HOMILY AT MEMORIAL MASS FOR JOHN PAUL II, 4/2/07
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!
Two years ago today, at around this time, our beloved Pope John Paul II left this world to go to the house of the Lord. With this celebration, we wish above all to renew to God our thanks for having given him to us for 27 years as father and secure guide in the faith, zealous pastor and courageous prophet of hope, indefatigable witness and passionate servant for the love of God.
At the same time, we offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice in remembrance of his privileged soul, in the indelible memory of the great devotion with which he celebrated the holy mysteries and adored the Sacrament on the altar, the center of his life and of his tireless apostolic mission.
I wish to express my acknowledgement to all of you who have come to take part in this Mass. I address a special greeting to Cardinal Stanislaw Dsiwisz, Archbishop of Cracow, imagining all the feelings that must crowd his heart today.
I greet the other cardinals, bishops, priests and religious present here; all the pilgrims who came here specially from Poland; all the young people whom John Paul II loved with singular passion; and the numerous pilgrims who have come from other parts of Italy and from all over the world to keep an appointment today here at St. Peter's.
The second anniversary of the pious departure of this beloved Pontiff comes in a climate that is very propitious for prayer and meditation. Yesterday, with Palm Sunday, we entered Holy Week, and the liturgy makes us relive the last days of the earthly life of our Lord Jesus.
Today it leads us to Bethany, where, 'six days before Passover", as the evangelist John tells us, Lazarus, Martha and Mary offered a dinner for the Master. The Gospel account confers an intense Paschal climate on our meditation.
The supper at Bethany is the prelude to the death of Jesus, in the sign of unction that Mary performed in tribute to the Lord, and which He accepted in the context of His coming burial (cfr Jn 12,7).
But it is also an announcement of the Resurrection, through the very presence of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, an eloquent testimony to Jesus's power over death.
Beyond its pregnancy in Paschal meaning, the story of the dinner at Bethany brings us a consuming resonance, full of affection and devotion. It is a mixture of joy and sorrow - festive joy over the visit of Jesus and His disciples, for the resurrection of Lazarus, and for the approaching Passover. But a profound sorrow that this could be the last one for Jesus, threatened by the plotting of those Jews who wanted Him dead and their threats against Lazarus himself, whom they wanted to eliminate.
But there is a gesture, in this gospel episode, that draws our attention, and which even today, speaks in a singular way to our hearts: Mary of Bethany, at one point, "took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair" (Jn 12,3).
It is one of those details of the life of Jesus that St.John gleaned from his heart's memory and which carry an inexhaustibly expressive weight. This one speaks of love for Christ, an overwhelming love, prodigious, like the precious perfume that was poured on His feet. A fact that symptomatically scandalized Judas Iscariot - the logic of love coming up against the logic of the bookkeeper..
For us, who are gathered in prayer in memory of my venerated predecessor, the gesture of unction by Mary of Bethany is rich with spiritual echoes and suggestions. It evokes the luminous testimony John Paul II offered of a love for Christ that was without reservations, unsparing. The 'perfume' of his love 'filled the house' (Jn 12,3), in this case, the whole church.
Surely, we profited from it, those of us who were near him, and for this, we thank God, but even those who only knew him from afar, also partook of it, because Papa Wojtyla's love for Christ had spilled over, we might say, to every region of the world, so strong and intense was it.
The esteem, the respect, the affection that believers and non-believers expressed at his death are eloquent testimony. St. Augustine, commenting on this Gospel pasasge, wrote: "The house was filled with its fragrance, which means, the world was filled with a good reputation. The good odor is a good reputation...and the Lord is praised through the merit of good Christians "(In Io. evang. tr. 50, 7).
How true that is! The intense and fruitful pastoral ministry, and later, the Calvary of his agony and the serene passing away of our beloved Pope made known to all men of our time that Jesus Christ was truly "all" to him.
The fecundity of his testimony, we know, comes from the Cross. In the life of Karol Wojtyla, rhe word 'cross' was not just a word. From infancy and youth, he knew sorrow and death. As priest and as bishop, and above all, as Supreme Pontiff, he took very seriously that last call the Risen Jesus made to Simon Peter on the shore of Galilee: "Follow me - you follow me." (v 21, 19,22).
Then, especially with the slow but implacable progress of his illness, which little by little, stripped him of everything, his existence became entirely an offering to Christ, a living announcement of His Passion, but in the faith-filled hope of Resurrection.
His Pontificate unfolded in the sign of prodigality, of giving himself generously without reservation. What else moved Him but his love for Christ, for Him who on October 16, 1978, sent him a call, with the ritual words: "
Magister adest et vocat te" - the Master is here and calls you.
And on April 2, 2005, the Msster returned, this time without an intermediary, to call him and bring him home, to the Father's house. And he, once again, answered readily, with his intrepid heart, whispering "Let me go to the Lord" (cfr S. Dziwisz, Una vita con Karol, p. 223).
For a long time, he had been preparing himself for this last encounter with Jesus, as the different drafts of his testament show. During long hours in his private chapel, he spoke to Him, abandoning himself totally to His will, entrusting himself to Mary, repeating
Totus tuus. Like His divine Master, He lived his agony in prayer.
On the last day of his lfie, eve of the Sunday of Divine Mercy, he asked to be read the Gospel of John. Assisted by those around him, he wanted to take part in all the prayers of the day and at the Liturgy of the Hours, to make Adoration, to meditate.
The perfume of the Pope's faith and hope and love filled his house, filled St. Peter's Square, filled the Church and spread throughout the whole world. He died praying. Truly, he went to sleep in the Lord.
What happened after his death was - to believers - the effect of that fragrance that had reached everyone, near and far, and drew them towards a man whom God had progressively conformed to Christ. And so we can apply to him the words of the first verse of the Servant of the Lord that we heard in the first Reading: "Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations,..." (Is 42,1).
Servant of God: that he was ,and that is how we call him now in the Church, as the process for his beatification progresses expeditiously, and for which we closed today the diocesan investigation into his life, his virtues and his reputation for saintliness.
Servant of God: A title particularly appropriate for him. Tthe Lord called him to His service in the priesthood and gradually opened ever wider horizons to him: from his diocese to the universal Church.
This dimension of universality reached its maximum expansion at the moment of his death - an avent which the entire world lived through with a participation never before seen in history.
Dear brothers and sistes, the Responsorial Psalm has given us words full of faith. In the communion of saints, we seem to hear the voice of of our beloved John Paul II, who from the house of the Father - we can be sure - does not cease to accompany the journey of this Church. "Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord. (Ps 26. 13-14).
Yes, dear brothers and sistere, our hearts are encouraged, and burn with hope! With this invitation in our hearts, let us continue the Eucharistic celebration, already looking forward to the light of the Resurrrection of Christ, which will shine again in the Easter Vigil after the darkness of Good Friday.
May the
Totus tuus of our beloved Pontiff inspire us to follow him on the road of giving ourselves to Christ, through the intercession of Mary, and may she obtain it for us, the Blessed Virgin, in whose maternal hands we entrust our father. brother and friend so that he may rest with God and rejoice in peace. Amen.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/04/2007 22.38]