In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our annual celebration of the patronal feast day of this historic temple, which I as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church am honored to have as my titular church, brings us particular joy and peace today. This year marks the 1700th
anniversary of the Council of Nicea which defined the truth that two natures – divine and human – are united in the one Divine Person of Jesus Christ, God the Son Incarnate, Our Lord and Savior. It is also a Holy Year, the 2025th
anniversary of the Birth of Christ, God and man, to save us from sin and to win for us eternal life. Loving us without cease and without limit, God united our human nature to His divine nature, so that our human nature might have a share in His divine nature.
The ineffable Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation, which we celebrate by pilgrimage during the Holy Year and which will be made sacramentally present on the altar during the Holy Mass today, is resplendent in the life and death of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, the heavenly patron of this church. Her twofold oblation of self, first in the gift of her virginity to Christ as His bride and then in her martyrdom in ultimate fidelity to her Divine Bridegroom, is a powerful witness to the Mystery of Faith at work in the Church for the salvation of souls, to the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity in our souls through the union of the divine nature to our human nature in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The love celebrated in the Song of Songs, the love which is “strong as death,”[1] which “[m]any waters cannot quench” and “neither can floods drown it,”[2] is Divine Love, the love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in which we have been given a share through the Redemptive Incarnation, beginning with the waters of Baptism and reaching its fullness in the Holy Eucharist – the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord given as the Heavenly Bread which sustains us along life’s pilgrimage to our heavenly home. Only such love could inspire and strengthen Saint Agatha to return love for love, responding to the love of Christ by making the twofold oblation of her whole being to Him.
Today, with Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, we boast in the love of God Who, in the inspired words of Saint Paul, “is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”[3] The mystery of God’s love at work in the life of Saint Agatha is no less at work in our lives. God has called us, as He called Saint Agatha, for the victory over sin and death, for the victory of life in Him already now on earth and in its fullness in Heaven, our true homeland. We who are “foolish in the world …, weak in the world,”[4] “low and despised in the world,”[5] are called to transform the world with the Divine Love poured forth into our hearts from the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus. We, with Saint Agatha, are daily witnesses to the truth which Our Lord teaches us in the Gospel: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.”[6]
Christ calls us to lose our hearts in His Most Sacred Heart so that we can save our hearts solely for love of God and our neighbor.
The very story of this church building, the Church of Saint Agatha of the Goths, is a testimony to the Divine Truth and Love incarnate in Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary. The first church here was built by the Goths who had embraced the heresy of Arianism “according to which Christ could not fully be God.”[7] Pope Saint Gregory the Great, recounting the many miracles by which God, in His infinite mercy, saved the faithful from the deception of Arianism, includes among the miracles his experience in consecrating this church to Christ, God and man, once the Arian Goths had left Rome:
I should also mention the remarkable events that occurred in this city two years ago, for they are signs from God clearly manifesting His condemnation of the Arian heresy….
An Arian church in the section of the city called Subura had remained closed until two years ago when it was decided to dedicate it to the Catholic faith. The relics to repose there were those of St. Sebastian and St. Agatha. We proceeded to the church with an immense throng of people, singing songs of praise to almighty God. On entering the church for the celebration of Mass, the people had to crowd close together because of lack of space. Some of those who stood outside the sanctuary were disturbed by a pig running back and forth through the crowd. Though the people could not see the animal, they felt it scurrying over their feet. During the general commotion that followed, the pig found its way out through the church door. In this way God helped us to understand that the unclean spirit had departed from the building.[8]
The Church of Saint Agatha of the Goths is, in a special way, a sign of the truth of the Redemptive Incarnation, of the victory of Christ over sin and death in our human nature by His Sacrifice on Calvary, which He continues to win in souls who are alive in Him in His Mystical Body,[9] who are living branches inserted into Him, the Vine.[10] Saint Agatha, whose feast we celebrate today, shines forth here both as an example of the heroism with which we are called to live in Christ and as an intercessor for the grace to live faithfully and fully in Christ, especially in times of temptation and trial.
Reflecting on the importance of the Church of Saint Agatha of the Goths on the patronal feast, let us thank God that over the past few years important works have been undertaken to restore its courtyard, its façade, the sanctuary floor, and the organ, and to renovate its electrical system, especially its lighting. By these works, made possible through the generosity of a number of benefactors and through the dedication of those expert in the work of restoration and construction, our beloved church is now a more fitting and effective instrument of Our Lord in His saving mission. I am offering the Holy Mass tonight for the intentions of all those who have, in any way, contributed to the work of restoration and renovation. May God abundantly reward them.
One in heart with the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mother of God and the heart of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, let us lift up our hearts to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, opened for us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. May we, with Mary Immaculate and Saint Agatha, lose our hearts in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and thus find joy and peace in the days of earthly pilgrimage and the eternal fullness of joy and peace at the destination of our pilgrimage, the Heavenly Jerusalem.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
Cardinal Priest of the Church of Saint Agatha of the Goths
[1] Sg 8, 6.
[2] Sg 8, 7.
[3] 1 Cor 1, 30.
[4] 1 Cor 1, 27.
[5] 1 Cor 1, 28.
[6] Lk 9, 24.
[7] “… d’après laquelle le Christ ne serait pas pleinement Dieu.” Louis Bouyer, “Arianisme,” Dictionnaire théologique (Tournai [Belgium]: Desclée & Co., 1963), p. 74. English translation: Louis Bouyer, “Arianism,” Dictionary of Theology, tr. Charles Underhill Quinn (New York: Desclee Company., Inc., 1965), p. 38.
[8] “Arrianorum ecclesia, in regione urbis huius quae Subura dicitur, cum clausa usque ante biennium remansisset, placuit ut in fide catholica, introductis illic beati Sebastiani et sanctae Agathae martyrum reliquiis, dedicari debuisset. Quoid factum est. Nam cum magna populi moltiduine uenientes atque omnipotenti Domino laudes canentes, eandem ecclesiam ingressi sumus.
Cumque in ea iam missarum sollemnia celebrarentur et prae eiusdem loci angustia populi se turba comprimeret, quidam ex bis qui extra sacrarium stabant, porcum subito intra suos pedes huc illucque discurrere senserunt. Quem dum unusquisque sentiret et iuxta se stantibus indicaret, isdem porcus ecclesiae ianuas petiit et omnes per quos transiit in admirationem conmouit, sed uideri nil potuit, quamuis sentiri potuisset. Quid idcirco diuina pietas ostendit, ut cunctis patesceret, quia de loco eodem inmundus habitator exiret.” Gregorii Magni Opera, Dialogi (I-IV), ed. Adalbert de Vogüé (Roma: Città Nuova Editrice, 2000), p. 294, XXX, nos. 2-3. English translation: Saint Gregory the Great, Dialogues, tr. Odo John Zimmerman (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1959), pp. 164-165, (30).
[9] Cf. Rom 12, 5; 1 Cor 12, 12. 27; Eph 5, 23; Col 1, 24
[10] Cf. Jn 15, 1-11.