Charlotte bishop praises late pope at Jan. 5 memorial Mass
CHARLOTTE — A requiem Mass, or Mass for the Dead, was offered Jan. 5 for the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI by Bishop Peter Jugis in Charlotte.
The Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral’s temporary chapel drew about 60 people. It was one of many memorial Masses offered at churches around the Diocese of Charlotte on the same day that the former pope’s funeral and burial were held in Rome.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis recalled the late former pope as a courageous and faithful disciple of Jesus and an example for others to follow.
The bishop praised Pope Benedict’s scholarship and many writings – not just his pivotal work on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and papal encyclicals such as his 2005 “Deus Caritas Est” (“God is Love”) – but also his three-part series “Jesus of Nazareth,” published by Doubleday in 2007.
The three books recount the life of Jesus in a easy-to-read style designed for believers and non-believers alike: “The Infancy Narratives,” “From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration,” and “Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection.”
Throughout his ministry, and especially in his writings, Pope Benedict sought to help people find a deeper, more personal relationship with Jesus, Bishop Jugis noted.
“Just as the apostles proclaimed Christ and His Gospel, so also the successors of the apostles are called to proclaim Christ and invite people to meet Jesus their savior and to enter into a personal relationship with Him,” Bishop Jugis said. “This is exactly what Pope Benedict does in his book ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ He presents the Person of Jesus to us as Jesus is really presented in the Gospels – not according to someone’s opinion that we find in many modern-day writers, or according to some predetermined agenda, but as Jesus is presented to us by the Gospels.”
Bishop Jugis highlighted a quote from the introduction of the late pope’s encyclical “Deus Caritas Est”: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
“He got to the heart of Christianity there,” the bishop said. “It is knowing and following Jesus, after all, that makes us Christians.”
Yet the late former pope also realized that the message of Jesus is meant for all people to hear, the bishop continued. “Jesus is the answer to the world’s search for meaning and search for God. Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life.”
The late former pope knew that the increasingly secularized culture of the modern world needs to find its way back to God, Bishop Jugis said.
“All you have to do is look at the evening news to see how humanity, in many ways, is losing its bearings because God is absent from humanity’s horizon,” he said.
“We thank Almighty God for the courageous way that Pope Benedict XVI also fought for the faith and strengthened the Church in the faith, as Jesus commanded the first shepherd (St. Peter),” he said.
He “had the heart of a good shepherd and the apostolic zeal to make the Person and message of Jesus Christ shine brightly into the world, to invite the world to know Jesus. And he had the apostolic zeal to make the Person and message of Jesus Christ shine brightly in the hearts of those who already believe in Jesus, by inviting us to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus.
“Let us learn from this saintly shepherd of the Church and his life of dedication to Christ,” he said, by taking his example to heart.
Let us “work on our own personal relationship with Jesus, so that we can better proclaim Christ and His Kingdom to others by the witness of our lives.”
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle. Photos by Troy Hull
