Novendiales 9th Day: May 4, 2025

At 5 p.m. this afternoon in the Vatican Basilica, the Eucharistic Celebration in suffrage of the Roman Pontiff Francis took place on the ninth day of the Novendiales. Concelebration presided over by His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, Protodeacon of the College of Cardinals.

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Novendiales 9th Day: May 4, 2025

Venerable Fathers Cardinals,
dear brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters,

The Liturgy of the Paola of this last Novendial in suffrage of Pope Francis is that of the day, the third Sunday of Easter, and the page of John’s Gospel just proclaimed presents us with the encounter of the resurrected Jesus with some Apostles and disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, which ends with the Mission entrusted to Peter by the Lord and Jesus’ commanding, “Follow me !”

The episode recalls that of the first miraculous fishing, narrated by Luke, when Jesus had called Simon, James and John, announcing to Simon that he would become a fisher of men. Since then, Peter had followed him, sometimes in misunderstanding and even betrayal, but in today’s encounter, the last before Christ’s return to the Father, Peter receives from him the task of shepherding his flock.

Love is the key word of this Gospel page. The first to recognize Jesus is “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” John, who exclaims, “It is the Lord!” and Peter immediately jumps into the sea to join the Master. After they had shared the food, what will have kindled in the Apostles’ hearts the memory of the Last Supper, the dialogue between Jesus and Peter begins, the Lord’s threefold question and Peter’s threefold answer.

The first two times, Jesus adopts the verb to love, a strong word, while Peter, mindful of the betrayal responds with the less demanding expression “to love,” and the third time Jesus himself uses the expression to love, adjusting to the Apostle’s weakness. Noted Pope Benedict XVI commenting on this dialogue. “Simon understands that Jesus is satisfied with his poor love, the only love of which he is capable. (…) It is precisely this divine adjustment that gives hope to the disciple, who has known the suffering of infidelity. (…) From that day Peter “followed” the Master with the precise awareness of his own frailty; but this awareness did not discourage him. For he knew that he could count on the presence beside him of the Risen One (…) and so he shows us the way too.” [1]

In his homily at the Mass for the 25th anniversary of his Pontificate, St. John Paul II confided, “Today, dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to share with you an experience that has been going on for a quarter of a century now. Every day the same dialogue between Jesus and Peter takes place within my heart. In spirit, I stare at the benevolent gaze of the risen Christ. He, while aware of my human frailty, encourages me to respond with confidence like Peter, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” ( Jn. 21:17). And then He invites me to assume the responsibilities He Himself has entrusted to me.” [2]

This Mission is love itself, which becomes service to the Church and to all humanity. Peter and the Apostles assumed it immediately, by the power of the Spirit they had received at Pentecost, as we heard in the First Reading: “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God raised him to his right hand, as head and Savior.”

We have all admired how much Pope Francis, animated by the Lord’s love and carried by His grace, has been faithful to his Mission to the utmost consumption of his strength. He has admonished the powerful that we must obey God rather than men and proclaimed to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the Merciful Father, Christ the Savior. He did this in his Magisterium, in his travels, in his gestures, in his lifestyle. I was next to him on Easter Day, at the loggia of blessings in this Basilica, witnessing his suffering, but especially his courage and determination to serve God’s People to the end.

In the Second Reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, we heard the praise that the whole universe gives to the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb: “praise, honor, glory and power, for ever and ever.” And the four living creatures said, “Amen.” And the elders prostrated themselves in worship.”

Adoration is an essential dimension of the Church’s mission and the lives of the faithful. Pope Francis often recalled this, such as in his homily for the Feast of the Epiphany last year: “The Magi had their hearts prostrated in adoration. (…) They came to Bethlehem and, when they saw the Child, ‘they prostrated themselves and adored him’ ( Mt 2:11). (…) A king who came to serve us, a God who became man. Before this mystery, we are called to bend our hearts and knees to worship: to worship the God who comes in littleness, who inhabits the normality of our homes, who dies for love. (…) Brothers and sisters, we have lost the habit of worship, we have lost this capacity that worship gives us. Let us rediscover the taste of the prayer of adoration. (…). There is a lack of adoration among us today.” [3]

This capacity that gives adoration was not difficult to recognize in Pope Francis. His intense pastoral life, his countless meetings, were grounded in the long moments of prayer that the Ignatian discipline had imprinted in him. Many times he reminded us that contemplation is “a dynamism of love” that “lifts us up to God not to detach us from the earth, but to make us inhabit it in depth.” [4] And everything he did, he did under the gaze of Mary. His one hundred and twenty-six stops before the Salus Populi Romani will remain in our memory and hearts. And now that he rests near the beloved Image, we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the Mother of the Lord and our Mother.

[1] General Audience of May 24, 2006.

[2] Homily of the Holy Mass of October 16, 2003.

[3] Homily of the Holy Mass of January 6, 2024.

[4] Audience to the Delegates of the Discalced Carmelites, April 18, 2024.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

novendiales — Image by Websi from Pixabay

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