Funchal, Portugal, Celebrates Blessed Karl Feast Day
Bishop D. Nuno Brás kneels in prayer before the tomb of Blessed Karl. All article photos are by Duarte Gomes.
On Friday, October 21, 2022, the bishop of Funchal, D. Nuno Brás, celebrated Mass for the Feast Day of Blessed Karl in the Monte Church in Funchal where Blessed Karl’s tomb is located. The Mass marked the closing of the Jubilee period granted by the Holy Father Pope Francis, which commemorated the centenary of the passing of Blessed Karl.
In his homily, the prelate recalled that this year “has served to welcome divine mercy in a more abundant way”, but “the example and (much less) the intercession of Blessed Karl in our favor and in favor of Europe and the world.”
He who, stressed the Bishop of Funchal, “wanted his mortal remains to remain on our Island and under the maternal gaze of Nossa Senhora do Monte, help us to always choose Christ and his proposals for eternal life. Which is to say: to put on the armor of God and to generously fight the struggle of the Christian life.”
And if on this day, when we commemorate Blessed Karl of Austria, “we emphasize this dimension of the struggle”, he stressed, “it is not just because he was a soldier, for several years involved in a war — even though he did everything for the end, achieving peace.”
In fact, “we do it above all because Blessed Karl, throughout his life, fought countless interior and spiritual battles, which were simultaneously translated into choices and attitudes of life, full of consequences for himself, for his family and for the peoples for whom, as king and emperor, he was primarily responsible.”
The life of Karl of Austria, acknowledged D. Nuno Brás, “was demanding: demanding in his formation in the human and intellectual virtues, which he performed the best he could, according to the testimony of his masters; but, above all, demanding in their journey of faith.”
And it was this same demand that, among other consequences, “led him to prefer exile to refuse the commitment he made to God and the people he served as king and emperor.” And it was this same demand that, in the end, “made him live in a heroic way the suffering that led him to death, in poverty and in the almost solitude of Quinta do Monte, far from his homeland and accompanied only by his family and a few (few) friends.”
But “those who think that Karl did not fight are wrong. In his interior, in his heart, they were constantly fighting what he perceived to be the will of God in the face of proposals for human victory.”
The Christian life, the life of faith, was for Karl and is for all of us a struggle. Sin “seeks to convince us of the easiest, fastest, most effective, of what, in the eyes of all, gives a better image, even if at the cost of our relationship with God and our duty to care for and love the next.”
He is not surprised, therefore, that “the existential path of the Christian is full of difficulties, so strange it is to the world in which we live, surrounded by well-being and facilities.”
And yet, “it would be enough for us to consider simple human experience to realize how the easiest and most immediate choices rarely lead to a happy, wise and meaningful life.”
“Human experience teaches us that struggle, maturation, discipline and demand become means to make the human spirit more resilient, leading us to higher levels of humanity”, stressed D. Nuno, who added at one point, that in this case the struggle “leads to the defeat of the old man so that the new man — the risen Christ — can win.”
After an initial greeting to the local authorities and the members of the Czech delegation present, Bishop Nuno ended this Eucharist, concelebrated by the vicar general and several other priests, remembering that this day was also the anniversary of the marriage of Karl and Zita.
The celebration ended with a moment of prayer at the tomb of Blessed Karl.
The following is the Homily preached by Bishop D. Nuno:
“We must fight” – the Apostle Paul told us in today's First Reading, taken from the Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 6:12).
If, on this day in which we commemorate Blessed Charles of Austria, we emphasize this dimension of the struggle, it is not just because he was a soldier for several years involved in a war — even though he did everything he could to end it, achieving peace.
If today we speak of struggle, we do so above all because Blessed Charles, throughout his life, fought countless interior and spiritual battles, which were simultaneously translated into choices and attitudes of life, full of consequences for himself, for his family and for the peoples for whom, as king and emperor, he was primarily responsible.
The Christian life is, in fact, all of it, a struggle. In us, the inclination towards sin (which marks us from the beginning), seeks to convince us of the easiest, the fastest, the most effective, of what, in the eyes of everyone, provides a better image, even if at a cost. our relationship with God and our duty to care for and love our neighbour. It is the exaltation of the Self, above everything and everyone.
And yet, all we need to do is consider simple human experience to see how the easiest and most immediate choices rarely lead to a happy, wise, and meaningful life. Human experience teaches rather that struggle, maturation, discipline and demand become means to make the human spirit more resilient, leading us to higher levels of humanity.
But the Christian life (Jesus himself) invites us to go even further. Because faith is not enough to humanize man and the society in which he lives: faith seeks to divinize man and the world he inhabits; help him to share the divine life; to accept the offer of salvation that God himself makes to all in Our Lord Jesus Christ, thus allowing himself to be radically transformed.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the existential path of the Christian is full of difficulties, so strange it is to the world in which we live, surrounded by well-being and facilities. Obviously, it is not a matter of imposing anything on those around us — much less of imposing faith, since faith itself demands full, total freedom from those who assume it as the center of existence.
But let us have no doubt that the Christian's path is a narrow door that the world seeks to avoid (cf. Mt 7:13-14; Lk 13:22-25). It is the demanding journey (cf. Mt 5:21-22), full of obstacles (cf. Mt 19:16-26; 23:13-32), even violent (cf. Mt 11:12), which leads to the Kingdom . It is a path that is not suitable for those who have their heart in riches, who are attached to the dead realities of the past, or who are not able to love and perceive everything with the heart of God — even their relationship with the closest family ( cf. Mt 8:19-22).
Faith in Christ, that is to say: this vital path of ever greater configuration with the Lord is always a path of struggle. Of inner struggle and of outer struggle.
It is an inner journey of doubts that leads to the search and encounter of the Truth; it is a journey of constant and persevering beginnings that leads to the experience of fidelity; it is a path of defeats that selfishness and pride suffer, and that leads to docility towards the will of God.
But the Christian's journey is also God's public proposal and his project of love for everyone. A proposal that, in front of everyone, affirms a different possibility of thinking and acting: different from the usual options, in which the weakest is crushed by the stronger; the one who has no access to information defeated by the wisest; what is not famous, looked upon as insignificant.
On the contrary, the Christian's path is the constant proposal of God's love, facing the pride of those who think they know and have everything; it is the proposal of the primacy of the next, in the face of the egoism of the Self; and it is also, therefore, the proposal of a social conversion of the world in which we live, and where power, money or fame are raised in the centers of life.
It is a proposal made, from the outset, with the awareness that sin dwells in us too. On the contrary, as St. Paul says, we are the first and the greatest sinners (1 Tim 1:15)! Indeed, it is in earthen vessels that we bring the treasure of our ministry—a treasure that we are under obligation to diligently present to all.
This struggle that characterizes the Christian life is therefore, in the first place, a struggle fought in each one of us. A struggle that leads to the defeat of the old man so that the new man — the risen Christ — can win. It is the struggle from which he emerges victorious who is able to, saying in front of everyone “Lord, Lord”, make his words of praise coincide with the fulfillment of the Father's will. It is the struggle of one who seeks holiness; it is the struggle of the one who builds his life on the unshakable rock that is Christ. This is, says the Lord Jesus, the wise man who wisely built the house of his life. But it is also the struggle of one who is always able to propose God and his will every day.