Vatican Basilica Mass - Cardinal Sandri "Pope Francis indicated a vision, a dream for which we must already prepare and which will be entrusted to the new Pontiff” Novemdiales for Pope Francis FULL TEXT Homily
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri presided over the fifth Novemdiales Mass in memory of Pope Francis. He reflected on Pope Francis’ witness of humble service as well as on the lasting vision he leaves for the future of the Church. The cardinal proclaimed "Christ is Risen" and noted that in this Easter time the Church is between two important moments: the end of Pope Francis' papacy and the start of a new one. In just a few days, he said, the Cardinal Protodeacon will once again step out onto the balcony of St Peter’s to announce the name of a new Pope. Remembering together, praying together Cardinal Sandri explained that the Novendiales Mass is not just a time of mourning, but a moment for the Church to come together, to pray, to remember, and to reaffirm its faith in the Resurrection. The cardinals gather not only as collaborators of the Pope, said Cardinal Sandri, but also carrying with them the prayers of people from all over the world.
HOLY MASS ON THE V DAY OF THE NOVENDIALI
FULL TEXT HOMILY OF HIS MOST REVEREND EMINENCE
CARDINAL LEONARDO SANDRI
Basilica of Saint Peter
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
________________________
Venerable Brother Cardinals,
Sisters and Brothers in the Lord!
1. Christ is Risen! With even more emotion within a celebration of suffrage such as that of the Novendiali, we sing the Easter Alleluia, that song that resounded from the voice of the deacon “Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum quod est Alleluia”, also in this Basilica that a few moments before the Vigil had been visited by the Holy Father Francis. In an unconscious way, we think, he was preparing to cross another Red Sea, another night that the Resurrection of Christ allows us to call blessed, the night of which it is said “et nox sicut dies illuminabitur”.
In a few days, the Cardinal Proto Deacon will use a similar formula, announcing to the Church and to the world the gaudium magnum of having a new Pope: it is starting from the Paschal experience of Christ that the ministry of the Successor of Peter finds meaning, called in every age to live the words just heard in the Gospel “And you, once converted, strengthen your brothers”. Peter confirms the brothers in the faith that the Crucified is the Risen One, the One Alive forever. The celebration of the Novendiali for the deceased Pontiff constitutes, on the part of various categories and affiliations, the performance of a rite of Christian suffrage: ideally, also in this way the Successor of Peter convenes us to confirm us, precisely because we renew our profession of faith in the resurrection of the flesh, in the forgiveness of sins, even those of a man who has become Pontiff, and in renewing the awareness that the unity of the history of each person is in the hands of God.
2. Today it is the Cardinal Fathers who are called to participate in the Novendiali, almost a central stage of this ecclesial journey, gathering in prayer as a Collegium and entrusting to the Lord the one of whom they were the first collaborators and advisors, or at least they tried to be, in the Roman Curia as in the dioceses throughout the world. Ideally, however, each of us, venerable brothers, brings the people for whom and with whom he is called to live his service: from Tonga with the Pacific Islands to the steppes of Mongolia, from ancient Persia with Teheran to the place from which the announcement of salvation came, Jerusalem, from the places then flourishing with Christianity and now home to a small flock, in some cases marked by martyrdom, such as Morocco and Algeria, just to mention some coordinates of the geography that the Holy Father has wanted to outline in these years by convening frequent Consistories. In all these places and continents, as in those spaces of connection that are the offices of the Secretariat of State and the Roman Curia, as successors of the Apostles we are called every day to remember and live with awareness that "to reign is to serve", like the Master and Lord, who is among us as the one who serves. 3. One of the titles that tradition attributes to the Bishop of Rome is in fact that of Servus Servorum Dei, beloved by Saint Gregory the Great since he was only a deacon, to remember this constant truth: the liturgy reminds us of this in external signs, when in the most solemn celebrations we wear the tunicle under the chasuble, a reminder of our duty to always remain deacons, that is, servants. Pope Francis lived it, choosing different places of suffering and solitude to perform the washing of the feet during the Holy Mass in Coena Domini, but also kneeling and kissing the feet of the leaders of South Sudan, imploring the gift of peace, with that same style considered scandalous by many, but strongly evangelical, with which Saint Paul VI on December 4, fifty years ago in the Sistine Chapel knelt and kissed the feet of Melito, Metropolitan of Chalcedon. The tradition of the Church, dear brother cardinals, divides us into three orders: Bishops, priests and deacons, but we are all called to serve, bearing witness to the Gospel usque ad effusionem sanguinis, as we swore on the day of our creation as cardinals and is signified by the purple that we wear, offering ourselves, collegially and individually, as the first collaborators of the Successor of the blessed apostle Peter.
4. The first reading, taken from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, brings us back to just outside the Upper Room in Jerusalem, where Jews from every nation under heaven are gathered. It is Peter who speaks to justify what has happened: the apostles are not drunk and do not talk too much, indeed precisely because they are pervaded by that sober ebrietas of the Spirit, as it will be called later by patristic literature, they can also be understood by different peoples, each in their own language. It is significant that this reading was chosen in the Novendiali: it is certainly in reference to the apostle Peter, being his first speech, but the context is that of Pentecost which has just occurred. The temporal reference that Luke indicates is that "while the day of Pentecost was coming to an end". What does this coming to an end mean? It is at the same time a coming to fullness and therefore a starting point for a new beginning. The evangelist uses here the same verb that he had used in chapter 9 of the Gospel, when after the Transfiguration, coming down from the mountain, "when the days were fulfilled for him to be taken up", Jesus hardened his face and headed towards Jerusalem, where the Scriptures concerning him would be fulfilled, as he later reminded the lost disciples on the road to Emmaus. After the summit of the Transfiguration, the journey towards the fulfillment of the prophecies at Easter in Jerusalem; after Easter, the expectation of the Spirit at Pentecost, with the fullness of the gift of the Spirit, the beginning of the Church. We are living the passage between the end of the life of the Successor of Peter, Pope Francis, and the fulfillment of the promise so that with the new outpouring of the Spirit, the Church of Christ can continue its journey among men with a new Shepherd. But which prophecy is fulfilled at Pentecost? The one that the liturgical pericope omitted but that was so dear and so often quoted by Pope Francis, contained in the third chapter of Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit on all; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams… whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. Our dear Holy Father loved to repeat it to speak of the meeting and dialogue between generations, of the need for the elderly to tell their dreams to the young, and at the same time that these with their energy and their vision know how to translate them into reality with the help of God. “there is no future without this meeting between the elderly and the young; there is no growth without roots and there is no flowering without new shoots. Never prophecy without memory, never memory without prophecy; and always meeting”. In some way, Pope Francis also leaves this word to the College of Cardinals, composed of young and older people, where everyone can be taught by God, intuit the dream that He has for His Church and try to realize it with young and renewed enthusiasm.
5. In the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee, Pope Francis indicated a vision, a dream for which we must already prepare and which will be entrusted to the new Pontiff: "this Holy Year will guide the path towards another fundamental anniversary for all Christians: in 2033, in fact, we will celebrate the two thousand years of the Redemption accomplished through the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We are thus before a path marked by great stages, in which the grace of God precedes and accompanies the people who walk zealously in faith, industrious in charity and persevering in hope (see 1 Thess 1:3). Spiritually, we will all become pilgrims on the roads of the Holy Land, in Jerusalem, to proclaim to the world from the Holy Sepulchre - hoping to be able to do so with all the brothers and sisters who have been consecrated by a single baptism - "The Lord is truly risen and has appeared to Simon!".
6. Lord, we entrust to you your servant, Pope Francis, so that you may fill now with joy in your presence, and we ask you for the grace to fulfill his vision for a Church that announces the mystery of Christ, Crucified and Risen! Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, intercede with your prayer for the one who so desired to fix your loving gaze, and now rests in the Basilica dedicated to you. Amen.
FULL TEXT HOMILY OF HIS MOST REVEREND EMINENCE
CARDINAL LEONARDO SANDRI
Basilica of Saint Peter
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
________________________
Venerable Brother Cardinals,
Sisters and Brothers in the Lord!
1. Christ is Risen! With even more emotion within a celebration of suffrage such as that of the Novendiali, we sing the Easter Alleluia, that song that resounded from the voice of the deacon “Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum quod est Alleluia”, also in this Basilica that a few moments before the Vigil had been visited by the Holy Father Francis. In an unconscious way, we think, he was preparing to cross another Red Sea, another night that the Resurrection of Christ allows us to call blessed, the night of which it is said “et nox sicut dies illuminabitur”.
In a few days, the Cardinal Proto Deacon will use a similar formula, announcing to the Church and to the world the gaudium magnum of having a new Pope: it is starting from the Paschal experience of Christ that the ministry of the Successor of Peter finds meaning, called in every age to live the words just heard in the Gospel “And you, once converted, strengthen your brothers”. Peter confirms the brothers in the faith that the Crucified is the Risen One, the One Alive forever. The celebration of the Novendiali for the deceased Pontiff constitutes, on the part of various categories and affiliations, the performance of a rite of Christian suffrage: ideally, also in this way the Successor of Peter convenes us to confirm us, precisely because we renew our profession of faith in the resurrection of the flesh, in the forgiveness of sins, even those of a man who has become Pontiff, and in renewing the awareness that the unity of the history of each person is in the hands of God.
2. Today it is the Cardinal Fathers who are called to participate in the Novendiali, almost a central stage of this ecclesial journey, gathering in prayer as a Collegium and entrusting to the Lord the one of whom they were the first collaborators and advisors, or at least they tried to be, in the Roman Curia as in the dioceses throughout the world. Ideally, however, each of us, venerable brothers, brings the people for whom and with whom he is called to live his service: from Tonga with the Pacific Islands to the steppes of Mongolia, from ancient Persia with Teheran to the place from which the announcement of salvation came, Jerusalem, from the places then flourishing with Christianity and now home to a small flock, in some cases marked by martyrdom, such as Morocco and Algeria, just to mention some coordinates of the geography that the Holy Father has wanted to outline in these years by convening frequent Consistories. In all these places and continents, as in those spaces of connection that are the offices of the Secretariat of State and the Roman Curia, as successors of the Apostles we are called every day to remember and live with awareness that "to reign is to serve", like the Master and Lord, who is among us as the one who serves. 3. One of the titles that tradition attributes to the Bishop of Rome is in fact that of Servus Servorum Dei, beloved by Saint Gregory the Great since he was only a deacon, to remember this constant truth: the liturgy reminds us of this in external signs, when in the most solemn celebrations we wear the tunicle under the chasuble, a reminder of our duty to always remain deacons, that is, servants. Pope Francis lived it, choosing different places of suffering and solitude to perform the washing of the feet during the Holy Mass in Coena Domini, but also kneeling and kissing the feet of the leaders of South Sudan, imploring the gift of peace, with that same style considered scandalous by many, but strongly evangelical, with which Saint Paul VI on December 4, fifty years ago in the Sistine Chapel knelt and kissed the feet of Melito, Metropolitan of Chalcedon. The tradition of the Church, dear brother cardinals, divides us into three orders: Bishops, priests and deacons, but we are all called to serve, bearing witness to the Gospel usque ad effusionem sanguinis, as we swore on the day of our creation as cardinals and is signified by the purple that we wear, offering ourselves, collegially and individually, as the first collaborators of the Successor of the blessed apostle Peter.
4. The first reading, taken from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, brings us back to just outside the Upper Room in Jerusalem, where Jews from every nation under heaven are gathered. It is Peter who speaks to justify what has happened: the apostles are not drunk and do not talk too much, indeed precisely because they are pervaded by that sober ebrietas of the Spirit, as it will be called later by patristic literature, they can also be understood by different peoples, each in their own language. It is significant that this reading was chosen in the Novendiali: it is certainly in reference to the apostle Peter, being his first speech, but the context is that of Pentecost which has just occurred. The temporal reference that Luke indicates is that "while the day of Pentecost was coming to an end". What does this coming to an end mean? It is at the same time a coming to fullness and therefore a starting point for a new beginning. The evangelist uses here the same verb that he had used in chapter 9 of the Gospel, when after the Transfiguration, coming down from the mountain, "when the days were fulfilled for him to be taken up", Jesus hardened his face and headed towards Jerusalem, where the Scriptures concerning him would be fulfilled, as he later reminded the lost disciples on the road to Emmaus. After the summit of the Transfiguration, the journey towards the fulfillment of the prophecies at Easter in Jerusalem; after Easter, the expectation of the Spirit at Pentecost, with the fullness of the gift of the Spirit, the beginning of the Church. We are living the passage between the end of the life of the Successor of Peter, Pope Francis, and the fulfillment of the promise so that with the new outpouring of the Spirit, the Church of Christ can continue its journey among men with a new Shepherd. But which prophecy is fulfilled at Pentecost? The one that the liturgical pericope omitted but that was so dear and so often quoted by Pope Francis, contained in the third chapter of Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit on all; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams… whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. Our dear Holy Father loved to repeat it to speak of the meeting and dialogue between generations, of the need for the elderly to tell their dreams to the young, and at the same time that these with their energy and their vision know how to translate them into reality with the help of God. “there is no future without this meeting between the elderly and the young; there is no growth without roots and there is no flowering without new shoots. Never prophecy without memory, never memory without prophecy; and always meeting”. In some way, Pope Francis also leaves this word to the College of Cardinals, composed of young and older people, where everyone can be taught by God, intuit the dream that He has for His Church and try to realize it with young and renewed enthusiasm.
5. In the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee, Pope Francis indicated a vision, a dream for which we must already prepare and which will be entrusted to the new Pontiff: "this Holy Year will guide the path towards another fundamental anniversary for all Christians: in 2033, in fact, we will celebrate the two thousand years of the Redemption accomplished through the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We are thus before a path marked by great stages, in which the grace of God precedes and accompanies the people who walk zealously in faith, industrious in charity and persevering in hope (see 1 Thess 1:3). Spiritually, we will all become pilgrims on the roads of the Holy Land, in Jerusalem, to proclaim to the world from the Holy Sepulchre - hoping to be able to do so with all the brothers and sisters who have been consecrated by a single baptism - "The Lord is truly risen and has appeared to Simon!".
6. Lord, we entrust to you your servant, Pope Francis, so that you may fill now with joy in your presence, and we ask you for the grace to fulfill his vision for a Church that announces the mystery of Christ, Crucified and Risen! Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, intercede with your prayer for the one who so desired to fix your loving gaze, and now rests in the Basilica dedicated to you. Amen.
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