Dear brothers and sisters,

We are gathered in this magnificent Cathedral Basilica, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Patroness of Equatorial Guinea, to listen to the Lord’s word and to celebrate the memorial that he has left us as the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission. The Eucharist truly contains every spiritual good of the Church: it is Christ, our Passover, who gives himself to us, he is the living Bread that nourishes us. His presence in the Eucharist reveals God’s infinite love for the entire human family and the way he encounters every woman and every man even today.

I am pleased to be able to celebrate with you and give thanks to the Lord for these 170 years of evangelization in Equatorial Guinea. It is a fitting occasion to recall all the good that the Lord has done, and at the same time, I wish to express my gratitude to the many missionaries, diocesan priests, catechists and lay faithful who have devoted their lives in service to the Gospel.

They have taken up the aspirations, questions and wounds of your people, and illuminated them with the Lord’s word, becoming themselves a sign of God’s love among you. Through the example of their lives, they have played their part in bringing about the Kingdom of God, unafraid of suffering for their fidelity to Christ.

It is a history that you must never forget. On the one hand, it links you to the universal and apostolic Church that came before you. On the other, it has made you protagonists in proclaiming the Gospel and bearing witness to the faith, fulfilling the prophetic words spoken by Pope Saint Paul VI on African soil: “Africans, from now on, you are missionaries to yourselves. The Church of Christ is well and truly planted in this blessed soil” (Homily at the Conclusion of the Symposium Organized by the Bishops of Africa, Kampala, Uganda 31 July 1969).

With this in mind, you are called upon today to follow in the footsteps of the missionaries, pastors and laypeople who have gone before you. Each and every one of you is invited to make a personal commitment that encompasses your entire life, so that the faith — celebrated so joyfully in your communities and in your liturgies — may also nourish your charitable works and the sense of responsibility toward your neighbor, for building up the common good.

Such a commitment requires perseverance; it demands effort and, at times, sacrifice. Yet it is the sign that we are truly the Church of Christ. In fact, the first reading we heard narrates in just a few verses how a Church that fearlessly and joyfully proclaims the Gospel is also a Church that, precisely for this reason, may be persecuted (cf. Acts 8:1–8). Nevertheless, the Acts of the Apostles tells us that, while Christians were forced to flee and were scattered, many drew near to the word of the Lord and could see with their own eyes how those who were sick in body and spirit were healed: these were the miraculous signs of God’s presence, which brought great joy to the whole city (cf. vv. 6–8).

Brothers and sisters, even when faced with personal, family and social situations that are not always favorable, we can trust that the Lord is at work, making the good seed of his Kingdom grow in ways unknown to us, including when everything around us seems barren, and even in moments of darkness. With such confidence, rooted in the power of his love rather than in our own merits, we are called to remain faithful to the Gospel, to proclaim it, to live it fully and to bear witness to it with joy. God will not fail to provide signs of his presence, and just as Jesus told us in the Gospel we heard, he once again will be for us “the bread of life” that satisfies our hunger (cf. Jn 6:35).

What is the hunger we feel? And what does this nation hunger for today? The motto chosen for my visit is “Christ, Light of Equatorial Guinea, Towards a Future of Hope.” Perhaps this is precisely the greatest hunger today. There is hunger for a future imbued with hope that is capable of engendering a new sense of justice and producing fruits of peace and fraternity. This is not an unknown future that we must passively await, but rather one that we ourselves are called to build with God’s grace. The future of Equatorial Guinea depends upon your choices; it is entrusted to your sense of responsibility and to your shared commitment to safeguarding the life and dignity of every person.

It is therefore necessary for all the baptized to feel that they are part of the work of evangelization, and so become apostles of charity and witnesses to a new humanity.

It is a matter of taking part, with the light and strength of the Gospel, in the integral development of this land, in its renewal and in its transformation. The Creator has endowed you with great natural wealth: I urge you to work together so that it may be a blessing for all. May the Lord help you to become a society in which everyone, each according to their respective responsibilities, works ever more fully to serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged. May there be greater room for freedom, and may the dignity of the human person always be safeguarded. My thoughts go to the poorest, to families experiencing difficulty and to prisoners who are often forced to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions.

Brothers and sisters, there is a need for Christians to take the destiny of Equatorial Guinea into their own hands. For this reason, I would like to encourage you: do not be afraid to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness to it with your lives! Be builders of a future of hope, peace and reconciliation, carrying on the work begun by the missionaries 170 years ago.

May the Immaculate Virgin Mary be with you on this journey. May she intercede for you and help you to become generous and joyful disciples of Christ.