On Sunday 22 February 2009, Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muņoz, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, presided at Mass in the Abbey Church to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of the monastic Community of St Laurence. After the reading of the Gospel (Mark 2.1-12) he preached the following homily:
Dear Father Abbot, dear brothers and sisters in Christ
As I said at the beginning of Mass, I am very happy to be with you this Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist in this lovely Abbey Church at Ampleforth, especially this year as you celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the Community. I thank you, Father Abbot, for inviting me and I am most grateful to everyone for the warmth of your welcome.
As the representative of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, I am very pleased to be with you, especially on this day, normally the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter and a reminder of the Holy Father's concern for the whole of the Universal Church, not just the Church here in Great Britain. Our communion with the successor of Saint Peter links us with our fellow Catholics, in good times or in suffering, throughout the world.
In fact, by coincidence, I was in Rome last week and attended the General Audience, given by the Holy Father last Wednesday (18 February). He spoke, enthusiastically, of the Venerable Bede, an illustrious Benedictine and monk of Lindisfarne [sic]. The Holy Father said: "Bede was born in Northeast England, in fact in Northumbria, in the year 672/673. He himself narrates that, when he was seven years old his parents entrusted him to the abbot of the neighbouring Benedictine monastery to be educated. 'In this monastery', he recalls, 'I lived from then on, dedicating myself intensely to the study of Scripture, while observing the discipline of the Rule and the daily effort to sing in church. I always found it pleasant to learn, teach and write'" (Ecclesiastical History of the English People V, 24).
In our Gospel reading, today taken from Saint Mark, we could perhaps reflect on a number of things. We see Our Blessed Lord teaching the people, who, for the most part like Saint Bede, were enthusiastic to hear his words and crowded in to be close to Him. We are also told that not all of his listeners were so positively disposed. There were a group of scribes in attendance, and they wanted to catch him out.
We too, who are called to be witnesses to Our Lord and to His teaching meet the same reactions in our daily lives. Some of the persons that we encounter are, to use a phrase well-known and used by Cardinal Hume, another Monk from the Northeast, clearly 'Searching for God'. Others, like the scribes, are much more sceptical and even hostile. In this Gospel we see Jesus, being patient but clearly revealing His power and wisdom.
We could also reflect with profit on the four men who arrive carrying the paralytic. They not only do everything in their power to place their friend in the presence of Jesus, where he can encounter Him face to face, they also remind us of our own responsibility to do the same for our friends, and our duty to help each person, especially those in need, to encounter personally the healing person who is Jesus Christ.
As we have heard, once encountered, Jesus does two things for the paralysed man. First, and in reality most important, he forgives him his sins. In this regard I wish to quote from the Message for Lent, written by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, this year: "May every family use well this time of Lent... I am thinking", the Pope writes, "of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina (the meditative reading of the scriptures), recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass".
These are our primary means of being drawn close to Our Lord, and as we prepare to begin Lent this Wednesday, we may take note of Pope Benedict XVI's reminder and during these forty days prepare ourselves well for recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is always an opportunity for us to experience in a powerful way Our Lord's mercy, forgiveness and love.
Our Lord also then heals the paralytic, certainly for the poor man's own benefit, but to try and show the scribes His authority, the reality of the forgiveness bestowed and also, quite simply, His love. He is doing 'the new deed', mentioned by the prophet Isaiah. Sadly the scribes do not seem to recognise this, though the rest of the people there were astounded and were led to praise God.
The Lord's love. The love shown by the four men for their sick friend in bringing him to Jesus. Simple consideration for others. These are challenges for us, too. Our Blessed Lord asks that we, you and I, live out that love in the concrete circumstances of our lives. With our fellow students. With those who teach us. With our families, friends and those persons whom we encounter in our daily activities. Experience teaches us this will at times be challenging and difficult. It will call for us to find a spirit of generosity and unselfishness, not just to make this world a better place, but to prepare us for that fullness of love, which we call 'heaven' or 'the vision of God'.
Dear students, although you are not quite as young as the Venerable Bede was when he came to the monastery to be educated, you are at the beginning of your lives and your careers. The future, under God, is yours to decide. Many of you, I am sure, will go on to have successful careers in the world, and find yourselves married and, God willing, parents. I would emphasise to you just how important this vocation is, for we need good and generous married couples and families to show, in a concrete way, the reality of God's love, in service to others.
It is also my personal experience that good Priests and Religious come from good families and are supported by them. Good families, in turn, are supported and sustained by the example and lives of good Religious and Priests. Perhaps too, even at this moment, some of you may be feeling that God is gently calling you to Priesthood, the Monastic or the Religious life. If this call is not for you, it may possibly be made to your children. When and if that time comes, please do encourage them in their turn to be generous.
I conclude with my own personal experience. I am one of ten children and when I finished my university studies I went to my father, slightly apprehensive, because I felt called to try my vocation at the Seminary. I thought he might need my help raising my younger brothers and sisters. He told me not to worry and to go to the Seminary with confidence. He then told me something that I had never known. He said that he and my mother, every day of their married life, without any of us being aware of it, had prayed that one of their sons should be a priest.
At the end of Mass today, I will cordially impart to you, to your families and those who love you, especially those who are sick or suffering, the Apostolic Blessing of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as a pledge of heavenly favours.
God bless you! God keep you!