Homily for Second Sunday of Easter
There will be many images used in the next few days to convey the powerful influence of Pope John Paul II on the Church and on the world. The image of the ground-breaker could be applied to so much that he did. He was first into the field in so many areas. He was the first Pope to be made Freeman of Galway City for example! Obviously, he was the first non-Italian since the Reformation, for over 455 years. Up to his election, Popes had come to be known as 'prisoners of the Vatican'. After the election of John Paul II, it was claimed with justification that the Vatican had become a prisoner of the Pope. He made over 100 international journeys, visiting 129 countries. As a result, his face became the best-known face on earth. As one journalist pointed out, the Popemobile became almost as familiar a sight in some places as the airport taxis.
But his outreach was not just geographical; it was also intellectual. He was a philosopher by inclination and by training. The fact that he mastered nine languages gives us some idea of the value he placed on other cultures. However, some indigenous cultural practices left him chuckling or scratching his head, depending on who you were reading! On one of his many trips to Africa, a local chief introduced this rather young, handsome woman as the queen mother of the realm! John Paul was apparently puzzled and asked what Queen Mother meant in this context. 'I have eight wives, the chief replied, and this is my chief child-bearer. She is the Queen Mother.' The bemused Pope scratched his head and asked, 'Have I opened a page of the Old Testament'.
As human beings, we can play no greater compliment to a culture than to learn its language. To have nine languages indicates an enormous appreciation of cultural diversity. This deep appreciation extended of course to other religions, to our fellow Christian Churches, and to other frameworks of belief. He became in every sense an international figure. A rock-like belief in the dignity of every human being was his lodestar. In that, he was a path-finder and a ground-breaker. For a man who was dubbed inflexibly conservative, he was an extraordinary adventurer. He was the first Pope to enter a mosque. He was the first Pope to enter a Jewish synagogue. He referred to members of the Jewish faith as 'our dearly beloved elder brothers and sisters of the original covenant never revoked'. And of course, he was the fist Pope to visit the principal church of the Anglican Communion, the Anglican cathedral of Christ at Canterbury. There he prayed with the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Runcie at the tomb of Thomas á Beckett on the eve of Pentecost, 1982. After that meeting both men issued a joint declaration. The declaration contained the following words of encouragement:
"Once more then, we call on the bishops, clergy and faithful people of both our communions in every country, diocese and parish in which our faithful live side by side. We urge them all to pray for this work and to adopt every possible means of furthering it through their collaboration in deepening their allegiance to Christ and in witnessing to him before the world. Only by such collaboration and prayer can the memory of past enmities be healed and our past antagonisms overcome. Confident in the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves anew to the task of working for unity with firm faith, renewed hope and even deeper love"
It is providential this morning, on the very day after the death of this ground-breaking Pope, that we should be here in St. Nicholas' Protestant Church, breaking new ground ourselves. For the first time in over 300 years a Catholic community has gathered to celebrate their Sunday Eucharist at St. Nicholas' here in Galway. The fact that we are here at the invitation of the Church of Ireland Anglican community makes this morning more special still. Did our ancestors ever think that this morning would have been possible? Did we ourselves ever thing that this morning would have been possible? I personally did not believe it was possible. I believed that there were too many obstacles in the way. But others in the congregation, reared and formed outside the stifling embrace of clericalism, did not see the obstacles as I saw them. And they worked away behind the scenes with the Church of Ireland community to make this day possible. I would like to acknowledge in particular the part played by the Church of Ireland rector, Patrick Towers, in accommodating us. He saw immediately the powerfully symbolic nature of the move. But he, or none of the rest of us for that matter, could ever have foreseen the full symbolic power that this morning would have throughout the world. We are not in control. Our destiny, obviously, is in the hands of Another!
I am delighted this morning has happened, and I thank all who worked to bring it about. Again, I believe, it is extraordinary and providential that we should be here in St. Nicholas' Protestant Church celebrating a ritual Mass for the late John Paul II. We mourn his passing obviously, but we are enormously proud of the contribution he made to humanity. He was, as one newspaper put it this morning, 'a titan of our times'. We have many reasons today for making our own the Easter cry of exuberance: "This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad."