Memorial Mass for Pope Francis R.I.P. on Friday 25 April 2025 in the Cathedral of St Patrick & St Felim, Cavan
Homily of Bishop Martin Hayes of Kilmore
We are saddened by the death of Pope Francis. He lived a long life of 88 years and of course his 12 years as Pope, as our pastoral leader of the Catholic Church, have been immense. It is significant that he died on Easter Monday upon the completion of our journey of Lent, the Holy Week ceremonies and the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
Our Easter Gospel of forgiveness to be proclaimed at his Funeral Mass includes the three-time questioning of Peter, “Do you love me?” It was to account for the three denials by Peter of Jesus during his Passion. This conversation between Jesus and Peter makes it clear that the Church was founded upon the forgiveness of the Apostles by Jesus and that they, most significantly, received their mission upon their encounter with the Risen Jesus Christ. We hear Peter, in our chosen first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, reflect on the story of the Life, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, stating, “God raised him to life and allowed him be seen”. The mission of the Church is therefore to reach out to all people with forgiveness, in particular, to the lost sheep. Pope Francis was our Chief Shepherd who emphasised being among the sheep, calling us to appreciate the smell of the sheep.
Our Gospel is one of those encounters with the Risen Jesus Christ who is offering forgiveness to Peter. The mercy of God was a key theme of Pope Francis. He called a Year of Mercy which began on December 8, 2015, and concluded on November 20, 2016, calling us to be merciful like God our Father. It was a time for reflection on God’s mercy and a call for Christians to be merciful to others.
Pope Francis called us to be missionaries arising from our encounter with the Jesus, as is the theme of his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). The Apostles were privileged to be witnesses to his Resurrection. In our first reading from Acts we hear Peter say, “Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and drunk with him after his Resurrection from the dead – and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people.” The Apostles were given their mission, and we too are called by Pope Francis to continue that mission today.
Throughout his life, and in particular, in recent weeks, Pope Francis placed his trust in God, in Jesus Christ as he was preparing to meet the Good Lord. In our Gospel we hear those concluding words of Jesus to Peter indicating “the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God”. Pope Francis as he aged and became infirm, was confined to a wheelchair, and it was uncomfortable for him. However, his disposition reflected those words of Jesus, “someone else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go”. Pope Francis, wanted to keep going, as he demonstrated in recent weeks and days, yet he too was preparing for his death, to go the home of the Father.
Pope Francis embraced the Holy Week ceremonies, the celebration of the Risen Jesus Christ in faith and has provided us with a faithful Christian witness. We trust that he is gone to his homeland in heaven, that his wretched body (like ours) will be transfigured into copies of the glorious body of Jesus Christ as is our hope of eternal life with God.
We give thanks for his strong pastoral leadership in making the Gospel message relevant with warmth and compassion to the whole world. My memory of meeting Pope Francis is that he was a strong warm smiling man full of the joy of the Gospel.
In his apostolic letters, Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, his apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, he drew our attention to the widening gap between rich and poor, the increasing levels of migration and the harm being done to planet Earth due to the current global economic model. In Laudato Si’ he challenged us to take up our responsibilities of being created by God in interrelationship with each other and with all of creation. He reminded us that “we are not God” (para. 67 Laudato Si’), yet, that we are not powerless, and that we are responsible. He has warned us that nature is screaming and that we are called to live with the earth rather than just on the Earth.
He consistently advocated for the dignity, respect and protection of human life from the moment of conception to its natural end. He addressed the abuse crisis within the Church and asked for forgiveness from those hurt by that abuse, notably at the World Meeting of Families Mass in the Phoenix Park on 26th August 2018.
As a man of deep faith and prayer he has called us to engage with each other in conversations of faith on a synodal path and a way of walking together as Church dependant on the Holy Spirit. Only, in recent weeks he put in place a process of implementation for the synodal way of being Church. Our conversations in faith are a prayerful listening to each other, an involving of everyone in making decisions so that final decisions can only be taken prayerfully with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We have just had those ‘conversations in faith’ with our Parish Pastoral Councils throughout the Diocese of Kilmore in preparation for our submission of priorities to the National Synodal Pathway.
In responding to the love of God through his personal witness of Christian faith to the end, Pope Francis has renewed our hope. On last Sunday, Easter Sunday, he spoke of how Jesus has conquered death, thereby giving witness to his hope of eternal life with God. In his autobiography entitled ‘Hope’, Pope Francis states (Ch 22, p 247ff) that hope is real, more than an illusion, is a medicine, a cure and then goes on to emphasise how Christian hope is infinitely more. He states Christian hope is our awareness that God has always loved us, not what we want, rather what is already there for us. Hope according to Pope Francis, is what keeps life going, it is God in our hearts.
As I have been mentioning at our Confirmation ceremonies, Pope Francis presents hope as a little child who is walking between her older sisters, faith and love. Faith sees only what is and love loves only what is while hope sees and loves what will be – the little girl drawing her bigger sisters, faith and love forward.
Hope does not make things easier; hope sustains us through difficulties. Pope Francis urging us to continue to hope concludes, “We walk hand in hand with a steadfast child whose name we carry. Because God has made hope for us.”
Sadly, Pope Francis has died, yet, we are grateful, and he leaves us with the call (Second Reading from St Paul to the Philippians) to be faithful, and we hear that phrase, that could well be addressed to us,” you are my joy.”
We entrust Pope Francis to the merciful love of God and pray that he may rest in peace.
