Pope Francis
The Pope’s final sermon began with the words, “Mary Magdalene.”
Pope Francis died today, on this Easter Monday.
Throughout his papacy, and despite the vast differences between our lives, I always felt a profound spiritual kinship with him. And I’ve been deeply grateful that he was a moral leader with a unique and important call and message for global community in these days.
I will pray for him and for the Catholic Church in these hard and holy days. If you are a praying person, I hope you will, too. Who is the leader of the world’s Catholics is important — especially important in these days of authoritarian cruelty.
It is obvious Pope Francis understood that. He didn’t shy away from that responsibility in his final writings and remarks.
As the commemorations spread in the news and online, you will probably see many comments on his final remarks to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and to the World”). The address is a small masterwork in theology and politics — as so many of Pope Francis’ addresses have been:
The light of Easter impels us to break down the barriers that create division and are fraught with grave political and economic consequences. It impels us to care for one another, to increase our mutual solidarity, and to work for the integral development of each human person…
I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the “weapons” of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!
You probably will NOT see, however, Pope Francis’ final sermon, one he wrote but was spoken on his behalf at the Easter mass in addition to his public remarks.
The Pope’s final sermon began with the words, “Mary Magdalene.”
The entire sermon is beautiful — and I found it spiritually stunning. In it, Pope Francis elevated Mary Magdalene to the same status (maybe even a higher status!) as Peter and John, the two most significant disciples. Some of this happens “between the lines,” but there’s a lot happening theologically in this homily. He transformed the witness of two into a triad of three, lifting her (he continually lists her first) as a model for the entire church and faithful discipleship.
From his Easter sermon:
Mary Magdalene, seeing that the stone of the tomb had been rolled away, ran to tell Peter and John. After receiving the shocking news, the two disciples also went out and — as the Gospel says — “the two were running together” (Jn 20:4). The main figures of the Easter narratives all ran! On the one hand, “running” could express the concern that the Lord’s body had been taken away; but, on the other hand, the haste of Mary Magdalene, Peter and John expresses the desire, the yearning of the heart, the inner attitude of those who set out to search for Jesus. He, in fact, has risen from the dead and therefore is no longer in the tomb. We must look for him elsewhere.
This is the message of Easter: we must look for him elsewhere. Christ is risen, he is alive! He is no longer a prisoner of death, he is no longer wrapped in the shroud, and therefore we cannot confine him to a fairy tale, we cannot make him a hero of the ancient world, or think of him as a statue in a museum! On the contrary, we must look for him and this is why we cannot remain stationary. We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life, look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters, look for him in everyday business, look for him everywhere except in the tomb.
We must look for him without ceasing. Because if he has risen from the dead, then he is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives. He is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us.
For this reason, our Easter faith, which opens us to the encounter with the risen Lord and prepares us to welcome him into our lives, is anything but a complacent settling into some sort of “religious reassurance.” On the contrary, Easter spurs us to action, to run like Mary Magdalene and the disciples; it invites us to have eyes that can “see beyond,” to perceive Jesus, the one who lives, as the God who reveals himself and makes himself present even today, who speaks to us, goes before us, surprises us. Like Mary Magdalene, every day we can experience losing the Lord, but every day we can also run to look for him again, with the certainty that he will allow himself to be found and will fill us with the light of his resurrection.
Today, Pope Francis ran into the tender embrace of a loving God.
This is the beginning of the Easter season. May we who are Christians, run toward Jesus, the one risen liberating love. Like Mary Magdalene.
May we find the arms of God wide open. And may we open our arms to the newness of life offered in the embrace, embracing all others with that same love.
May we follow Christ through and inspired by Mary Magdalene.
In the final prayer he wrote for the Easter mass, may we find ourselves in Pope Francis’ holy hope:
Sisters, brothers, in the wonder of the Easter faith, carrying in our hearts every expectation of peace and liberation, we can say: with You, O Lord, everything is new. With you, everything begins again.
It is worth noting that Pope Francis continually re-imagined and re-presented Mary Magdalene over the course of his papacy. As recently as February, in a Jubilee audience at the Vatican, he held her up as the model of discipleship and transformation for a “new world.”
The jubilee is for people and for the Earth a new beginning; everything must be rethought within the dream of God.
— Pope Francis
INSPIRATION
Breaking through the powers of darkness
bursting from the stifling tomb
he slipped into the graveyard garden
to smell the blossomed air.
Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,
that I have journeyed far
into the darkest deeps I've been
in nights without a star.
Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,
that fear will flee my light
that though the ground will tremble
and despair will stalk the earth
I hold them firmly by the hand
through terror to new birth.
Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,
the globe and all that's made
is clasped to God's great bosom
they must not be afraid
for though they fall and die, he said,
and the black earth wrap them tight
they will know the warmth
of God's healing hands
in the early morning light.
Tell them, Mary, Jesus said,
smelling the blossomed air,
tell my people to rise with me
to heal the Earth's despair.
— Edwina Gateley
Love has triumphed over hatred, light over darkness and truth over falsehood. Forgiveness has triumphed over revenge. Evil has not disappeared from history; it will remain until the end, but it no longer has the upper hand; it no longer has power over those who accept the grace of this day.
Sisters and brothers, especially those of you experiencing pain and sorrow, your silent cry has been heard and your tears have been counted; not one of them has been lost! In the passion and death of Jesus, God has taken upon himself all the evil in this world and in his infinite mercy has defeated it. He has uprooted the diabolical pride that poisons the human heart and wreaks violence and corruption on every side.
— "URBI ET ORBI" MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Easter 2025
I am not Catholic. However, great leadership is as great leadership does. Pope Francis showed forward thinking filled with heart throughout his time in ministry. I'm saddened to hear of his death.
As a Catholic woman I always felt a connection to Pope Frances. His was a heart for the people… especially those in the shadows, and his beautiful view of the earth and all creation. He had the courage to actually speak about the danger of capitalist societies and climate change.
May God give our church another humble servant to lead us with a love love for
the people and the earth🙏