His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah: Sodality Requiem Mass 2022

Photo: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk

His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah was born in Guinea in 1945. In 1957, at age 12, he entered Saint Augustine Minor Seminary in Bingerville, Ivory Coast. The civil unrest in Ivory Coast and Guinea in the following years, he was forced to move from seminary to seminary in order to complete his studies, spending time in Guinea, France, Senegal and Rome. He was final ordained on 20 July 1969.

He was appointed Archbishop of Conakry by Pope St John Paul II in 1979 and served in this position for over 20 years, and suffered under the dictatorship of Sékou Touré. From 2001 onwards, then-Archbishop Sarah served in various roles within the Roman Curia, including in the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. In 2010, he was elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI and in 2014, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He served in his post until his retirement at the age of 75.

The following homily was preached at the November 2022 Sodality Mass, which was a Requiem Mass offered for the repose of the souls of deceased Sodality members.

After two years of trying to visit you here, but each time thwarted by Covid, I am delighted to be with you for this Sodality Mass in the Westminster Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, here in the very heart of Covent Garden. Thank you, Father Alan, for the kind invitation. This Shrine, founded by Cardinal Manning, was the first church in England after the Reformation with this dedication, which proclaims to us that which is the very heart and centre of everything of our Catholic lives – the Holy Eucharist. Here, in this Shrine, in absolute silence, in the Tabernacle on the altar, Our Blessed Lord dwells with us, calling all those who enter this place to come and kneel before Him, the True and Living God, dwelling amongst us and offering His very self to us. Corpus Christi – the Body of the Lord – the Centre of the Church – the source and summit of our life for and with God – through every event of our lives – from the beginning to the end of our earthly lives and beyond. 

The Mass is the very centre of the communion and continuity of our life with God – from our conception, birth, our life in this world and after our death, as our soul continues its’ journey towards heaven, its eternal and natural home. We particularly think about these things during the month of November – the month dedicated to praying for the dead in purgatory – that we may help them on their journey to the House of the Father. And today, here at the Shrine, we offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the departed members of our Sodality of the Blessed Sacrament. 

Our journey of life – our relationship with God, in the world and the Church – must be a reflection of the earthly journey of Our Blessed Saviour, and His return to the Father. His pattern of life is a great example to us. For where He has gone – we hope to follow. Our Blessed Saviour achieved this through His faithful self-sacrifice and self-abandonment to the Will of God in all things – no matter where they might lead. And we are called to live this same pattern of life within ourselves; we are to be mirrors of His love and faithfulness to the Father – reflecting the fullness of His life within ourselves. Central to that journey is our participation in the Eucharist Sacrifice, and the re-presentation of the Crucifixion, where salvation was won for us, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Cross. 

During the celebration of the Mass, and particularly in the Roman Canon, we hear very clearly the “faith journey of Jesus” – the events in his life which have brought us salvation – and this must be our journey too. We might call it our Eucharistic Journey, or our Journey of Sacrifice, where each and every event in our lives is brought and offered on the altar of the cross. For as we know, the cross is central to everything – and is the heart of the Mass. Our Saviour tells us that unless we take His cross, embracing it and plunging it into the depth of our souls, we cannot be His disciples. 

To bring that once only bloody redeeming offering into the present, in an unbloody way, we bring unblemished gifts, simple pure gifts of bread and wine to the altar – in which we offer ourselves to God. For in these gifts, our lives are laid upon the altar, that we too might be transformed into something holy, something God-like. An offering to the Lord. As the gifts of bread and wine are taken, offered, blessed and filled with God – so are we. 

We ask that these gifts may be taken to the altar of God in heaven by the hands of angels – so that we may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing. Our oblation, offered to God, as the priest speaks the words of sacrifice, becomes the true and living Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. He is made present with us – and calls us to Himself. Heaven and earth are joined together in this offering. As all of us are gathered around the altar – the Church here on earth, in purgatory and in Heaven – we are gathered around Our Blessed Saviour, united with Him and each other. Those in heaven see Him face to face, as they pray for us, who are still on our earthly journey. We here, kneeling before the altar, adore His Eucharistic Presence, and long for the day when we shall see Him in His Heavenly Kingdom. 

The Eucharist must be for us the centre of everything. There is nothing more important for us in this life than Our Eucharistic Lord. For He leads us through this life – as we gradually become more and more what we receive – and are enabled to love the Lord more and more – until he becomes our all and everything. 

There is something which I must mention – something which is sadly forgotten or ignored by so many – yet something which is so precious and which we cannot do without; and that is the Sacrament of Confession. For, when we look deeply and honestly within ourselves, we see we are not perfect. Unlike the bread and the wine laid upon the altar, we are not always pure simple gifts offered to God, capable of being transformed into the living Body of the Lord. As we go about our daily lives, we become tainted by sin; through the things we see around us and give in to, our uncharitable thoughts and actions, the words we speak to and about each other, the things we leave undone, our lack of commitment to God and each other…

All of these things slowly drive a wedge between us and God, gradually depriving us of His grace. Or we may commit serious sin, which breaks the communion we have with God forever, until we come and confess those sins and are reconciled with Him. It is sometimes helpful to us to think about it in the way suggested by one of the saints; “if we have a dirty empty bottle, and someone fills it with glorious wine, it will be spoilt and can only be thrown away. But if we wash the bottle thoroughly, the wine can be poured into it, and it will be stored safely.” It describes simply what happens to the Grace of God, freely given to us in Confession. 

We are so blessed to be able to reconcile our lives with God through the great Easter Gift of Our Blessed Saviour to the Church. We hear in the scriptures that on the day Jesus rose from the dead, he gave the authority to forgive sins to the Apostles, “those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven”. Confession really is the Sacrament of the Resurrection – leading us from spiritual death to a new life in Christ, through his merciful and loving forgiveness for us, His brothers and sisters. Through this forgiveness, our communion with God is restored. 

And that is something we need to know for certain, especially when death is approaching. Having Mass AND Confession at the centre of our lives renews and enlivens us, as day by day, we gradually make the journey through life and towards our heavenly home, accompanied by the Lord Himself. This pattern of Mass and Confession, of BOTH these sacraments, we must continue faithfully, with great hope and joy – until we come to the moment when we make our last Holy Communion – Viaticum – the food for the journey. 

The Lord we have tried to serve well each day, whom we have received Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament– through that small white insignificant looking host, but which in reality of the bridge for us between heaven and earth, between life and death, with without which Jesus tells us, we cannot have His life within us. 

That which has been described as the most beautiful thing this side of the grave – gives us all we need to take that step of faith from this world to the next, where Our Blessed Saviour, Mary the Mother of God and all the Company of Heavenly wait for us, to welcome us into the Kingdom of the Father. 

After death, like at this very Mass, family and friends continue coming to the Eucharistic Lord to pray for us; to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for us, praying for us and our eternal happiness. Like this Mass this evening, and many Masses through November, we celebrate Requiem Masses for the Souls in Purgatory, helping the faithful departed on their journey towards the loving and merciful Heart of God. And we hope that when that time comes, others will do this for us, helping us as we, after our death and judgement by God, can no longer pray for ourselves, and need the prayers of those we have left behind. And so, the worship of God, and our progress and part in it – through life and beyond, continues, generation after generation. 

Here, at Corpus Christi, we have images of saints who have gone before us – and who help us by the example of their lives and their prayers. I will only mention two this evening: Padre Pio, whose devotion to the Mass is so very well known, and our recent Beatus, the young Carlo Acutis, who teaches us so much by his short but beautiful life. 

As we consider the life of St Pio of Pietrelcina, Padre Pio – we see a priest for whom the Holy Mass was the very centre of his life and world. With him dying so recently, in 1968, we know a great deal about him, and how he lived his life for God, in that small monastery in the south of Italy. Through the agony of the stigmata he carried on his body for 50 years – the Lord let him truly enter into the suffering of the cross and a sacrificial ministry. 

For Saint Padre Pio, the Mass was “the everything” of his life. The Eucharistic celebration could take several hours, as he gazed lovingly at His Blessed Saviour, held tenderly in his scared and deeply wounded hands. And once the Mass was celebrated, he entered into a time of Thanksgiving for that privilege offered him as a priest. This he kept in his heart for many hours – until he began looking toward the next celebration, and his preparations for this next great event. And this he continued over and over – day after day; for the celebration of Holy Mass was never far from his mind. We also know that the Confessional was his second home – where the faithful came to visit him and to be reconciled with God. 

Oh that all we priests could adopt that same attitude of heart and mind – focussing on and being drawn to the Eucharistic Lord – making that great Sacrifice the centre of our hearts and priestly lives! And seeing so clearly our own need for conversion and Confession. All the many things we are called to do, that fall upon our desks, come to us via email, that we are so exercised by – are nothing in comparison with these two life-changing sacraments.

And Blessed Carlo Acutis – what a wonderful example he is to all of us, ordained and lay, of where a great love of the Mass can lead us. His short life and the story of how he lived it for God, has touch the hearts of many – young and old.

When do we exclaim with him that the Mass is “the highway to heaven?” Like him, do we visit the Lord each day – either for the celebration of Mass, or if that’s not possible, to visit and spend time with the Lord, present in the Blessed Sacrament? 

Carlo just could not understand why people would stand in line to get tickets for an event – but not to visit Jesus, who is waiting for them. For his love for Jesus was a raging passionate fire within him – burning away his self-will, and enabling him to lay his heart before the Lord, as an offering of love.

As we offer this requiem tonight – let us pray for the departed members of the Sodality – and thank God for their love of the Blessed Sacrament; may it lead them to their heavenly reward. 

Let us thank God for the Eucharist – which is the food that nourishes us with our Risen Saviour in this life, gives us true life and feeds us on the journey towards heaven. 

And let us thank God for the Sacrament of Confession – the Sacrament of Resurrection – which raises us from the certain death of sin – and gives us the hope of life eternal. Amen.