Bishop Kinney's homily for the 10:30 a.m. Mass, April 3, 2005, at the Cathedral of St. Mary

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love is everlasting.

The Church sings this song to God today, this second Sunday of Easter, a day we bask in God's Divine Mercy. We know God is doing everything possible to love us, to save us. The greatest act of God's love has been to send us His Son, Jesus, to bring us abundant life, to free us from the chains of sin and death. The death and resurrection of Christ is God's greatest act of love possible.

Today, we know the Risen Christ is in our midst as we assemble here. As in the Gospel, Christ gives us peace and breathes on us, and the entire Church, the gift of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins and new life. With the disciples of the Gospel, today from our hearts we proclaim, "We have seen the Lord." In the Eucharist, we join the Risen Christ in the great sacrifice and prayer to the Father and the sacred meal of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Christ stays with us! We pray in faith" "My Lord and my God!"

Today, with tears and with sadness in our hearts, we sing, "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love is everlasting." Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has died and has gone home to God. We feel a great sadness in the parting and the loss. We sing, because God has given this wonderful pope to us for twenty seven years. As a "holy father" to us, John Paul led us with faith, blessed us lovingly, encouraged us to be holy, taught us the truth of God's love and the dignity of each and every human being, challenged us to love and care for the poor and the weak. He visited us and almost every place in our world. He always prayed with us and for us. He showed us how to live and, in these last months and days, he has showed us how to die.

I believe in everything Pope John Paul II did, whether he was addressing moral issues about life, social concerns, political and economic systems, or teaching us the truth of doctrine, his deepest desire was always for the well being of humanity, for us individually and for the whole human race. He believed in us, in humanity. He believed we want what is good and just. He believed that we are capable of eliminating what is evil, what is sinful, what is unjust, what is oppressive. He believed people are capable of choosing goodness, for themselves, for their families, their countries and the global community. He personally faced and lived through the evil of Nazism and Communism. He knew, first hand, man's inhumanity to man. But he also knew and believed in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. He knew that we can do better.

So he became a roving ambassador of hope, an apostle, an evangelist, a missionary to the whole world. He asked us to be the same. "Duc in altum!" He urged. "Cast your nets out into the deep!" Even as we mourn the loss of Pope John Paul, we profess our faith in the resurrection and eternal life. We rejoice with our John Paul II that his earthly suffering has ended. In one of his poems, he wrote, "Sliding into death I unveil the awaiting, my eyes fixed on one place, the resurrection." We pray he now sees God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, face-to-face. "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting."

+ John F. Kinney, Bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud