VATICAN - “Archbishop Rahho took up his cross and followed the Lord Jesus, thus he contributed to bringing justice to his martyred country and to the whole world, bearing witness to the truth”: Holy Father’s homily in the funeral mass for the Archbishop of Mossul

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “In the Passion of Christ, we see the fulfillment of this mission, when He, faced with an unjust condemnation, bears witness to the truth, remaining faithful to the law of love. On this same path, Archbishop Rahho took up his cross and followed the Lord Jesus, thus he contributed to bringing justice to his martyred country and to the whole world, bearing witness to the truth. He was a man of peace and dialogue.” The Holy Father XVI remembered Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho with these words during the funeral Mass celebrated in the “Redemptoris Mater” Chapel.
“I know he had a particular fondness for the poor and the disabled,” Benedict XVI continued. “In order to offer physical and psychological care, he founded a special association called ‘Joy and Charity’ (‘Farah wa Mahabba’), with the task of helping these people and their families, many of whom learned from him not to hide these relatives and to see them in Christ. May his example sustain all Iraqis of good will, Christians and Muslims, to build peaceful coexistence founded on human fraternity and mutual respect.”
At the beginning of his homily, the Pope recalled that “we have begun Holy Week with great sorrow in our hearts at the tragic death of our beloved Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho,” and he sent “a special word of greeting and encouragement” to the Bishops, priests, and faithful of the Church “in Iraq that suffers, believes, and prays,” “trusting that in faith, they will find the strength not to lose heart in the difficult situation they are experiencing.”
The liturgical context during these days help us to live the final moments of Jesus’ life on earth: “dramatic hours, filled with love and fear... contrast between truth and lies, between the mildness and rectitude of Christ and the violence and dishonesty of His enemies. Jesus felt the approach of his violent death; He felt his persecutors' net tightening around Him. He felt the anguish and fear, up to the crucial moment in Gethsemane. But He experienced all this immersed in communion with the Father and comforted by the 'anointing' of the Holy Spirit.” Making reference to the day’s Gospel reading that recalls the meal in Bethany with Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with the precious ointment, the Holy Father said, “I think of the holy chrism that anointed the forehead of Archbishop Rahho in his baptism and confirmation, that anointed his hands in his ordination as a priest, and later his head and hands when he was consecrated bishop. But I am also thinking of the many 'anointings' of filial affection and spiritual friendship, of the devotion which his faithful gave him and which accompanied him in the terrible hours of his kidnapping and his painful detention -- where perhaps he was already wounded when he arrived -- and even unto his agony, his death. Those sacramental and spiritual anointings were a guarantee of resurrection, a guarantee of the true and full life that the Lord Jesus came to give us!”
At the close of his homily, the Pope expressed his desire that, just as “the beloved Archbishop Paulos gave himself without limits to the service of his people, may his faithful Christians persevere in their commitment to the establishment of a tranquil and united society, a society of progress and peace.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 17/3/2008; righe 42, parole 558)