Our People

Homily for Pope John Paul II’s Memorial Mass

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
3 April 2005

We Catholics have lost the one whom we call “Holy Father”.  He has been our spiritual father for the last 26 years and we mourn today as one would mourn the loss of a father.  For many Catholics, especially the young, he is the only pope they have ever known.  He has been the one we have looked to for inspiration and guidance.  He is the one who has been a source of hope and encouragement. 

Christian believers across the world have also lost one who they have admired as a man of faith, who has fearlessly proclaimed the central teachings of Christianity, and who at his first mass as Pope, on 22 October 1978, cried out to the world, “Open your hearts to Christ”.  He has been one who has constantly put his own personal and deep faith in Christ at the heart of his pastoral ministry. 

The world has lost a man who has been a great moral leader: a voice that has spoken to the conscience of the world in the last half of the 20th Century and at the dawn of a new millennium.  His voice has declared the dignity of the individual.  He has been a great promoter of the importance and value of the family. 

All people of goodwill have lost one who constantly revealed the splendour of truth and the primacy of the pursuit of the transcendent good.  Holy Father has been a fearless advocate for a culture of life. 

The readings in the Mass today speak of the Risen Lord coming to his disciples in the midst of their confusion and doubt, and simply saying to them, “Peace, be with you”.  Today in this mass as we celebrate the Octave day of Easter we draw strength from these words knowing the Risen Christ is the source of our lasting peace. 

This past week has been Easter week in the Church’s liturgy.  In the prayers and readings each day this week the Church has continued to ponder the wonderful mystery of the Resurrection.  During this week Karol Wojtyla has been dying, no doubt very conscious of the Church’s commemoration of the Lord’s victory over death. 

The Pope died at 9.00pm Saturday night, Roman time, on the eve of the celebration that he introduced into the Church, Divine Mercy Sunday.   Growing up in Poland, he knew of Sister Faustina speaking of  the revelations she had received in the 1930s, that Christ called people to have trust in him and have faith in the divine mercy of God.  This was a revelation offered prior to Poland as a nation enduring the sufferings of the Nazi invasion and occupation, and the subsequent dulling presence of the communist overlordship.

Today we mourn his loss. Today we remember with great gratitude the blessing that John Paul II has been to the Church and indeed to the world of our time. We pray for him.  We commend him now to the hands of the Lord whom he served so faithfully and we thank God for Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II.