FUNERAL MASS OF THE ROMAN PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II
HOMILY OF HIS EMINENCE CARD. JOSEPH RATZINGER
St Peter's Square
Friday, April 8 2005
"Follow me. " The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are
his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock.
"Follow me" – this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the
key to understanding the message which comes to us from the life
of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains
in the earth as a seed of immortality – our hearts are full of
sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound
gratitude.
These are the sentiments that inspire us, Brothers and Sisters
in Christ, present here in Saint Peter’s Square, in neighbouring
streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome,
where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the
last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of
the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to
Heads of State, Heads of Government and the delegations from
various countries. I greet the Authorities and official
representatives of other Churches and Christian Communities, and
likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the
Archbishops, Bishops, priests, religious men and women and the
faithful who have come here from every Continent; especially the
young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope
of the Church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those
throughout the world who are united with us through radio and
television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy
Father’s funeral.
Follow me – as a young student Karol Wojtyła was thrilled by
literature, the theatre, and poetry. Working in a chemical
plant, surrounded and threatened by the Nazi terror, he heard
the voice of the Lord: Follow me! In this extraordinary setting
he began to read books of philosophy and theology, and then
entered the clandestine seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha.
After the war he was able to complete his studies in the faculty
of theology of the Jagiellonian University of Kraków. How often,
in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books has
he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained
on 1 November 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood
with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord. First:
"You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to
go and bear fruit, fruit that will last" (Jn 15:16). The
second saying is: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep" (Jn 10:11). And then: "As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you; abide in my love" (Jn 15:9). In
these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy
Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear
fruit, fruit that lasts. "Rise, Let us be on our Way!" is the
title of his next-to-last book. "Rise, let us be on our way!" –
with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the
sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. "Rise, let
us be on our way!" he continues to say to us even today. The
Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to
God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily
self-oblation for the service of the Church, especially amid the
sufferings of his final months. And in this way he became one
with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. Finally,
"abide in my love:" the Pope who tried to meet everyone, who had
an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us
once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding
in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art
of true love.
Follow me! In July 1958 the young priest Karol Wojtyła began a
new stage in his journey with the Lord and in the footsteps of
the Lord. Karol had gone to the Masuri lakes for his usual
vacation, along with a group of young people who loved canoeing.
But he brought with him a letter inviting him to call on the
Primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszyński. He could guess the
purpose of the meeting: he was to be appointed as the auxiliary
Bishop of Kraków. Leaving the academic world, leaving this
challenging engagement with young people, leaving the great
intellectual endeavour of striving to understand and interpret
the mystery of that creature which is man and of communicating
to today’s world the Christian interpretation of our being – all
this must have seemed to him like losing his very self, losing
what had become the very human identity of this young priest.
Follow me – Karol Wojtyła accepted the appointment, for he heard
in the Church’s call the voice of Christ. And then he realized
how true are the Lord’s words: "Those who try to make their life
secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it"
(Lk 17:33). Our Pope – and we all know this – never
wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself; he
wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment,
for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience
how everything which he had given over into the Lord’s hands
came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of
literature, became an essential part of his pastoral mission and
gave new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the
preaching of the Gospel, even when it is a sign of
contradiction.
Follow me! In October 1978 Cardinal Wojtyła once again heard the
voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with
Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: "Simon, son of John,
do you love me? Feed my sheep!" To the Lord’s question, "Karol,
do you love me?," the Archbishop of Krakow answered from the
depths of his heart: "Lord you know everything; you know that I
love you." The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life
of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who
ever heard him preach, knows that. Thanks to his being
profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which
transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of
Christ’s flock, his universal Church. This is not the time to
speak of the specific content of this rich pontificate. I would
like only to read two passages of today’s liturgy which reflect
central elements of his message. In the first reading, Saint
Peter says – and with Saint Peter, the Pope himself – "I truly
understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation
anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to
him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all" (Acts
10:34-36). And in the second reading, Saint Paul – and with
Saint Paul, our late Pope – exhorts us, crying out: "My brothers
and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown,
stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved" (Phil
4:1).
Follow me! Together with the command to feed his flock, Christ
proclaimed to Peter that he would die a martyr’s death. With
those words, which conclude and sum up the dialogue on love and
on the mandate of the universal shepherd, the Lord recalls
another dialogue, which took place during the Last Supper. There
Jesus had said: "Where I am going, you cannot come." Peter said
to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied: "Where I am
going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow me
afterward." (Jn 13:33,36). Jesus from the Supper went
towards the Cross, went towards his resurrection – he entered
into the paschal mystery; and Peter could not yet follow him.
Now – after the resurrection – comes the time, comes this
"afterward." By shepherding the flock of Christ, Peter enters
into the paschal mystery, he goes towards the cross and the
resurrection. The Lord says this in these words: "... when you
were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go
wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out
your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and
take you where you do not wish to go" (Jn 21:18). In the
first years of his pontificate, still young and full of energy,
the Holy Father went to the very ends of the earth, guided by
Christ. But afterwards, he increasingly entered into the
communion of Christ’s sufferings; increasingly he understood the
truth of the words: "Someone else will fasten a belt around
you." And in this very communion with the suffering Lord,
tirelessly and with renewed intensity, he proclaimed the Gospel,
the mystery of that love which goes to the end (cf. Jn
13:1).
He
interpreted for us the paschal mystery as a mystery of divine
mercy. In his last book, he wrote: The limit imposed upon evil
"is ultimately Divine Mercy" (Memory and Identity, pp.
60-61). And reflecting on the assassination attempt, he said:
"In sacrificing himself for us all, Christ gave a new meaning to
suffering, opening up a new dimension, a new order: the order of
love ... It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with
the flame of love and draws forth even from sin a great
flowering of good" (pp. 189-190). Impelled by this vision, the
Pope suffered and loved in communion with Christ, and that is
why the message of his suffering and his silence proved so
eloquent and so fruitful.
Divine Mercy: the Holy Father found the purest reflection of
God’s mercy in the Mother of God. He, who at an early age had
lost his own mother, loved his divine mother all the more. He
heard the words of the crucified Lord as addressed personally to
him: "Behold your Mother." And so he did as the beloved disciple
did: he took her into his own home" (eis ta idia: Jn
19:27) – Totus tuus. And from the mother he learned to
conform himself to Christ.
None
of us can ever forget how in that last Easter Sunday of his
life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to
the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his
blessing urbi et orbi. We can be sure that our beloved
Pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that
he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We
entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who
guided you each day and who will guide you now to the eternal
glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
