Pope: Before the riddle of death, believers too must be constantly converted
Celebrating Mass in suffrage for the cardinals and bishops who died in the last year, Francis said: "We are called to leave behind the visible world we take for granted, our usual, commonplace ways of thinking, and to entrust ourselves entirely to the Lord who tells us: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26)".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Before the riddle of death, believers too must be constantly converted", we must overcome the idea of death as total annihilation and transcend the visible to entrust himself to the resurrection promised by Jesus "not as a species of a mirage on the horizon, but like an event already present, which mysteriously involves us already now”.
The words of Jesus: « I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die "(Jn 11: 25-26)" were remembered by Pope Francis in the mass celebrated today for the 6 cardinals and 163 bishops who died in the year.
In the rite, celebrated at the altar of the chair in St. Peter's Basilica, Francis said that "our faith in the resurrection neither ignores nor masks the very human bewilderment we feel in the face of death ". And "God's loving designs for his chosen ones completely escape those who have worldly reality as their only horizon".
" As we pray for the Cardinals and Bishops deceased in the course of this last year, we ask the Lord to help us consider aright the parable of their lives. We ask him to dispel that unholy grief which we occasionally feel, thinking that death is the end of everything. A feeling far from faith, yet part of that human fear of death felt by everyone. For this reason, before the riddle of death, believers too must be constantly converted. We are called daily to leave behind our instinctive image of death as the total destruction of a person. We are called to leave behind the visible world we take for granted, our usual, commonplace ways of thinking, and to entrust ourselves entirely to the Lord who tells us: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26). These words, accepted in faith, make our prayer for our deceased brothers and sisters truly Christian. They enable us to have a truly realistic vision of the lives they lived, to understand the meaning and the value of the good they accomplished, their strength, their commitment and their generous and unselfish love. And to understand the meaning of a life that aspires not to an earthly homeland, but to a better, heavenly homeland (cf. Heb 11:16).”
“Prayers for the faithful departed, offered in confident trust that they now live with God, also greatly benefit ourselves on this, our earthly pilgrimage. They instil in us a true vision of life; they reveal to us the meaning of the trials we must endure to enter the kingdom of God; they open our hearts to true freedom and inspire us unceasingly to seek eternal riches. In the words of the Apostle, we too “have confidence, and… whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Cor 5:8-9). ".
“The life of a servant of the Gospel is shaped by the desire to be pleasing to the Lord in all things. This is the criterion of our every decision, of every step we take. And so we remember with gratitude the witness of the deceased Cardinals and Bishops, given in fidelity to God’s will. We pray for them and we strive to follow their example. May the Lord continue to pour forth upon us his Spirit of wisdom, especially during these times of trial. Especially when the journey becomes more difficult. He does not abandon us, but remains in our midst, ever faithful to his promise: “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20)".
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