Archbishop of Sydney

Fourth Sunday of Easter

St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Acts 13:14, 43-52; Apoc 7:9, 14-17; Jn 10:27-30

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
29/4/2007

Over the years in different countries I have been privileged to meet great men and women who have suffered much for their faith in Christ and in the Catholic Church.

Early in the 1990's I visited the diocese of Grodno in Belorussia (or White Russia), now known as Belarus a country caught between Russia and Northern Germany, where I was invited by the Bishop to address the clergy. They were all old, buried in immense black suits and overcoats, priests who had survived up to forty-five years of communist persecution. Generally their faces were inscrutable, gnarled and chiselled; they seemed a formidable lot, until they smiled.

On another occasion in the countryside of southern Cambodia I met a Vietnamese nun, who had been the only religious - there were then no other bishops, priests or nuns - working in Cambodia secretly in the time of Pol Pot, who killed at least 1,000,000 people, one-eighth of the Cambodian people. All the local priests and bishops died in prison and all missionaries were expelled.

In the Ukraine there was Bishop Vasylyk, a Greek Catholic, one of the heroes of the underground Church, whose exploits celebrating Mass (which was forbidden for years) were famous, as he escaped over roof tops and in various disguises. In the last days of Communism he and a group camped out in the Red Square, Moscow demanding religious freedom in Ukraine.

And I have not mentioned Cardinal Thuan of Vietnam and Cardinal Todea of Romania both of whom spent fifteen or more years in Communist jails, some of these years in solitary confinement.

On many occasions I have pointed out that more martyrs died for their faith and more confessors suffered imprisonment in the twentieth century than any other century in history. That is one record we do not want to break in this the twenty-first Christian century!

All of this is a rather long-winded introduction to a reflection on today's reading from the Book of the Apocalypse, which will continue to be the centrepiece of my Easter sermons during the next few weeks.

Our generation has therefore produced an above average percentage of that "huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language" who stand before the throne of God and of the Lamb dressed in white and holding the palms of victory and martyrdom. They are witnesses who were either martyred during some persecution, or who suffered severe penalties or imprisonment. For example it is reliably estimated that 130,000 Vietnamese have died for the Catholic faith in persecutions over about 300 years. With this background it is probably not surprising that of the four priests ordained here yesterday morning, two were born in Vietnam and chose to study for the priesthood despite the hostile pressures of the Vietnamese Communist Government.

The heroes of today's second reading are described as enjoying the happiness of heaven, where their tears have been wiped away and the Lamb of God himself is leading them to streams of living water and for them their will be no drought, no hunger and no thirsting. In fact they are sharing God's divine life and we are reminded that we too, here on earth, are untied mystically with these heavenly witnesses. We follow Christ in the obscurity of faith, but they are in God's presence.  They no longer have to struggle to preserve and refine their faith and their hope, because these virtues are not needed in God's warm love.

These verses from chapter seven represent the second part of the sixth seal, the second last of the seven seals. The scroll that Christ receives from the right hand of God represents God's plan of salvation for the whole of humanity. Only Christ can open this scroll and he brings God's plan to fruition through his life, death and resurrection. The seals are the positive and negative forces controlled by Christ which take his place forward.

The first four seals are negative and feature the terrible horsemen of the Apocalypse, while the fifth and sixth are more positive. The first part of the sixth seal recounts the Day of God's wrath, the coming of God for judgement, described in technicolour with a variety of cosmic upheavals, before we come to the beauty and tranquillity described in today's reading.

I mentioned last week that we should not try to tie these graphic and exaggerated images to any one historical event and the experts claim that the seven seals or forces should not be seen as acting in sequence. War, injustice and death are unfortunate constants in human history, but these evils can only go so far, because they are under the control of the Risen Christ and the final victory of the Lamb of God is assured.

That is why we pray to the Lamb of God, who takes away our sins, just before communion in every Mass. With confidence we ask Christ Our Lord whom we address as the sacrificial Lamb, to have mercy on us and finally to give us peace.

This is our prayer and our faith tells us our prayer will be answered.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.