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Homily delivered at the funeral of Pope John Paul II by the Dean of
the College of Cardinals, 8 April 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 Wyszynski.
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” (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.
Translation of the Holy See.
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