In life there are “goodbyes” and “final farewells”, such as for those people who are forced to leave their homes - the Rohingya of Myanmar, Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq - and the final farewell that awaits us all. That is the moment when we entrust our soul, our story our loved ones to God.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In life there are “goodbyes” and “final farewells”, such as for those people who are forced to leave their homes - the Rohingya of Myanmar, Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq - and the final farewell that awaits us all. That is the moment when we entrust our soul, our story our loved ones to God, said Pope Francis this morning during Mass in Casa Santa Marta.  He was reflecting on Jesus speech before His Passion and Paul’s farewell at Miletus before going to Jerusalem.

"Jesus takes his leave, Paul takes his leave and this helps us to reflect on when we take our leave”. In our lives, he added, "there are so many goodbyes", big and little, and there is "so much suffering, so many tears in some of them." "We think today of those poor Rohingya of Myanmar. When leaving their homeland to escape persecution they did not know what would happen to them. And for months they are in a boat, there ... They arrive in a city, where they give them water, food, and say: 'go away, go away'. This is a goodbye. Incidentally, today there is a great existential goodbye. Think of the Christians and Yazidis, who think they will never return to their land, because they were chased away from their homes. Today”.

There are big and little goodbyes in life, such as "the mother who says goodbye, who embraces her son as he heads off to war and who wakes up every day with the fear "that is someone is going to say, 'Thank you so much for son’s generosity in laying down his life for his country'." And there is "the final farewell we all must make, when the Lord calls us to the other side. Think of this."

Life’s great goodbyes, "the final farewell, are not 'see you soon', 'see you later', 'until we meet again', which are goodbyes that mean one knows when he or she will return, maybe immediately or after a week: with these goodbyes no one knows if or when they will return".

And the theme saying goodbye is also present in art, in songs. "One in particular comes to mind, it is from the Alps, when the captain bids a final farewell to his soldiers: The Captains testament. Do I think of my great goodbye, when I won’t mean ‘see you shortly’ or 'see you later', but 'goodbye'? These two texts say the word 'goodbye'. Paul are two goodbyes in which Paul entrusts to God his followers and Jesus entrusts to God his disciples who remain in the world. 'They are not of the world, but keep them. Entrust to the Father, to entrust to God: this is the origin of the word 'goodbye'. We say 'goodbye' only in those great departures, be it those in life, or the last one".

 "I believe - he continued - that with these two icons - that of Paul, crying, kneeling on the beach, with everyone there, and Jesus, sad, because he is facing his Passion, with his disciples, weeping in his heart - we can think our own final farewell. It would do us good. Who will be the person who will close my eyes? ". "What do I leave? Both Paul and Jesus, both of them, carry out a sort of examination of conscience in these passages: 'I did this, this, this ...' And what did I do? It is a good thing to imagine at that time. When will it be, we don't know, but the time will come for us in which 'see you later', 'see you soon', 'until tomorrow', 'see you again' becomes 'goodbye’. Am I prepared to entrust myself to God?  To say that word that is the word of entrusting from the son to the Father".

The Pope concluded with an exhortation to meditate on the readings of Jesus and that of Paul and "to think that one day" we must also say that word, "goodbye": "To God I commend my soul; I entrust to God my story; I entrust my loved ones to God; I entrust everything to God. " "May Jesus who died and rose again - was his final invocation - send us the Holy Spirit, so we learn that word, we learn to use it, but existentially, with all our strength: the final word, goodbye."

 

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