At exactly 7pm (GMT) the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, abdicated from the ministry of St Peter, and retired from the Papacy to make room for new energy in the ministry of Peter. He did this recognising his accelerating frailty and his desire for the good of the Church.
The Ordinariate of the Southwest of England marked his last hour as Pope with a Holy Hour of largely silent prayer before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, and then at 7pm with a Mass for the Election of a New Pope. Local Catholics joined members of the Ordinariate for both the Holy Hour and the Mass, at the Church of the Holy Angels, Chelston, Torquay. Fr David Lashbrooke was principle celebrant and spoke of how this day was an emotional day for many of us. Fr Simon Chinery led the Prayers of the People praying for His Holiness Benedict XVI, and for the Church, the Cardinals, the Bishops and Priests and all God's people.
Lections:
First lesson: Hebrews 5:1-10
Psalm 89
Gospel: John 17: 11b, 17-23
Fr Ian Hellyer preached the following sermon:
Mass
for the Election of a New Pope (Feb 28th 2013)
We
offer this Mass for the election of a new pope, praying that the
Cardinals will give themselves over to the Holy Spirit and be guided
and directed by Him. However we do so mindful of the great
pontificate of His Holiness Benedict XVI. We in the Ordinariate have
much, of course, to be thankful for because it is with the
encouragement and vision of Benedict that the Ordinariate came into
being.
As
we learnt last summer, with Prof Tracey Rowland, Benedict's vision
comes partly from the writing of Blessed John Henry Newman, and it is
largely because of him that Benedict has a love and a care for the
welcoming of Anglicans back into full communion.
Who
can forget the wonderful days of Benedict's Apostolic Visit to
England and Scotland? They were days full of joy. Every word he said
seemed packed full of apposite meaning and light. My family and I
made the pilgrimage to Birmingham for the Beatification Mass. For me
it cemented my resolve to accept the offer of Anglicanorum
Coetibus, and to work within the
vision implicit in that document. But more than that, I was a
convinced that I could be in a Church that was led by a man like
Benedict XVI. Here was everything one needed in a Church leader, and
everything I could not see in the leader(s) of the communion I was
then in!
Jesus
prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is
truth.”
Jesus
prayed those words for the Church, for you and I, and in our time we
have had a great Pope who has been teaching us the centrality of
truth. Joseph Ratzinger grew up amongst the rise of the nihilism of
Nazism and witnessed its evil destructiveness. But he also then, a
little later, witnessed the opposite though equally dangerous desire
to fall into idealistic anarchy, and especially with the German
Student Movement riots in the 1960s. What both Nazism and the left
wing anarchists both rejected was the priority of truth. For Joseph
Ratzinger truth was central, but truth was not an abstract thing that
we hold in our head. Despite his truly immense intellect, Ratzinger
did not elevate the power of reason alone; he was a pious Catholic
and had studied Catholic theology, and he knew that ultimately truth
was not a thing, truth was a Person, and truth had become a man,
Jesus Christ.
And
now Western civilisation is rejecting truth, preferring instead that
we all have our own 'truths' – it is called relativism, but it is
not truth at all of course. In relativism truth is replaced with
opinion. And our holy father Benedict has been the foremost critic of
this new way of attenuating the truth – and he has recognised it as
a dictatorship. Which is a strong word, but accurate. Relativists are
only tolerant of other relativists – everyone else is a
fundamentalist. By their definition all people who believe in the
source of truth outside themselves is a fundamentalist and is very
dangerous.
Benedict
as our pope, time and time again, in his homilies, in his writings,
has brought us back to the truth who is a Person in the perfect
communion of Love, the Holy Trinity. We cannot change the truth to
suit fashion, mood or feelings; truth is given to us – it is divine
gift – its source is in the being of God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
So
where does that leave us? As our beloved Benedict retires to a life
of prayer, do we fear that all may be lost? Of course if we listen
to the heralds of relativism, the media, then a new pope could change
everything! But that is not the case. The reason it is not the case
is that the truth does not have its origin in the Pope; the origin of
truth is the Blessed and Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Benedict based all his teaching not upon his own opinion but the
revelation of Jesus Christ. We Catholics therefore, alone of all
people, have nothing to fear, for our faith is based not in opinion
but the revealed truth of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. The
Cardinals that His Holiness has chosen have been people rooted in
this truth, so we can expect someone who is as consecrated to the
truth as Benedict was.
What
is our future in the Ordinariate? We must continue to work under the
vision in Anglicanorum Coetibus
which is a vision for unity. It is the prayer of our Saviour, Jesus
Christ, that the Church be one; as we heard in the gospel tonight:
“That they may be one, even as we are one.”
This
is no loose federation of Christians being nice to one another, but
the unity that is the Holy Trinity. That is what our Lord prays for.
And that is what the Ordinariate is called to work for – we serve
the Church by working for this profound unity. And this is crucial
work for our time; in the words of Christ, “...so that the world
may believe that you have sent me.” While we are disunited we
undermine the effectiveness of the witness of the Church.
His
Holiness Benedict XVI established the Ordinariate to be an
instrument for unity, let us dedicate ourselves afresh today, as we
pray for a new Pope, that we are called to work according to the very
prayer of our Saviour, which He prayed on the night He was betrayed.
That is an awesome calling, but it is one we can confidently pursue
because it is not based in some person's latest project or idea, but
in the stated desire of God Himself, Jesus Christ. (“If God is for
us, who can be against us?...”) Yes we might tremble, but deep down
we have nothing to fear. In answering the call to be in full
communion and to work for full communion amongst all Christians, we
in the Ordinariate are empowered by the prayer of Jesus Christ
Himself!
“That
they may be one, even as we are one.”
May
God continue to bless His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus, in
his life of prayer, of praying the truth, that the whole Church may
recover its confidence in the truth, and by the unity of faith, hope
and love, we become effective witnesses to the world, that the world
might believe.
