover the Love of God, the power of Jesus Christ.

How many times have I seen, in my preaching, when I recounted how the Lord had healed me one day in the month of July 1973 of that pulmonary tuberculosis from which I was suffering in the hospital in Quebec City, Canada; how the Lord had healed me completely on the occasion of the prayer of 5 lay people who had come to visit me, laid hands on me and prayed for me. And Jesus healed me completely over the space of 2 or 3 days. And in recounting this testimony in detail — which I already told here last year — I saw in several countries that during the testimony, there were people who received a healing.

The heart opens during the testimony and one is able to receive the blessings of God, the graces of God.

I recall among other things that I was giving a charismatic retreat in Mexico City, and one Saturday morning, while I was telling of the importance of testimony and recounting my own healing, a man who was there in the assembly of more than 2,000 people — a man who had suffered greatly from his spine for years and could not be healed — was there, and he said in his testimony the next day, on Sunday, that at the very moment I was recounting my healing, he said to himself in his heart: "If the Lord healed my brother, he can heal me too."

And there, in his heart, was born an immense desire to receive health as well. And he began to tremble; he was there in the crowd, and he began to tremble without anyone even having to pray for the sick. He began to tremble in his body, he felt a very special presence of the Lord, and in a very great warmth, he realized that something was happening. And the next day at the time of the testimonies he came to testify that he was perfectly healed. And that pain in his spine had been healed by the power of the Love of Jesus at the hour of testimony.

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John — although, in truth, Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples did — he left Judea and returned to Galilee. Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. — 2 weeks ago I was in Israel and I was there at Jacob's well, I was visiting that place at Jacob's well which is preserved and which pilgrims go to visit; I even drank water at Jacob's well, and I was going over this event again in my heart. —

When Jesus arrived — so he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph — there was Jacob's well. Jesus, weary from the journey, was sitting there beside the well. It was about the sixth hour, and a woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her: "Give me a drink." His disciples, indeed, had gone off to the town to buy food.

And there, the Samaritan woman, quite astonished that a Jew should speak to her, because there was division between the Samaritans and the Jews, said to him: "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" For the Jews, indeed, did not speak to the Samaritans. And Jesus answered her: "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' it is you who would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

And then she begins to argue and says: "Lord, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals?" And Jesus answered her: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

And Jesus continues to dialogue with the Samaritan woman, and then Jesus says to her: "Go, call your husband," and she says: "I have no husband." And Jesus, with a word of knowledge, says to her: "You are right, you have no husband, for you have had five, and the one you have now is not your husband." Then she is completely astonished; she feels discovered, she feels known by Jesus, who was a stranger to her; she is completely astonished, and there she goes quickly to her fellow Samaritans to tell them: "Come, see a man who told me everything I have done."

She was so astonished because she saw that Jesus was someone special, because he had told her not only that it was not her husband but he had told her everything she had done.

So she returns quickly among her own people and says: "He told me everything I have done." When therefore they had come to him, the Samaritans begged him to stay with them. They went to meet Jesus because she dared to testify. Jesus, who had directed her toward the source of living water; Jesus, who had told her: "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for such are the worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth."

And the Samaritans, after learning the Good News that the Samaritan woman had met the Messiah, went immediately to meet Jesus. As soon as they had come to him, the Samaritans begged him to stay with them. He stayed there 2 days, and many more believed because of his word. They said in the end: "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe; we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is truly him, the Savior of the world."

The Samaritan woman was an authentic witness after she had discovered Jesus the Messiah and Savior, who revealed himself to her as the Savior of the world and who spoke to her. She said on that occasion: "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ; when he comes, he will explain everything to us." And Jesus said to her: "I am he, the one speaking to you," and she believed the word of Jesus and went to testify of Jesus. And her Samaritan friends went to meet Jesus. Many became disciples of Jesus.

But what happened in Samaria is happening today throughout the whole world. There are people who meet Jesus on the occasion of a sign like that — a healing, a word of wisdom, a prophecy, or a word of knowledge — in this charismatic renewal that the Church lives today. There are many signs, many manifestations, so that the people who walk in darkness may meet Jesus.

Lights are being lit, and every time there is a witness who testifies of Jesus, of the wonders received in his life, of his conversion or of a healing or of a deliverance — every time someone proclaims Jesus, a light is lit, and those who walk in darkness begin to see the Truth. They begin to discover that Jesus truly is the Messiah and Savior.

Did Jesus not say to the messengers of John the Baptist: "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the poor are evangelized"? Jesus still does this today, and through these signs he reveals to today's world that he truly is the Messiah and Savior. And when we see these signs manifesting themselves everywhere, we ourselves must testify to these signs; we must proclaim them.

It is very important to give full importance to testimonies, as Saint Catherine of Siena told us: we must no longer keep silent, cry out! With 100,000 tongues! I see that by dint of keeping silent the world has rotted, because we are afraid to proclaim the wonders of God. There are those who go seeking their salvation in the darkness, in the occult sciences. There are those who go seeking their salvation along paths that truly do not lead to life, because we are afraid to testify. Sometimes there are those who drift further and further from the Truth. And today the Lord gives us a new outpouring of his Holy Spirit, and he wants to make each one of us a witness, and he asks us to testify like that Samaritan woman who, after meeting Jesus the Messiah and Savior, went to proclaim him to her friends.

And that reminds me that, 5 years ago, in a parish of the Dominican Republic at Nagua, we lived through a phenomenon similar to this one. A young prostitute who was truly a problem throughout that great village, who was a problem for the households — a 21-year-old young woman who had attended a healing service, a healing prayer like the one we are going to have today. But because she was a prostitute, a public sinner, she was ashamed to place herself among the people and had hidden herself behind a fence where that gathering was being celebrated outdoors under the palm trees.

In that tropical country we often hold our meetings out of doors, and she had hidden herself behind a fence because she was ashamed of her own life; she did not want to place herself with the Christians. But she still had enough confidence in Jesus, despite her sins, to join in the prayer for the sick. And there we saw how the Lord, in his great mercy, healed her first.

The first word of knowledge I received after making the prayer for the sick in that assembly of roughly 1,000 people was this: "There is a woman here who suffers from cancer in the belly, and Jesus is healing her." And that woman could not be found in the assembly. But the next day she came to testify.

She was 21 years old, a young woman of the village; she came to testify publicly that she had been ashamed to place herself with the others, that she had hidden behind the fence during the prayer in order to take part in the healing prayer, and that it was she whom Jesus was healing first. He is the Good Shepherd; he came to save what was lost.

Imagine the Good Shepherd going behind that fence and placing his blessed hand on that young prostitute who suffered from cancer, who had already had 2 operations for that cancer in the belly — and Jesus healed her first. And the next day she testified publicly before the whole assembly and repented of her sins. Jesus had healed her of her physical cancer, and he was also healing her of the cancer of her soul, which was sin.

And afterwards she committed herself to following the Lord. She was truly converted, and do you know what she did? She did what the Samaritan woman did after meeting Jesus. The Samaritan woman went to tell the Samaritans: "I have met the Messiah." And Miriam, that young prostitute, after her healing, at the end of the retreat began to go and visit the prostitutes of the village to tell them what she had received in prayer. And she — there was in the village of Nagua a large house of prostitution where some twenty prostitutes were gathered in the service of sin — and Miriam went; she knew them all, and she spoke to them about setting up, right there in that house of prostitutes, in that brothel, setting up a group, a small prayer cell.

The prostitutes were astonished. And Miriam told them: "I have not come to ask you to give up prostitution; I have come to speak to you about my friend Jesus, whom I have met."

And with a catechist, she managed to gain entry into that center of prostitution. And on Monday evening — a most astonishing thing, but one that can be seen in Latin America — those prostitutes, who spent their weeks in the service of sin, on Monday evenings would agree to gather with Miriam and the catechist to listen to the Word of God and to pray together. And there, throughout the year, every Monday evening, a small prayer cell gathered in that brothel. And what happened? At the end of a year, those prostitutes, who had prayed throughout the year and who were undecided, asked for a retreat.

And Miriam, with the catechist and a few other catechists of the village, searched through the great village of Nagua, which has 24,000 people — it is not a city, it is a great rural village that was lost in prostitution — and they invited prostitutes to the retreat. And so we began a charismatic retreat for prostitutes alone, and they gathered 47 of them. Forty-seven prostitutes went to a retreat of 2 full days. I had never seen so many at once!

And there it was most astonishing to see that whole group of young girls, of young women, gathered together who came to listen to the Word of God, and they came for 2 days. And I understood what Jesus says in the Gospel: "The prostitutes will go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven," because often we have condemned these persons, these women who, in the great majority, are simply women who have great economic problems and who seek in a thousand ways the means of living in our communities.

In any case, there were 47 of them at the retreat, and we began the retreat by speaking to them of Jesus the Good Shepherd, who did not come to condemn the world but to save it. We presented to them the father of the prodigal son; we spoke to them of the love of Jesus, who does not condemn but forgives. And we saw, during that retreat, abundant tears; several of those prostitutes received a profound liberation from that impure influence.

And do you know that at the end of the retreat, of the 47 prostitutes who had followed that retreat and those prayers, there were 26 who accepted Jesus, who repented, who asked that prayer be made for them so that they might receive the outpourings of the Holy Spirit in order to be authentic witnesses of Jesus Christ. And it has now been since 1976 — it has now been 5 years — and at present, of the 26, there are still 21 who are holding firm.

21 out of 47, because Miriam dared to testify among her former companions in prostitution. 21 out of 47 have held firm and continue to live in love, in the knowledge of God; they continue to live in the peace and joy of the Lord.

How important it is to testify, to cry out our joy when we have met the Lord, to tell it everywhere! There may be some among us who would say: "But my God, it makes no sense to go testify in a brothel; it makes no sense to go speak to them of the Lord!" But they are the ones who need Jesus most; it is to them first that the testimony of the love of God belongs, to them and to those whom we in our eyes call the lost — they are the ones who most need the testimony of the love of God. They are sometimes called the lost, but the lost do not exist.

I repeat: the lost do not exist, because Jesus came to save what was lost; he came to redeem us. And the Lord asks us to go everywhere testifying of his love, his mercy, his goodness. He wants the world to discover that he truly is the Messiah and Savior. And so that we may not doubt his love, Jesus continues today to give signs of his power and his goodness. And the signs he gave to the disciples of Saint John the Baptist, he gives them today, and we discover that Jesus is alive, that he is alive in his Church.

In the few years of ministry, in the healing ministry, I have had the joy of seeing these signs that Jesus promised come to pass, these signs that he gave to the messengers of John the Baptist: the lame walk... How many times in our great prayer gatherings for the sick have we seen the lame begin to walk? But throughout all these years, the day on which I had the strongest impression of the presence of God was in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal 3 years ago, when we had a great charismatic gathering on the day of Pentecost.

There were gathered there, in the Olympic Stadium of Montreal, Canada, 55,000 people of the charismatic renewal of Canada. It was the great day of praise, the day of Pentecost. And since there was no hall in Montreal capable of receiving us, we had had the audacity to rent the Olympic Stadium of the Olympic Games, which had 84,000 seats. A few who were timid had said, before the preparation of the celebration, "That will look ridiculous, a small group of charismatics in that great Olympic stadium."

"There are 84,000 seats; that makes no sense." And others, who had great confidence in Jesus, like those who organized the gathering here and who had the audacity to rent this beautiful hall, others said: "We will prepare the gathering, and Jesus will send us his friends, and we will proclaim his Word to those whom he will send us."

So there were 55,000 people, and in the afternoon we had had the good fortune that Radio-Canada television agreed to broadcast on national television that whole afternoon program from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00. And so the Lord, in his great Mercy, wanted to give a very powerful sign to all of Canada through that gathering. And we had songs, conferences, prayer; in the afternoon there was enthusiasm, and everything was passing through the television into people's homes. Those who had stayed in their homes and who had said that charismatics were crazy — there they were astonished to see that in Canada there were so many of us crazy people: there were 55,000 of us! There were some who were truly concerned, but they were following it from their living rooms, and it was the closing of the day of Pentecost.

And after communion we made a prayer for the sick — after communion — and there, after the prayer for the sick, the Lord began to give us some words of knowledge to announce to the assembly what he was doing, what Jesus was doing in the assembly. And suddenly there rose up in the assembly a lady who had not walked for 14 years. She began to tremble all over her body, and she stood up and began to walk with great difficulty.

And I, seeing this lady beginning to walk, cried out into the microphone: "The lame walk, glory to the Lord!" And as I said it, another one stood up, and the people in the assembly were all astonished — and it was the Olympic Stadium that was rising to its feet; people were standing up, and I was crying out: "Thank you, Lord, another lame person beginning to walk.

Continue, Lord, we have time, we have time, Lord; continue, another one!" And truly people were standing up and saying: "Look over there, the person who is walking." And suddenly a third one began to walk, and do you know what happened? People were all worked up. Some were crying, feeling that Presence of God in a very strong way, and the Lord caused 12 lame people to stand up. At the end of the gathering, there were 12 wheelchairs that were empty; 12 lame people were walking; they were witnesses of the Presence of God, they were witnesses of Jesus Christ.

And it was such a great astonishment that the next morning, in the Montreal newspaper, the Montreal newspaper La Presse, there was an article in big headlines saying: "Amazement at the Olympic Stadium, the lame walk." It truly was amazement! Jesus was coming to tell us that he is alive, and the signs he gave to the messengers of John the Baptist — he was giving them to us there: the lame walk... We have seen, my brothers, how throughout the world in this renewal in the faith, Jesus wants to raise up witnesses. Witnesses who are like lights that will tell what they have seen and heard.

Jesus says to the disciples of John: "Go and tell what you have seen and heard." I would tell you that there were people crying in the assembly, and the mayor of Montreal, Mr. Jean Drapeau, who was there in the front rows, was crying like a child; he was sobbing. When God manifests his love and his presence, one feels very small. There are no more great men when the power of God is manifested; when the love of God bursts forth, we discover that we are little children, and he too was crying with sobs.

So I tell you these things to say that today too the Lord raises up witnesses, and then these people, when they proclaim what Jesus has done for them in his great mercy, they are witnesses who are building up the faith. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged him to let him stay with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying: "Return to your home and tell everything that God has done for you in his great mercy." And so he went off, proclaiming throughout the whole city all that Jesus had done for him. And everyone was filled with admiration.

Jesus wanted that man, that demoniac of the Gerasenes who had been set free from an unclean spirit — Jesus wanted him to be his witness, and he told him: "Return to your home and tell among your own people everything that God has done for you in his great mercy." That is what he asks of us all when he blesses us in a special way.

He asks us to return among our own, to return to our families, to return to our Christian community and to have the audacity to proclaim the wonders of the Lord; and every time we testify, every time we give a testimony, we evangelize; we proclaim the Good News of Jesus the Messiah and Savior.

My brothers, when the messengers of John the Baptist went to see Jesus, Jesus also gave them another sign by which to identify the Messiah and Savior: the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed... And we see all these signs today, and we can testify of all these things. Last December, I told this the other evening — last December we had the joy of seeing in Africa, in Cameroon, in the diocese of San Melina, after preaching a retreat at the cathedral to the prayer group of San Melina, there were more than 300 lepers.

And there, after preaching on the power of prayer for obtaining our healing, we made a community prayer for all those lepers who were there, pitiable as they were, and the Lord healed 10 lepers; 10 lepers were healed during the prayer, and in the following days they received a total healing, their skin was renewed, and they testified. They testified of their healing, and it was a great joy. And what impressed me was not only the healing of the lepers but the fact that Jesus healed 10 of them, as in the Gospel.

By this he comes to tell us that he is alive today and that he is always the same. He has the same power, the same goodness, and the same love, the same compassion for those who suffer.

And he tells us: "I tell you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God." How wonderful it is to be a believer, to believe in Jesus the Savior and to be able to return among our brothers and proclaim all these wonders, as did the Samaritan woman who returned, who went among the Samaritans to tell them: "I have met the Messiah; he told me everything I have done," and that brought about the conversion of several Samaritans.

As did Miriam, who after the healing of her cancer went to the prostitutes to tell them: "I have not come to ask you to leave this brothel; I have come to present my friend Jesus to you; I have come to speak to you of my friend Jesus." There, several were converted because of the testimony of Miriam.

How wonderful it is to see how many of those present here have been converted to the love of Jesus, have let themselves be loved by Jesus, because one of their friends, one of their brothers, had the audacity to proclaim the wonders of the Lord before them, to speak to them of the mercy of God, of the peace and joy he had received in accepting Jesus into his heart and into his life.

O Lord, how we thank you for continuing today to proclaim, to manifest your wonders. There are sometimes people who say to us: "But Father, in the Gospel, when the Lord healed a sick person, he told him — but do not tell this to anyone." So they refer to the Gospel according to Saint Matthew; there are a few Gospel passages that give the impression that the Lord does not want it to be told.

In Saint Matthew, chapter 9, verses 27 to 31, we read the healing of 2 blind men: "As Jesus went on from there, 2 blind men followed him, crying out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David.' When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' 'Yes, Lord,' they said to him. Then he touched their eyes, saying, 'Let it be done to you according to your faith.' And their eyes were opened. Jesus then sternly ordered them: 'Take care, he said, that no one knows about this.'"

"But they went away and spread his fame throughout all that region."

Jesus sometimes said to the sick who were healed, do not tell this to anyone. He said, do not tell this to anyone, but that does not mean he does not want it proclaimed. That is what is called the messianic secret. At the beginning of his public life Jesus healed the sick, but he did not want everything made public right away. He wanted to form his apostles; he wanted to give to his apostles who followed him, to his disciples, signs that he is the Messiah and Savior.

But he said "do not tell this to anyone" because he wanted to take the time, during his public life, to form his apostles and to proclaim the Word to them. But it is no longer like that today. After his death, Jesus no longer says "do not tell this to anyone"; after his death, on the day of the Ascension, Jesus said: "Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to all nations." Now it is no longer "do not tell it to anyone"; he tells us: "Go into all the world, proclaim the Good News to all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

"Whoever believes will be baptized and will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned."

In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, what wonderful witnesses the first apostles were! We see, for example, the appearance of Peter before the Sanhedrin, and there the authorities wanted to prevent him from proclaiming Jesus. And Peter then answered, with the apostles: "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised up this Jesus whom you put to death by hanging him on a tree. It is he whom God exalted at his right hand, making him Leader and Savior, in order to grant through him repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." Peter testified with boldness!

And we, my brothers, we will be true apostles in the Church of today if we have the courage to testify. And if the testimony of our conduct, if the testimony of our life speaks even louder than the testimony of our words, we will see wonderful results. We will see more and more conversions, and we do see conversions, people who meet Jesus. You have seen in your prayer cells, in your Christian communities, people who accept Jesus into their heart and into their life because someone dared to testify of Jesus Christ before them.

Let us not be mute! Let us be true witnesses! Bold witnesses who are capable of going to the point of blood, to the point of giving their lives for Jesus Christ! And it is in this way that the Lord wants to build his Kingdom.

Teaching given in Geneva, Switzerland in 1981