I should have written a final tribute to Pope Francis before now, but I have been grieving. My heart has been heavy and my sorrow has clouded my mind. All I have been able to express are feelings, emotions so strong that the part of my brain able to string together the words that clearly define my admiration and love for him are missing. I seem only to be able to feel and cry that our world has lost such a wonderful man who understood and truly cared about every single one of us.
I did not know what to think when Pope Francis was first selected as the pontiff of the church that I have known since the day I was born. My mother had taken me to be baptized at All Saints Catholic Church in the Houston Heights when I was a baby. From that moment forward she shared her faith with me and religiously followed the teachings that she herself had learned as a child. She sent me to Catholic school for twelve years where I formed the beliefs that would guide me for the rest of my life.
I came of age when Pope John XXIII was pope and the rebellious spirit of the nineteen sixties seemed to guide the beautiful changes in how the church was finally leaning. Many of the old rules that had seemed silly to me were overturned. The mass was finally offered in the many languages of the people around the world. The priests faced forward when saying the mass and we finally saw their faces instead of their backs. It was a modernization that seemed more in keeping with the lessons of Jesus than the mysterious Latin rituals that I witnessed as a child.
My mother received a papal blessing from John XXIII for her work at the church where I grew in wisdom and age and grace. It was one of her most cherished possessions and it now hangs in the room in my home where she spent the last year and a half of her life faithfully praying and reading her Bible. She would have been happy to know that John XXIII is now officially a saint, something she knew about him long before a proclamation was made. She died before Pope Francis was selected, but I know she would have loved him as much as I do. He represented all of the values that guided her life.
My mother was the child of immigrants. She became an American citizen by birth. Eventually her father became a citizen as well but her mother was too busy having babies and raising eight children to learn about the United States and take a test to prove her knowledge and loyalty. Instead her progeny would become ideal citizens and Catholics until the days when they died.
I come from a legacy of patriotism and strong faith, but admittedly I had struggled a bit with my feelings about the Catholic church during the years before Pope Francis became our pope. It felt as though the church had become too impersonal at times. Then came this beautiful man who was a champion for the poor, the suffering, those forced to migrate from their homelands. He demonstrated how to love even those whose lives seemed strange to us, like the sex workers who lunched with him and were profoundly changed by his loving acceptance of them.
In a world filled with ever-changing rules and laws that seemed to be designed to punish rather than to inspire and support it was refreshing to have a pope who focused on helping others rather than shunning them. He was like a kind father who guided us and encouraged us to always share what we have with those in need. He showed us how to love the people that we did not understand. His example taught us to be open to differences rather than judgmental. His generosity of spiriot radiated from his face and his words, even to the very end of his life.
I have shed many tears since the passing of Pope Francis. My heart has been heavy watching his funeral and sensing the great loss that our world has experienced. I know that what he would want from me and all good people everywhere is to follow his example. He would ask us to see the beauty and worth in our fellow humans. He would remind us to always follow the simple but daunting rule from Jesus that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves without restrictions based on our prejudices.
Terrible things are happening in the world at large. Here in the United States people are being treated without consideration of their humanity that is so much like our own. We seem not to want to know why they are here. Our country only wants to rid itself of them as quickly as possible. They are rounded up based on the superficialities that we all too often use to determine the worth of others. We would do well to instead heed the example and words of Pope Francis to provide love and comfort to everyone among us.
I hope that I have the strength to follow the moral code that Pope Francis has left us. I hope that I can “be” Pope Francis in all that I do and say. He was a blessed man and I will miss him, but I am certain that he is now enjoying his heavenly reward. May he rest in peace and may we all remember what he most wanted to see from us.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 