Our Beloved Pope Francis has Finished His Race

All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey. Pope Francis, Ubi et Orbi, Easter Sunday.

Our beloved Pope Francis has finished his race.

The news release from the Vatican did not tell us the exact time or manner of his death. Even though he was still very weak and ill from the illness that almost took his life earlier this year, he managed to make several appearances during Easter week.

He greeted 20,000 onlookers last week and wished them a “Happy Palm Sunday.”

Even though his health kept him from washing their feet on Holy Thursday, he went to Regina Coeli prison and met with 70 inmates. He expended the effort to personally greet each one of them.

Every year I like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, washing feet, in a prison,” the Pope told the inmates. “This year I cannot do it, but I can and want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families.

He was unable to preside at the Easter mass, but he did make a surprise appearance to bless the believers.

Our Holy Father died at 7:15 this morning, Easter Monday. He gave the last ounce of his strength to his priestly vocation. It sounds as if his last public act was the bless the worshippers at Easter mass.

All the billions of people who are condemned by the insatiable greed of the billionaire class to live out their lives in grinding poverty and suffering have lost their greatest advocate. All the people who have suffered at the hands of today’s Pharisees who tell them that God hates them and does not want them have lost their good shepherd who sought to open the gates of salvation to them.

Pope Francis loved much. He taught that Christ’s mercy is real and that it is available to every human being. Because of that, he was the target of those who want to exploit people.

He was attacked and carped at by his own bishops because he did not satisfactorily condemn the people they wanted to condemn. He refused to shut the door of salvation on those people the fascists of our day want to scapegoat and make the focus of public hatred in order to gain absolute power and dominance for themselves.

Power and money attacked Pope Francis from the beginning of his papacy to the end. If power and money was your god, Pope Francis was your hate object. He was attacked, defamed, and excoriated. But he never bent to the powers and principalities of this world.

Pope Francis told the truth about the oncoming environmental holocaust that is bearing down on humanity. He spoke for the people that other clerics seek to cast out of the Church. He refused to dehumanize anyone. He taught that the mercy and love of Christ are a present reality.

He did not seek to limit and control Christ’s mercy, and to use it as both a carrot and a stick to control people for his own purposes. Instead, he did everything he could to swing wide the doorway to God and bring sinners under Christ’s sheltering wing.

Because of that, he was attacked and reviled by the clergy who do want to limit the message of the Gospel and use it to bamboozle, terrify and bully. He was attacked and slandered by billionaires, their media and their politicians because he sought to limit their destructive power to reduce whole peoples to the level of serfs.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you, Jesus told the Apostles. That was certainly true of our dear Holy Father Pope Francis. 

Pope Francis has finished his race. I believe that the first words he heard when he stepped out of his body was “Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome to your rest.”

From CBS News:

“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, The Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father’s house. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His church.

“He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of God, One and Triune.”