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Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we are privileged to visit the shrine honoring the two brother saints, who worked without ceasing to bring Christianity to the many lands of Eastern Europe. They are Cyril and Methodius, and after the first of these brothers, our Holy Father was named by his parents, Kiril. We know he has a special affection for these saints, having presented this shrine with the "Golden Rose," an honor bestowed on only three other places of pilgrimage: Lourdes, Guadalupe, and Czestochowa. I think it would be especially appropriate today, to remember our Holy Father in all our prayers. He has been such a source of guidance for the Church, and in these the last years of his pontificate, he needs our prayers very much, as he struggles with the debilities that come with old age. But he has vowed to serve the Lord as long as the Lord wants him here on earth, and his attitude is surely an inspiration for all, who struggle with illness, with old age, or with any kind of infirmities which add to the already built-in difficulties of life.

One of the reasons our Holy Father is devoted to the memory of Cyril and Methodius is that Cyril died first, and although Methodius was deeply grieved, and wanted to retire, he obeyed the will of the Pope, and returned to his missionary duties, despite his sorrow, and the absence of his life-long companion. For these reasons, the example of these two saints can also be a great inspiration to us, as we face the changes that life brings, as well as the absences that those of us who live long must accept. But if we continue to do the Lord's will, we will find solace and consolation, and the strength and courage to carry on, just as our Holy Father does.

Today is also the feast of the first holy martyrs of the Roman Church, those brave men and women and children who died under the persecution of the emperor Nero in the year of our Lord 64, who met their terrible deaths on that one of the seven hills of Rome called the Vatican, and who watered the soil with their blood, where the heart of our Church has dwelt ever since.

We admire the courage and fortitude of men and women who live lives like those of Cyril and Methodius, working tirelessly to spread the Gospel, and to promote the cause of charity, of Christian love in the world.

But the willingness of men and women and children, to undergo terrible deaths, just because of the faith they believe in, still perhaps leaves our minds wondering and amazed. Wondering and amazed, but only because the Lord has not brought us to that same degree of challenge. When He spoke to the young man in the Gospel, who had sought to follow along with the other disciples, but who held back saying, "Lord, let me first go, and bury my father," - when Christ spoke and said those strange yet haunting words, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead," what could our Lord have meant but this - that when His light begins to fill your heart, and when His will begins to fill your actions, then what you leave behind - all the distractions, the foibles, the vain things - all these become dead, and all those who worship these vain things become dead - and when you follow the Lord, you leave the dead to bury their dead - you leave behind that which is not of the Lord, because it can only be headed in one direction, the direction of self-destruction, of ending with no meaning.

When Cyril and Methodius left their homes, left their monasteries and ventured into pagan country, to bring the word of Christ to a place it was unknown, they were following life. When the holy Roman martyrs refused to offer incense to the pagan gods, and turned their thoughts from living falsely to dying for Truth, they were following life. And when our Lord made His way to Jerusalem, and submitted to the condemnation of the Jews and of Rome, He was opening the path to life, and as He died, inviting us to follow Him, to follow Him to life. And to all who do not believe, who turn their faces to false gods, who turn their hearts to false goods, who look for the meaning of life in the world, our Lord speaks directly, and says, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead."

Dear friends, as we enjoy being here in this place made holy by the memories of those tireless slaves of the Lord, Cyril and Methodius - as we think of our Holy Father, who has spent a lifetime, and who yet struggles, to go on serving as much as possible - as we venerate the deaths of those holy men and women and children of early Rome, who watered the freshly plowed ground of our Holy Church with their own blood, let us also, ask God to make clearer in our minds and hearts, by their intercession and prayers, our own purpose in life - our own vision to see what is living and what is dead.

And let us ask Mary Ever Virgin, who saw God's will so clearly, and who said "yes" to that Life by which our own life is saved - let us ask Mary to help us bury what is past, and to live for what God may call us to do in the future.

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