(May 3, 2010) “In an age like ours, where the fear of death drives many people to
despair and to search for illusive consolations, the Christian stands out for placing
his trust in God, in a great love that can renew the entire world.” Pope Benedict
XVI shared this thought on Monday while performing the final rites of late German
Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer, who passed away in Rome on Friday at the age of 98.
Cardinale Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals celebrated the funeral
Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of which Pope Benedict delivered a homily
and performed the funeral service. Every funeral service of ours, the Pope noted,
is viewed as a sign of hope in the resurrection of Christ. In the last breath of
Jesus on the Cross, the Pope said, God gave Himself to mankind unreservedly, filling
in the open abyss of sin and re-establishing the victory of life over death. Hence,
“every man who dies in the Lord participates in this act of infinite love through
faith, in the sure hope that the Father will raise him from the dead and bring him
in the kingdom of life. According to the Pontiff, “the great and unfailing hope,
founded on the solid rock of love of God, assures us that the life of those who die
in Christ is not removed, but transformed, and that while the earthly existence is
destroyed an eternal home in heaven is being prepared. Though retired at the time
of his death, Cardinal Mayer, a Benedectine, had served as prefect of the Vatican’s
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and president of the Pontifical
Commission "Ecclesia Dei."