HOMILY AT REQUIEM MASS FOR CARDINAL STICKLER, 12/14/07
Lord Cardinals,
venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!
Gathered in prayer around his mortal remains, we render our last greeting to Cardinal Alfons Maria Stickler. He shared with us so many years of labor in the vineyard of the Lord. Now God has called him after a long earthly sojourn to welcome him into his paternal and merciful arms.
As we affectionately join his family, the Salesian Congregation in which he was ordained in August 15, 1928, and all those who knew and appreciated him, we also look trustingly to heaven from which comes the only light which can illuminate the mystery of life and death.
The liturgical season of Advent, while it prepares us to relive the gift of the Redeemer's Nativity, also stimulates us to project ourselves with trust towards his last and definitive coming.
For this, our brother has now achieved the 'blessed hope' which we look forward to, as we repeat everyday in the Eucharistic celebration, in trying to live our pilgrimage on earth 'free of sin and safe from every trouble'.
The Apostle of the Gentiles has reminded us just now that if we die in Christ, "we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us" (2 Tim 2,11-12).
The Christian's entire plan for life can only be modelled after Christ: everything with him, for him, and in him, for the glory of God the Father. And was it not this fundamental truth that oriented the existence of our brother?
He chose for his episcopal motto, "Omnia et in omnibus Christus", and explained, in the sunset of his years, how these words had been the guide for his every choice and decision.
"The basis of my activities," he wrote a few years ago, "has always been the ideal of faith and of Christian living which is centered in Christ the Redeemer, and founder of the Church. All my efforts and my studies have served above all to deepen my religious knowledge with full loyalty to the Pope."
And he added: "As a Salesian, I follow the three ideals transmitted to us by Don Bosco: love for the Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady, and loyalty to the Holy Father."
He knew that to love Christ is to love his Church, which is always holy, as he noted in his spiritual testament, "notwithstanding the weaknesses, sometimes scandalous, of us who are its representatives and members, in the past and at present".
He recognized the misfortunes and challenges that Christians must face in our epoch, and concluded that only a true love for Christ can make us courageous and persevering in defending the truths of the Catholic faith.
In this regard, how many times must Cardinal Stickler have read and meditated the Gospel page which was proclaimed today to our assembly! The evangelist Matthew, who will be with us throughout this liturgical year, adds to the eight Beatitudes which open the Sermon on the Mount, as follows: "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me", concluding with "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven..." (Mt 5,11-12).
All of us, dear brothers and sisters, who with Baptism were called to follow and serve Jesus, know that we cannot and should not expect applause and recognition on this earth. The true reward of the faithful disciple is 'in heaven': Christ himself. Let us never forget this truth!
Let us never yield to the temptation of looking for success and human acclaim rather than counting only and always on him who came to the world to save us and who redeemed us on the Cross! Whatever service God calls us to render in his vineyard, may it always be animated by humble adherence to his will.
That this was the orientation of our dear Cardinal Stickler's entire life, even with its human frailties and weaknesses, emerges in his spiritual testament: "All my life has been according to a superior plan and realization, for which I could do nothing other than consent, often without a full appreciation of the reasons. And so all my life has been and is the work of Divine Providence."
It was a life spent totally first in teaching and then in service to the Holy See. Born in Neukirchen, Lower Austria, on August 23, 1910, Alfons Maria entered as a boy into the novitiate of the Salesian Congregation in Germany, and having completed his philosophical and theological studies in Germany, Austria, then in Turin and Rome, he was ordained a priest 70 years ago, on March 27, 1937, at the Lateran Basilica.
After completing the academic course at the Institutum Utriusque Iuris dell’Apollinare, he started to teach at the Faculty of Canon Law at the Salesian University, first in Turin then in Rome. He became dean of his Faculty from 1953-1958, then Rector Magnificus (1958-1966), as well as chairman till 1968 of the newly-founded
Institutum Altioris Latinitatis.
It was a real surprise for him to be nominated in 1971 by the Servant of God Paul VI as Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, where he carried out intense activity as a scholar researcher, with concrete proof in various books and essays written or edited by him on the history of Canon Law.
He was a member of three Commissions in the Second Vatican Council, and a member of the Commission for the new Code [of Canon Law] and the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, in addition to his membership in so many other international cultural institutions.
On September 8, 1983, he was named Pro-Librarian of the Holy Roman church, and the next November 1, as he writes in his testament, he received "in advanced age, the great grace of fullness in the priesthood from the hands of the Holy Father himself" John Paul II, who also named him Pro-Archivist of the Holy Roman Church and on May 25, 1985, distinguished him with the cardinalate.
Even after his active service to the Holy See, our friend continued to carry out his cultural and pastoral activities, while dedicating himself even more to reflection and prayer.
Every day, as he had done since the first year of his religious profession, he invoked the Holy Spirit with the hymn
Veni Sancte Spiritus, and he was convinced that if he had been in any way useful to his Congregation and to the Church, 'it was all due to the Holy Spirit". Last Wednesday, death introduced him to the kingdom of peace and eternal light.
Our brotherly wish is that he may bow enjoy his well-deserved reward and contemplate the splendor of eternal Truth. In the first Reading today, the prophet Daniel recalls that "the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever" (Dn 12,3). May it be so for our esteemed brother in the priesthood and episcopate!
May he be welcomed by the Most Blessed Mary, of whom he wrote: "Our Lady shall be, even at the moment of my death, the true mother who gives her love and mercy even to her less faithful children."
May he be accompanied by St. John Bosco and all the Salesian saints and blessed ones. With affection and recognition, we join in the invocation with which Cardinal Stickler closes his spiritual testament: "I believe, I hope, I love. Pardon my weakness in faith, in hope and in charity, and lead me, o my God, to the kingdom of your love". Amen.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/12/2007 19:11]