Homily @ Eastertide: With Mercy, for All

 

Here I reflect on Pope Francis and how he lived as Jesus lived - with mercy

Year C / Eastertide / Second Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy)

Readings: Acts 5:12-16 / Psalm 117(118):2-4,22-27 (R/v 1) / Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 / John 20:19-31

“Peace be with you.”

Jesus speaks these words to his disciples in the upper room. There they are locked in – by their fears of the Jews attacking them; their grief that Jesus is dead; their guilt for abandoning him; and now, their disbelief that he is alive. What else would they need but peace.

We are like those disciples. We’re in the joy of the Easter Octave. However, too many might still be locked in by the grind and groan of everyday life, the burdens and pains of relationships, our unChristian habits and sinful addiction. Our grief and loss as we mourn Pope Francis’ death might also lock us in. We too want peace.

Not any  peace. This kind Jesus declares: “Peace I leave, my peace I give. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14.27).

From start to finish, Francis’ ministry as Pope has paralleled that of Jesus, his Lord; both announced God’s peace.* In both ministries, God drew to himself his own, in their pain and sorrow.

St. John tells us of Jesus, “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Jesus came to care for them, to hold and to protect them. Pope Francis imitated Jesus. He came up close to everyone, especially the poor and outcast with a caring heart. He listened to their concerns and hopes with a tender heart. Then, he responded with a compassionate heart to care and forgive, to uplift and save. Indeed Francis served and ministered following no other than Jesus whose style is one of being intimate with everyone. 

“Indeed, the resurrection is the great triumph of intimacy! Christ comes back to claim his loved ones. He revives his relationship with them.”* Those frightened women at the tomb. A confused Mary in the garden. A guilt-ridden Peter by the lake shore. The disciples escaping to Emmaus. Now, the Eleven in the upper room, including Thomas who doubted. To each, the risen Jesus assured them with His peace. To all of them, He drew them into his intimacy again. 

Pope Francis also did this through his ministry – drawing the faithful and the faithless, Christians and non-Christians, into God’s embrace, again, as well as the Church.

Many will remember when as a Church we focussed much too much on doctrines and judgment, on Do’s and Don’ts, on who can receive communion and who can’t, on who’s in and who’s out, on the divide between clergy and the faithful doing God’s mission, on the Church looking inward for self-preservation instead of outward to evangelise.

During that time, many struggled. To find their place in a Church that was not welcoming. To be seen when they’d been pushed to the margins and forgotten. To be heard because their voices were silenced for being unworthy. To be understood as faith-filled and faithful Catholics even they struggled with, questioned, doubted, even challenged, the Church.
 
To them and for them, Pope Francis did what the risen Jesus did – He entered into His disciples’ pain, shame and loss so as to welcome them back into His risen life, include them in His loving, forgiving embrace and restore their dignity as His own, like the Prodigal Father did with his wayward son, still his beloved. This is what God’s mercy looks like.

“The name of God is mercy,” Pope Francis taught. His every word, every deed revealed God’s mercy and drew so many back to God. He did this by reforming the Church; we learned again to love God and neighbour not as rule or regulation but with hearts like the heart of Jesus – simply, humbly, proclaiming the joy of the Gospel with lives of service for all peoples. To his end, Francis challenged us to walk our talk as Christians by living as Jesus did. His life and ministry exemplified this.

Didn't he teach us that the Church is a field hospital and communion is healing for everyone and not a reward for the deserving.

Didn't he washed the feet of prisoners and Muslims on Holy Thursday as a reminder Jesus saves them too, not only the devout and Christian?

Didn't he eat with the transgendered people and say to the LGBTQ community, “who am I to judge, if you are sincerely seeking God and are living your Christian faith?”?

Didn't he welcome the refugees and house the homeless in the Vatican, even as he built bridges with non-Christians and cared for God’s garden, our environment?

Didn't he show us that leadership is about responsibility, not power—about serving, not being served — and with good humour, too?

Didn't he hugged the little ones, the lost ones like migrants, the abandoned ones like the man with a skin disease?

Why do all these and for what?

St John ends today’s gospel reading with this declaration: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.” This must assure us that we are right to believe in the resurrection. This should also give us peace that through the ministry of Jesus, and of Pope Francis who imitated him, God claims us all as his own. The resurrection audaciously proclaims this. 

We hear it echoed when the French, Catholic philosopher Gabriel Marcel wrote, “Love is saying to another, you will not die.” Christ says the same to us. “You are mine. You will not die.”*

This is why it matters what you and I will do after this. Not just Holy Communion where in the Eucharist we have communion, even more, deepest intimacy, with Christ, his saints and our loved ones. 

But the Sign of Peace too. It also draws us into intimacy with one another. We will say, “Peace be with you” to each other, repeating Jesus’ own words. We will, with a smile, a nod, a handshake, sometimes with an embrace. We will give each other Jesus’ peace, not ours. 

Let us then do this for everyone – share the peace of Christ. By valuing and respecting each other, by caring and loving, even forgiving one another. Even more, let us do this because the risen Jesus himself did it, “Peace be with you.” And Pope Francis too, when giving his final Ubi et Orbi blessing the day before he died. 

So let us bless each other by imparting Jesus’ peace, not as strangers or acquaintances, or as family and friends, but as Jesus calls his disciples, sisters and brothers, his intimate beloved. And as we do, don’t be surprise that Jesus having mercy, will call us, saying, “you and all you love, will never die.”*

* Fr Terrance Klein, Sunday Homilies Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart photo: www.ncronline.org