Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xvii
Chronology of the Life of Pope Benedict XVI	p. xxxix
Introduction to Christianity	p. 1
Sermons and Addresses
Homily at John Paul II's Funeral Mass	p. 17
Homily at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff	p. 21
First Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI at the End of the Eucharistic Concelebration with the Cardinal Electors in the Sistine Chapel	p. 25
Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI at the Mass of Inauguration of His Pontificate	p. 31
Message on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Pontificate of Pope John Paul II from the College of Cardinals	p. 37
Address of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Pope John Paul II at a Concert Offered by the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of His Pontificate	p. 41
The Assisi Day of Prayer	p. 43
The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty	p. 47
Guardini on Christ in Our Century	p. 53
Christ the Liberator	p. 57
The Church
At the Root of the Crisis	p. 63
Eucharist, Communion, and Solidarity	p. 69
The Ecclesiology of the Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium	p. 85
The Local Church and the Universal Church	p. 103
The Canon of Criticism	p. 111
The Basis of Christian Brotherhood: Faith	p. 133
The Liturgy
Theology of the Liturgy	p. 141
On the Theological Basis of Prayer and Liturgy	p. 155
The Regensburg Tradition and the Reform of the Liturgy	p. 167
Music and Liturgy	p. 185
Sacred Places	p. 193
The Beginning of the Council and the Transfer to Munster	p. 201
Theology
On the Meaning of Faith	p. 211
Liberation Theology	p. 217
Relativism: The Central Problem for Faith Today	p. 227
Scripture
Biblical Interpretation in Crisis	p. 243
Sin and Salvation	p. 259
Meditation on the Priesthood	p. 269
The Place of Mariology in the Bible	p. 283
The Priesthood
The Nature of the Priesthood	p. 293
The Ministry and Life of Priests	p. 305
The Sacrament of Reconciliation	p. 319
Christian Morality
Europe's Crisis of Culture	p. 325
Truth and Freedom	p. 337
The Church's Teaching	p. 355
Culture and Truth: Some Reflections on the Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio	p. 367
Crises of Law	p. 377
The Problem of Threats to Human Life	p. 381
God Is Love
Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love)	p. 395
Notes	p. 427
Bibliography	p. 447
Index	p. 451
Acknowledgments	p. 461
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI
His Central Writings and Speeches

Chapter Two

Homily at John Paul II's Funeral Mass

April 8, 2005

"Follow me." The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock. "Follow me"—this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message that comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality; our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude.

These are the sentiments that inspire us, brothers and sisters in Christ, present here in St. Peter's Square, in neighboring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to the heads of state, the heads of government, and the delegations from various countries.

I greet the authorities and official representatives of other churches and Christian communities, and likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the archbishops, bishops, priests, religious men and women, and the faithful who have come here from every continent, especially the young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope of the church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those throughout the world who are united with us through radio and television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy Father's funeral.

Follow me. As a young student Karol Wojtyla was thrilled by literature, the theater, and poetry. Working in a chemical plant, surrounded and threatened by the Nazi terror, he heard the voice of the Lord: "Follow me!" In this extraordinary setting he began to read books of philosophy and theology, and then entered the clandestine seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha. After the war he was able to complete his studies in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow.

How often, in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books, has he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained on November 1, 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord.

First: "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain" (Jn 15:16). The second saying is: "A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (Jn 10:11). And then: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love" (Jn 15:9). In these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear fruit, fruit that lasts.

Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way! is the title of his next-to-last book. "Rise, let us be on our way!"—with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. "Rise, let us be on our way!" he continues to say to us even today. The Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily self-oblation for the service of the church, especially amid the sufferings of his final months. And in this way he became one with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep.

Finally, "abide in my love": the pope who tried to meet everyone, who had an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art of true love. Follow me! In July 1958, the young priest Karol Wojtyla began a new stage in his journey with the Lord and in the footsteps of the Lord. Karol had gone to the Masuri lakes for his usual vacation, along with a group of young people who loved canoeing. But he brought with him a letter inviting him to call on the primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski. He could guess the purpose of the meeting: he was to be appointed the auxiliary bishop of Krakow.

Leaving the academic world, leaving this challenging engagement with young people, leaving the great intellectual endeavor of striving to understand and interpret the mystery of that creature which is man and of communicating to today's world the Christian interpretation of our being—all this must have seemed to him like losing his very self, losing what had become the very human identity of this young priest. Follow me—Karol Wojtyla accepted the appointment, for he heard in the church's call the voice of Christ. And then he realized how true are the Lord's words: "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it" (Lk 17:33).

Our pope—and we all know this—never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself; he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything that he had given over into the Lord's hands came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the preaching of the gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction.

Follow me! In October 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: "Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!" To the Lord's question, "Karol, do you love me?" the archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Because he was profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden that transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ's flock, his universal church.

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI
His Central Writings and Speeches. Copyright © by John Thornton. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches by John F. Thornton, Susan B. Varenne
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