Pope Francis died Easter Monday and the world has lost a good and faithful servant of the Catholic church. His papacy began in the fall of 2013, when then Pope Emeritus Benedict retired. Hallmarked by a consistent deep love for the poor, manifested in visible outreach to the imprissoned and the marginalized, Pope Francis also called on the modern world, the western world, the wealthy world, to recognize the humanity of the poor and the suffering.
When Pope Francis came to visit the United States during the Year of Mercy, he cannonized Saint Junipero of Sera. His own missionary approach to the papacy echoed that of the saint. Saint Junipero’s own witness of persistence despite odds, despite age, to bring the gospel to the people he encountered, and to speak to those in power about being good stewards of their people, and merciful even to the murderous, was likewise reflected in Pope Francis’ ministry.
He visited prisons and washed their feet. He wrote letters and spoke to people in power about the need to be welcoming and solicitous of those in need. If there’s an image of Pope Francis that reflects his spiritual center, it is of him embracing –the man with leprosy, the child who came to him while he sat, and the world as it suffered during the pandemic with his offering of an hour long blessing to an empty Saint Peter’s Square two weeks into the quarantine as we all endured what felt like “evening for many weeks.”
Pope Francis often said things which provoked, by those who thought him too progressive, too welcoming to some who openly opposed some of the teachings of the church, and by those who felt he did not push the church to change enough. Catholics are supposed to be constantly cognisant of the paradox of our faith, and at times, in his papacy, Pope Francis was bombarded by the world for trying to teach it. To be Catholic, one must embrace and enter into the mystery of the Cross. One must love the ones who crucify the one one loves. Pope Francis spent his papacy seeking to get the world to hear and respond to this call to forgive, to forebear, to love.
Being merciful means forbearance, and Pope Francis was a principled disciple with the grace to weather the constant armchair critiquing of his every action and utterance. His faith grounded in the virtue of humility, meant even the name he chose, reflected that spiritual disposition. He urged his priests and bishops and cardinals to be shepherds who “smelled like the sheep,” and chose to living in the guest quarters rather than the papal apartments. Living “as a guest,” as the leader of the Catholic church, meant he kept his eyes fixed on the reality of being a steward of this world, this flock.
On Easter, he gave an Easter blessing and message to the world. “The light of Easter impels us to break down the barriers that divide us. These barriers are not only physical, but policial, economic, and spiritual.” and again urged the nations to reject war, to use their power and resources to “care for one another.” It was our spiritual father giving his final words of wisdom, hope and love to his worldly family. It was a loveletter that expressed his papacy’s whole hope for all of us. As the faithful, we must pray for the souls of all the departed, and use the gift of prayer on his and all the souls departed, to ask that he is welcomed into the kingdom with those wonderful comforting words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I will miss this spiritual father, as I have missed Saint Pope John Paul the Great, and Pope Benedict the XVIth, because they were good shepherds who loved Christ and his bride, the church. That the world recognizes it saw holiness, is a reminder we’re supposed to be that visible, so that the world comes to believe, it need not be as fallen as it is. We can be part of the life of Heaven the whole world was created to participate in, and they’ll know we are Christians by our humility and service.
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