Optional Memorial of Saint Paul VI: Papal death

Fr Richard's homily for the optional memorial of Saint Paul VI. Mass celebrated for Joan and Bill Marsden RIP on their anniversaries

Readings: https://universalis.com/20200529/mass.htm

Papal death

Listen here

Christ unveils the office of His Vicar on earth in today’s Gospel. Peter affirms his love for the Lord three times and is asked to feed Jesus’ lambs and sheep. But the first Pope and indeed all of his successors are warned that the office involves doing things and going places they would rather not. They are told the See of Peter will involve suffering and even death for Christ.

Of course, only a few popes in history have been martyred. But many have undergone ‘death’ in different ways, remembering always that love always involves some kind of suffering.

In God’s Providence, the Gospel for this 7^th Friday of Eastertide falls on the optional memorial of Saint Paul VI, a pope known to many of you. He underwent his own ‘sufferings and deaths’ for the sake of the Truth who is Christ. The obvious one that springs to mind was the reaction to his prophetic encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which was about the beauty and truth of human sexuality. He taught that the two ‘meanings’ of the sexual act – the union of the married couple in love and their openness to having children – could not be separated. In God’s plan, both always have to be preserved. Thus, he upheld the constant teaching of the Church against artificial birth control. For this, he was attacked from both inside and outside the Church. Indeed, many left the Church and even several priests left their vocation. The anger in response Humanae Vitae had a deep effect on Paul VI - he didn’t write another encyclical for the remaining nine years of his pontificate. But he knew that his suffering was part of his deep love for the Lord and for upholding his truth.

Other popes have experienced ‘death’ in different ways. Canon Michael and I recently watched The Scarlet and the Black, in which Gregory Peck plays Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty, a real-life Irish priest who saved thousands of Jews and ‘escaped prisoners of war’ in Rome during the Second World War. In that film, the suffering of Pope Pius XII was evident. He was a prisoner in the Vatican, taunted by the Nazis. And yet, contrary to some unpleasant narratives, he saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives by his actions as pope.

On this Feast, we give thanks for the witness of Paul VI, whose other encyclicals such as ‘On the Development of Peoples’ and ‘Of the Celibate Priesthood’ are also to be recommended.  But we give thanks to Almighty God also for the gift of the See of St Peter, the Vicar of Christ who steers the barque of the Church through the course of history.

Our present Holy Father, Pope Francis, will be suffering at this time, having to suddenly steer the ship through the crisis of a global pandemic. Let’s pray especially for him today.