In this series of Walking with the Church, we journey with the People of God and the whole world as we mourn the death of Pope Francis.
This morning Pope Francis entered eternal life. It was the first text most of us received on our phones as we awoke this morning. The beauty of the Paschal Triduum has given way to sadness and to the strong experience of communion we Catholics feel at such pivotal moments in the Church’s life. How appropriate the words of Pope Francis in his homily on Easter Sunday, words that were his final encouragement to us and his assurance that he peacefully hastened to meet the Risen Lord:
“Brothers and sisters, this is the greatest hope of our life: we can live this poor, fragile and wounded existence clinging to Christ, because he has conquered death, he conquers our darkness and he will conquer the shadows of the world, to make us live with him in joy, forever. This is the goal towards which we press on, as the Apostle Paul says, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (cf. Phil 3:12-14). Like Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, we hasten to meet Christ.”
While walking to Mass and saying my rosary this morning for Pope Francis, I met three ladies out of breakfast. “Please pray for the Holy Father!” they said to me. “He blessed the world yesterday and left us this morning. It was almost as if he planned it,” one of the women said quietly. I thought about the disciples who left Jerusalem for Emmaus after the death of the Lord. The hush, the uncertainty, and the feeling of being left alone was tangible.
“No,” I responded, “God planned it. We can trust that through all of this we are being cared for powerfully and lovingly by Jesus. He is with his Church.”
I think about the years of my religious life in terms of the election of the last three Popes who each in their own way has taught the world to “cling to Christ.” Because I contemplate my life in reference to the life of the Church, I really do have this unfailing trust in the working of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
The First Twenty-Five Years – Saint Pope John Paul II
You see, I’m from the JP2 generation, meaning I was in my formative years when Saint John Paul II was Pope (between 1978 and 2005). I had just entered the convent two months before his election, and one of my earliest “convent memories” is the whole community rushing through the halls of our Motherhouse in Boston toward the room where there was a television. It was October 16, 1978, and white smoke had been seen above the Sistine Chapel’s chimney. “Habemus papam” was announced from the balcony above St. Peter’s Square and a pope from Poland appeared. While the news commentators were trying to make sense of the name of this non-Italian Cardinal who had been elected Pope—Karol Wojtyla—the world heard words we so needed to hear, “Be not afraid!”
After twenty-five years of religious life with John Paul II as the leader of the Catholic Church, I’ll share what was for me the most striking image. I had read that John Paul II would spend long hours at night prostrate in prayer. I felt that he certainly was holding the entire world in his prayer every night while we slept. He prepared for any missionary trip he undertook with prayer before the Eucharist and wrote much of his works while in Eucharistic adoration. This is the image I hold from John Paul II that transformed my prayer.
Look at Jesus – Benedict XVI
Another image that powerfully changed my life comes from Pope Benedict XVI. I was able to participate in the last World Youth Day which was attended by John Paul II. It was 2002 in Toronto. There was a striking sadness in the hush that came over the crowds, when he said, “The next World Youth Day will be in Cologne, Germany.” No mention, as was his custom, that he’d be there. It was clear he knew he would not. Instead, his successor, Pope Benedict XVI attended that World Youth Day. As the festivities began in Cologne, I wondered how Benedict XVI—who seemed less charismatic than the pope who had grown up in theater and had captured the attention of the world with dramatic gestures and powerful statements—would come across in a crowd of teenagers and young adults.
He didn’t. He did more. Let me explain.
I don’t remember which night of World Youth Day it was, but all the participants were gathered before a huge altar. We sisters in Boston were watching on television. Pope Benedict arrived. He exposed the Blessed Sacrament. And while everyone sang, he quietly walked behind the altar and disappeared. Something struck my heart at that moment. He left us all with our gaze fixed not on him, but on Jesus. Silence fell on the crowd as almost half a million young people from over 190 countries remained in adoration of the Lord: face-to-face, heart-to-heart. I fell on my knees.
This is what I learned from Pope Benedict that transformed my life: it is Jesus to whom we must look. It is Jesus to whom we must listen. It is Jesus with whom we must speak.
A Culture of Encounter – Pope Francis
A final image from Pope Francis. More than a single image, he offered me, rather, a mosaic of simplicity and encounter. In the first hours after his election, he shunned the special car that had been reserved for the new Pope and instead rode back in the van with the other Cardinals for their final meal at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Of course, the news commentators had a heyday with that: “What does this mean?” “He’s so different from other Popes!”
Little by little, tidbits of information about this Pope from Argentina began to emerge: as archbishop he used to cook his own food. He travelled by public transportation. He lived in a small apartment in downtown Buenos Aires. He would take walks among his people—the poor in Argentina who struggle for a living…. As Pope he decided to live in a small room in the Vatican’s house of hospitality instead of the papal suite in the Vatican itself. This image of Pope Francis became an icon of what he would give to the Church and the world: a sensitivity for the dignity of people who are suffering, and an immersion in everyday conversation and friendship through a culture of encounter. He taught us to “cling to Christ,” present among us in the marginalized and suffering.
God Has a Plan
Over the years, I have learned that each pontiff is a gift to the Church and has a specific mission for the sake of the world that is part of a plan. God’s plan. This is my shorthand for how God’s plan has unfolded in the Church through the work and teaching of these popes since 1978:
Pope John Paul II captivated the attention of the world and particularly of the young people. He made us “listen up” and get excited about our faith, for he travelled the world again and again. Just about everyone saw him and heard him and felt that his powerful presence. His gestures and words were amplified through the news and people felt close to him as they watched him on television.
Once we had settled down and were seated, so to speak, Pope Benedict XVI led us to Christ. He became our teacher, our master Catechist.
And then Pope Francis turned our eyes outward, startling us into the urgent and challenging conversation about how we are called to grapple with the complex realities of our brothers and sisters in need and for whom we are responsible.
So what memories do you have? What lessons are you going to hold onto for the rest of your life? Where is God leading you?
Here is my favorite quote from Pope Francis to inspire you:
“In the presence of the heart of Christ, I once more ask the Lord to have mercy on this suffering world in which he chose to dwell as one of us. May he pour out the treasures of his light and love, so that our world, which presses forward despite wars, socio-economic disparities, and uses of technology that threaten our humanity, may regain the most important and necessary thing of all: its heart” (Dilexit Nos, no. 31).
And to learn more about the heart of Pope Francis, click here for a podcast conversation with Sr. Emily and Sr. Kathryn on his recent encyclical, Dilexit Nos.