Homily for the Diocesan Mass
for the Holy Father

by The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt

Church of St. Mary - Bird Island, MN

April 7 , 2005

This has been an extraordinary two weeks of seeing the whole world focused on the life and death of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. After 26 years of preaching, teaching and witnessing to the love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, all his tireless, dedicated efforts (Italian instancabile) seems to have born fruit in the hundreds of thousands of people – Catholics and non-Catholics alike – who demonstrated that they had been touched and touched deeply by this apostle of faith.

We have heard him heralded as:

      The defender of the unborn and the poor;

      The preacher of peace;

      The teacher of Catholic truth;

      A man of prayer.

He was applauded for his constant outreach for ecumenical and Interreligious dialogue;

      the first Pope to visit a Jewish synagogue;

      the first Pope to pray in an Islamic mosque;

      the first Pope to preach from a Lutheran pulpit.

He covered 700,000 miles in his apostolic visits – equal to 29 trips around the world.

He wrote 15 encyclicals, 14 apostolic exhortations and countless allocutions and audience addresses.

He had a special love for saints, having canonized 477 of them, and a great affection for the young as we saw so often, but especially in the World Youth Days he summoned.

Surely there was a moment in his own youth when he heard the Lord call him to this vocation and he willingly responded –

Was it at the death of his mother, his father or his older brother?

Was it in the crucible of Nazi domination and destruction?

Was it trudging back home after an exhaustive night of working in a Polish factory?

Was it under the careful tutelage of Cardinal Sapieha, his mentor and spiritual father?

Whenever it happened, surely it occurred by Jesus looking at him as he did at Peter in tonight’s Gospel and asking, “Karl, do you love me more than these?”

And in that moment, the Virgin Mary must have whispered in his ear, “Do not be afraid,” thus allowing young Karl Wojtyla to respond:

    “Yes, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

 
And since that day, the Lord took him by the hand, tied him fast and led him where he might not otherwise have gone.

Literally he was poured out like a libation, fighting the good fight until he had finished the race. And oh how the Lord stood at his side to give him strength! . . . so that through him the preaching task might be completed and all the nations might hear the Gospel.

He ministered without ceasing so that the image of Christ’s Body, the Church, as depicted in tonight’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles, might be more perfectly fulfilled. In that Scripture, the disciples of the early Church are described as being:

      - devoted to the teaching of the apostles

      - devoted to communal life

      - devoted to the breaking of the bread and
      - devoted to prayer

Let’s look at those categories in light of Pope John Paul’s witness. First of all, John Paul knew who he was: the successor of the apostle Peter. Many from the media have commented that he was doctrinally conservative – well, guess what, so were his four predecessors and so, too, will be his subsequent successors! Being doctrinally conservative is part of a Pope’s job description as it is also part of your identity and mine as Catholic believers.

As Catholics, we don’t believe in the individual interpretation of Scripture, we don’t decide how many sacraments there are, we don’t rewrite the Ten Commandments or the Natural Law to suit our own desires.

But as Catholics, we do understand what St. Paul meant when he told the Corinthians: “I have handed on to you what I received from the Lord . . .” or when he told the Galatians: “I assure you, brothers, the gospel I proclaimed to you is no mere human invention.”

The media can take all the surveys they want from across this nation of however many cafeteria Catholics they can find, but the Church cannot change the essential kerygma given to her by Jesus Christ. Her mission is set by Him alone. This was the constant teaching that Pope John Paul II fearlessly defended.

Secondly, Pope John Paul II has told us over and over again that the Church is fundamentally a communio reflecting and participating in the very communal life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As such, she must distinguish the essential doctrines of the faith from the non-essential aspects in which those doctrines may be historically or culturally wrapped. I said that the Chrism Mass that to privatize the Church does violence to her very nature. One cannot force an individualistic ideology on a reality that is meant to be communal without destroying it.

This is a lesson we have yet to learn. One sociologist commenting on last summer’s debate on Politicians and Holy Communion said that the Church in the United States is a church at war with herself. The traditionalists are fighting to make nonessentials essential, while the liberals are fighting to throw out the essentials as if they were non-essential.

Pope John Paul II reminded us that the Church is a communio and her members are called not to pursue their own personal ideologies, but rather to build up the Church in faith, hope and love. As St. Thomas teachers, “In media stat virtus.”

Thirdly, the Holy Father has called us ever so passionately to be devoted to the Holy Eucharist, finding the presence of Jesus in the breaking of the bread. He died in the midst of this Year of the Eucharist which he himself proclaimed. In doing so, he exhorted us to contemplate the face of Jesus contained in the consecrated species of the sacred host and the Precious Blood.

I am only too aware how essential that kind of contemplation is called for right here in our own Diocese. Time and again, I have encountered among our practicing Catholics, and even some Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, a woefully inadequate comprehension of the Church’s understanding of this most precious gift. Inevitably our understanding of the Sacrament of Holy Orders is linked with the theology of the Eucharist and that, too, is in a state of remedial repair. My brothers and sisters, if we cannot fully appreciate how the Eucharist is the Body of Christ, how can we dare to hope that it will make us into the Body of Christ?

Lastly, Pope John Paul II was a daily disciple of prayer. On more than once occasion, I had the opportunity of entering his private chapel before morning Mass to see him totally absorbed in prayer. The staff called his deep breathing and heavy groans during these periods as “his sighing in the Spirit.” One could see a personal engagement in his exercise of communing with the Trinity. Such prayer does not happen overnight, but rather results from countless hours of being present to and vulnerable before God.

In a special way, this Pope showed the youth of our Church the importance of prayer. How could they know God’s will? How would they discover a vocation? How indeed could they determine right from wrong if they could not or would not pray? Devotion to prayer, for the Pope, was basic nutrition and hydration for the spiritual life. Without it, he knew that his very soul would die.

That vision of the Church from the Acts of the Apostles showing the disciples being devoted to the teaching of the apostles, to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to prayer, is the very vision that Pope John Paul II has tried with such dedication to teach us these past 26 years.

The outpouring of affection and attention that the world has shown him these past two weeks would seem to indicate that his teaching has been heard, at least by some, but now it is up to us – you and me – to see that it endures. Let us pray that we are up to the task.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. [And let perpetual light shine upon him.]

May he rest in peace. [Amen.]

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. [Amen.]