Anita Draper
Catholic Herald staff
Diocese of Superior Bishop James P. Powers celebrated a Memorial Mass for Pope Francis the afternoon of Thursday, May 1, at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Superior.
He opened his homily with an acknowledgement of shared grief.
“Today, we come together in sorrow,” he began. The bishop spoke of recent conversations with people who didn’t realize how deeply the death of the pope would affect them, as has been the case for millions around the world.
This journey is the death of a loved one.
“As a world, we have lost a father, and the death of someone close to us is sad and hard,” he added. In our shared grief, he observed, how important it is “to come together and share that gift of faith.”
In that sense of loss, there is the “gift of the father’s love. Our spiritual father, Pope Francis, and our heavenly Father, our God,” who loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us.
In our grief, we have this consolation, the “hope and promise of eternal life” that our faith tells us Pope Francis, and all those who have gone before us, share at this time.
An understanding of God’s love, of God’s mercy, was so much a part of Pope Francis, Bishop Powers added – not just his pontificate, but of who he was.
The pope’s message was one of hope, mercy, love and solidarity, “a message of calling each one of us to live that life that God has called us for,” to give and live that life as a child of God, that brother and sister of our Lord, that brother and sister for one another.
“Sadly, how far our world is from that,” he said.
Pope Francis’ entire pontificate, “every one of his writings,” is founded on that love of God and love of brother and sister called for by the first two commandments, the “understanding that we can’t love God if we don’t love one another,” the bishop said.
In the second year of his pontificate, Pope Francis called for that special Jubilee of Mercy, Bishop Powers continued. He called on the church to care for the sick and suffering around the world – not just physical wounds, but spiritual wounds “that can cut so much deeper, so much sharper.”
After sharing some of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re’s comments from his homily at Pope Francis’ funeral, Bishop Powers offered a personal reflection.
“I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting Pope Francis when I was in Rome,” he said. “I admit there was a bit of a language barrier – my Spanish is nonexistent, his English wasn’t much better,” he joked, “but we’ve all been in situations where words aren’t necessary to convey the words of the heart. The care he had for all of us new bishops was real.”
Pope Francis showed that same care, that same concern and love, everywhere he went, Bishop Powers added.
In closing, the bishop called on Catholics to follow the pope’s example, to be “that pilgrim of hope, that messenger of God’s love, of God’s mercy,” and to “find our strength in that strength of our God.”
“Pope Francis, pray for us,” he added.
