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Vatican
City, Vatican, 30 August, 2004 (CNA) -
During the Angelus
yesterday, Pope John Paul II called on all Christians to
be ready to bear witness to the truth of Christ, even
"at the cost of suffering and great
sacrifice."
According to Church
tradition, the Pope recalled the martyrdom of St. John
the Baptist yesterday, whom Jesus had called "the
greatest among those born of women."
John the Baptist gave "the
supreme witness of blood, sacrificing his existence for
truth and justice; he was in fact decapitated based on
the orders of Herod," said the Pope.
Referring to the encyclical
"Veritatis splendor," the Pope said martyrdom, like that
of St. John the Baptist, is "an eminent sign of the
holiness of the Church," which "represents the summit of
the testimony to moral truth."
Although relatively few are
called to this supreme sacrifice, said the pontiff, it
is "testimony that all Christians must be ready to give
every day, even at the cost of suffering and grave
sacrifice."
Acknowleding the daily
challenges of living the faith in today's world, the
Pope said, "it sometimes requires a herioc commitment to
not give up, even in daily life, to the difficulties
that push us to compromise and to live the Gospel 'sine
glossa' (without footnotes.)"
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