2nd Week of Eastertide- Low Week
Dear Parishioners
Reflecting on the recent death of Pope Francis: It was with great sadness that we all heard the news announced on Easter Monday April 21st from Vatican City that our Holy Father Pope Francis had died earlier that morning at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. Pope Francis was the first non-European Pope for nearly 1,300 years. An Argentinian by birth, the first Pope from the southern hemisphere and the first Pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus.
At the time of his election, I was studying in Rome for the Priesthood at the Pontifical Beda College. I remember the night of the 13th of March 2013 so well. It was the evening when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. It was also the evening on which I, alongside other members of my seminary year, received the Ministry of Acolyte, an important step in our journey towards ordination. The atmosphere in Rome that day had been electric – alive with rumour and gossip and rife with speculation that an announcement would be made that day about the identity of our new Holy Father. As I recall after the Mass that evening, and halfway through a celebratory dinner with our families and friends in the College Refectory, an announcement was made: “we have a new Pope.” At that moment I suddenly realised that at the very time we had all been receiving our new Ministry, another man was also just receiving his new Ministry on the other side of the city of Rome! Gathering around the large TV screen set up in the Common Room we watched with bated breath, along with the rest of the world, to see which Cardinal had been elected to succeed Pope Benedict! First came the name: Francis. Then came the man, standing on the historic balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, wearing his new white cassock, which I remember thinking somehow didn’t quite fit him properly. He raised his right hand and waved, but not in the manner that one might expect a King, President or new Pontiff to wave, but a simple wave of a father fondly greeting his children. As he looked out over St Peter’s Square for what seemed to those of us who were watching forever – just staring – he finally spoke those historic words: “Fratelli e Sorelle, buona sera.” (Brothers and Sisters good evening). Our new Jesuit Pope, who chose as his new name “Francis” after the great reformer from Assisi who embraced poverty and simplicity, and who promoted a devotional, evangelical, fraternal and incarnational way of living – gave I think to all of us watching that evening, a hint from the balcony as to what we might expect from his future pontificate.
I was privileged later in June 2013, along with other members of our seminary community to be invited to a private audience with Pope Francis, following the First Vespers for the Feast of St Paul, which traditionally the Holy Father celebrates himself in his Basilica of St Pauls Outside the Walls, situated across the road from the Beda College. I was struck at the time by the magnetic quality Pope Francis exuded, his ability in such a formal setting to make us all feel relaxed and comfortable in his presence. He had a simplicity and stillness in his manner, which put you immediately at ease, but somehow you could never fail to feel that you were in the presence of real holiness. A twinkle though in his eye suggested something of the humour bubbling just below the surface within him, as he warmly greeted each one of us personally and gave us his blessing and handed to each of us a special rosary as a memento of our audience with him.
Later that summer in Rome Pope Francis suddenly summoned, and quite unexpectedly, all seminarians studying in Rome from around the world to meet with him in the Paul VI Audience Hall, close to the Vatican. Here our Holy Father addressed us in Italian, with an interpreter translating, to help I suspect those of us whose Italian was rather poor (mine certainly was and still is!) In his address to what he called “his seminarians” he outlined to us what his expectations for our future might be if we were to be ordained as priests of the Church. He spoke around the themes of Simplicity and Solidarity, Evangelization, and the Devotional Life, his words peppered with personal anecdotes of his own struggles and joys of living out the life and vocation of a Priest. He then invited questions from the floor, listening attentively, and responding carefully in a measured yet direct manner, to our worries and concerns encouraging us and affirming us in our vocations. Pope Francis’ final words to each of us gathered there that morning, just before giving us his blessing, was a reminder of the call shared by all Christian believers, ordained and lay alike, to be merciful to others just as the Father has been merciful to us.
“Mercy” Pope Francis often reminded us during his pontificate: “is the air that we breath,” meaning that we all need mercy the most, and without which it would be impossible to live. His entire pontificate was carried out under the banner of this message. From his first Angelus on March 17th 2013 at the window of the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace in which he never lived, he spoke to the world about the centrality of mercy, recalling the words of an elderly woman who came to confess to him when he was the newly appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires: “the Lord forgives all things…If the Lord did not forgive everything, the world would not exist.” His approach was not I feel to try to change the Magisterium of the Church but rather to put mercy at its centre in a new and dynamic way, changing the perceptions so many people previously had of the Catholic Church.
As a Priest Pope Francis’ example has often challenged me personally reminding me that I need in my ministry to be renewed daily by a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust more in God’s love, His mercy and forgiveness of all my many faults and human weaknesses, so that I can hopefully become a more merciful and loving pastor to those entrusted to my care in the course of my ministry. Remembering the mercy with which Jesus encounters me each day has helped me I hope to become a better listener, to be slower to judge others, and to be more willing to show kindness and mercy to those with whom I may disagree or find difficult to understand. I am like all of us ordained and lay alike still “a work in progress” and I am most certainly not (as I am sure you all know only too well!) perfect in any of these things yet, and probably never will be!
I do not feel that it was coincidence that Pope Francis died on the Monday in the Octave of Easter, a time when the Pascal candle burns brightly in the sanctuaries of our churches as a visible reminder to us of the light and love of the Risen Christ present in our midst. It was in this hope that Pope Francis lived, and it was in this light that he died. Nor was it I think a coincidence that his Funeral took place in Rome this Saturday, on the eve of the Churches celebrations of the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. Divine Mercy Sunday is areminder to us of the wonderful mercy that is offered by God to the whole world, something which Pope Francis throughout his entire pontificate sought to promote. Divine Mercy is about drawing close to God, admitting our own sinfulness, and thus being able to accept God’slove and forgiveness for ourselves. Once we have done this the task of forgiving others and of loving them can be something we can all undertake with God’s grace. Pope Francis was called to the priesthood through his experience of the mercy and compassion of God. This remained the core of his ministry as Priest, Bishop and Pontiff. “Only in understanding the love and mercy of God towards each of us,” he so often reminded us, “can we create societies and communities that bear the hall mark of the Kingdom of God.”
As we come together this weekend to worship as a parish community on Divine Mercy Sunday and as we give thanks for the life and faithful witness of our late Holy Father Pope Francis let us pray for the gentle repose of his soul.
May Pope Francis beloved of so many, believer and non-believer alike, know now more fully for himself the merciful and loving embrace of the Father. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
A note of thanks: I would like this weekend to thank each of you for your generosity to me in the Easter Offering again this year and to acknowledge my sincere thanks to all who have worked so hard to prepare the liturgies and the church for our Easter celebrations. I would like to thank on your behalf our dedicated group of musicians and singers, our flower arrangers and our young and committed band of altar servers. Our Readers and all our volunteers who helped to welcome people at the door. Those too who helped to clean the church and polish all the silver and brass, tidy the church gardens and all who help me in the Parish Office, to all who have helped in so many different and varied ways to animate the liturgies and to ensure that our church was made ready for Holy Week and Easter, the list could go on and on! Thank you! Your kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated by me personally and by all who have visited St. Mary’s during these past few weeks.
With prayer and best wishes,
Your parish priest and friend,
Father Jonathan
2025 27th April – Newsletter – Download