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May 29, 2024Excellency Monsignor Christophe El Kassis, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Arab Emirates, My beloved predecessor Excellency Paul Hinder, parish priest and all the other priests, consecrated sisters, and my dear brothers and sisters,
May the Lord give you peace and paschal Joy.
This evening, we have the gift of being gathered in the Church for the Eucharistic celebration with an exceptional choir, the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which is the choir of the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
I thank the Apostolic Nuncio who, along with the Abu Dhabi Music and Art Foundation, ushered-in to bring this unique and special Choir to Abu Dhabi, and we are privileged to have them with us this evening in our parish at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph. Their presence this evening allows us to feel in particular the communion with the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, who presides over the unity of all the Churches, for whom we constantly offer our prayer.
We are a Church of migrants, located in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. We come from over a hundred different nationalities. Our Church is made up of people of different languages, cultures, traditions and rites. We are united by the same Christian faith and baptism that has made us children of God and members of God's holy and faithful people. It is fundamental for us to feel in profound communion with the Holy Father and the entire Catholic Church. ‘With Peter and under Peter’ is the condition for being the Church.
This evening, we celebrate the votive mass of Mary Queen of Peace. The Middle Eastern region has long been marked by unspeakable bloody conflicts. The war that has been raging for months in the Holy Land pushes us constantly to pray so that goodness and reconciliation may prevail. As the Holy Father tirelessly repeated, we must not get used to war but continually pray and work to be peace makers everywhere.
The word of God that the liturgy offers us this evening takes us to the heart of our Christian faith, leads us to contemplate the mystery of Christ, savior and redeemer. In his letter, Saint Peter leads us to turn our gaze to Christ, the spotless lamb, who redeemed us with his precious blood.
The Gospel of Mark tells us about the moment in which Jesus, while heading towards Jerusalem, reveals to his disciples the imminent mystery of Easter, the mystery of his death and resurrection. Surprisingly, the disciples appear indifferent to these words of the Lord and begin a dispute over who can sit in the highest places in the kingdom of heaven. We can imagine the feelings of Jesus, who while he reveals to his disciples the mystery of his redemptive passion, they indulge in worldly disputes about power.
With great patience, Jesus explains to them that among his disciples the criterion of relationships is no longer that of power and prestige as happens among the powerful of this world. Truly great is he who serves: “the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. In this way Jesus not only exhorts humility and service, but he realizes these words in himself. The mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ is truly the center of the cosmos and of history, the source of all authentic beauty, which is expressed in particular in the liturgy.
As Benedict XVI recalled in the apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, “the liturgy is inherently linked to beauty… Christ is the full manifestation of the glory of God. In the glorification of the Son, the Father's glory shines forth and is communicated (cf. Jn 1:14; 8:54; 12:28; 17:1)… Jesus Christ shows us how the truth of love can transform even the dark mystery of death into the radiant light of the resurrection. Here the splendor of God's glory surpasses all worldly beauty. The truest beauty is the love of God, who definitively revealed himself to us in the paschal mystery. The beauty of the liturgy is part of this mystery; it is a sublime expression of God's glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth”.
The presence of the Sistine Chapel Choir this evening allows us to experience with particular intensity in this Eucharistic celebration that "glimpse of heaven on earth" which makes us already participants in the glory of God.
We entrust all the people to Mary, Queen of Peace; may she intercede for the reconciliation of those who are in conflict, console the afflicted and make us all generous peacemakers.
