Mourning Pope Francis
Sister Agnes Lanfermann, Society Coordinator, shares the following words about Pope Francis as his death is mourned around the world.
"Pope Francis is no more alive among us in our earthen realties; he has joined the choir of the living who have died before him.
His voice for peace and justice will for ever be silent. The world will miss his consistent ways to include the poor and the neglected, those who have been abandoned and imprisoned, and those who are small and gifted with special challenges.
His fourth and last encyclical “Dilexit nos” retraces the tradition of “the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ,” the tenderness of faith, the joy of serving and the fervour of mission. Pope Francis was convinced that Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, has gone before us and that he is waiting for us with unconditional love, asking only to offer us His love and friendship. Now we wish and pray that Pope Francis may experience that loving heart of Jesus to the full.
His hope was nurtured by encountering the love of Christ, then, as he said, “We become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognising the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home.”
This loving faith in contemplation and discerned action are part of his heritage that we are invited to continue to live in our healing mission as Medical Mission Sisters. Pope Francis said, “In the presence of the Heart of Christ," we can ask God, “to have mercy on this suffering world” and pour upon it “the treasures of His light and love, so that our world, which presses forward despite wars, socio-economic disparities, and uses of technology, that threaten our humanity, may regain the most important and necessary thing of all: the heart”.
The Importance of the Heart
The Bible speaks of the heart as a core “that lies hidden beneath all outward appearances”, a place where we are truly ourselves.
It is the heart that unites the fragments and “makes all authentic bonding possible, since a relationship not shaped by the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation caused by individualism”. We and the world can change beginning from the heart.
Pope Francis recalled that the missionary commitment of Charles de Foucauld made him a “universal brother”, allowing himself to be shaped by the heart of Christ, to shelter the whole of suffering humanity in his fraternal heart.
Entrusting ourselves as Medical Mission Sisters and Associates together to the heart of Christ, over the ruins accumulated by hatred and violence, we can live love daily in being a healing presence at the heart of a wounded world. Love will continue to be poured into our human hearts, to build up the body of Christ, and realise a society of justice, peace and love.
With gratitude for his service of love and his unwavering faith in the overflowing dance in the heart of the triune God, let us join with so many across the world in the concluding Prayer of Dilextit nos:
“I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that His Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary, and fraternal world. Until that day when we will rejoice in celebrating together the banquet of the heavenly kingdom in the presence of the Risen Lord, who harmonises all our differences in the light that radiates perpetually from his open heart. May He be blessed forever!”