Like many of you, I awoke this morning to the news that Pope Francis has gone to our Heavenly Father. My heart is very heavy at this loss, as I am sure is the case for all who feel the loss of our shepherd.
There is so much to say about the life of Pope Francis. Like all momentous people in history, people said polarizing things about him. I am convinced that much of the controversies are rooted in the ignorance of a media that does not understand the Catholic faith. Even as I watched the local news, I heard how they mischaracterized his call to bless those with same-sex attractions as a blessing of same-sex unions. This is not at all for our Holy Father said, but that never has stopped people from twisting his intentions.
For the purpose of this article, I wanted to focus on Pope Francis’ call to have a lived experience of faith.
One of my biggest takeaways from his pontificate was his call to be active in the Gospel. He never downplayed the importance of study and private prayer. But all of this needed to be something lived out in the lives of others. He stated that “truth is not an abstract idea, but is Jesus himself, the Word of God in whom is the Life that is the Light of man (cf. Jn1:4), the Son of God who is also the Son of Man.” In other words, theology is not simply the mastery of a subject, but an encounter with Christ Himself.
This requires us to go outside of our bubbles and encounter those that may be different and unfamiliar to us. He must be in dialogue with “other scientific, philosophical, humanistic and artistic knowledge, with believers and non-believers, with men and women of different Christian confessions and different religions.”
When I was younger, we met with a priest about putting on a retreat in his parish. He said he was concerned that we were only “saving the saved.” What he meant was that he worried that we were only focusing on people who already had a relationship with God and not focusing on those who are on the outside of that. While it is essential that we continue to kindle the fire of faith in those who have it, this priest was correct in that we have to reach out to those on the margins. And this is something that Pope Francis constantly emphasized.
As I wrote in last week’s article, Christ came into the world and His basilea (“kingdom”) was built around those who were on the margins of society. Jesus reached out to the prostitutes and the tax collectors. He stood up for the woman caught in adultery. He made care for the poor and the sick an essential part of the Christian message.
Pope Francis always called us to reach out to those on the margins of modern society. He reached out to those who feel alienated from the Church: those with same-sex attractions, the divorced and remarried, the prisoners, the poor, etc. This article is not an analysis of his methodology in this regard. Instead, its purpose is to show that Pope Francis took so seriously the directive of Christ to reach out to the anawim (“the least ones”).
In reaching out to them, he called us to be “an army of forgiveness.” His call for the Jubilee Year of Mercy emphasized this point. Our message to those who feel far from God should always point to the never-ending mercy of the Savior. This does not mean that we affirm anyone in sin. But we also are not called to be their judge. We are called to show them the greatness of God’s mercy by living God’s mercy.
Living mercy means that we have to be active in the life of faith. Pope Francis kept calling people, especially the young, to get more involved and shake things up. In the first year of his pontificate, he said at World Youth Day “”What do I hope for from World Youth Day? I hope for a mess … that the Church takes to the streets. That we defend ourselves from comfort… The Church must be taken into the streets.”
This is a very Apostolic image. In my recent studies of the early Apostles like St. Paul, I was struck by the radical, anti-establishment message that came with the Gospel. The ancient Romans saw Christianity as something disruptive and that still is true today. Pope Francis constantly called us to be roused from our settled complacency, from our feeling that I am a “good enough” Catholic. He challenged us to be radical in our mercy and forgiveness in the world.
In the coming days, let us pray for the soul of our dearly departed Holy Father. And let us pray for the Church as the Holy Spirit guides the conclave to choosing his successor.
I am so happy that Pope Francis was able to be with us during the Holy Triduum and he was able to give us a final blessing on Easter Sunday. Even on his last day, he understood that he was there to be out with his flock, living the Gospel by being among the people.
He may have experienced death of the body, but Pope Francis continues to live a life of faith.
Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him, O Lord, and Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him. May His Soul and All the Souls of the Faithful Departed, Through the Mercy of God, Rest in Peace.
Rest in Peace, Pope Francis
Copyright 2025, WL Grayson
W.L. Grayson
I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.
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