This week, the Church continues to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and the message of life and love that flows from that event. But we cannot ignore the passing of dear Pope Francis earlier today, a pastor who carried the “smell of the sheep,” a fellow Jesuit, and someone who challenged everyone to look at the marginalized of our world.
Over the last few months, I read the autobiography of Pope Francis, entitled Hope. He designated this jubilee year as a “Year of Hope,” and encouraged everyone to cultivate that virtue more deeply, in the midst of what may seem darkness.
In his Easter address yesterday, Pope Francis first said, “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. …. ” Referring to hope, he then continues: “The resurrection of Jesus is indeed the basis of our hope. For in the light of this event, hope is no longer an illusion. Thanks to Christ—crucified and risen from the dead—hope does not disappoint! … That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge; it does not delude, but empowers us.
“All those who put their hope in God, place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey. Together with the risen Jesus, they become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of Life.”
The great Polish-American Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote, “There are no proofs for the existence of … God … There are only witnesses.” The same can be said of Christ’s resurrection. There are no proofs, but we are called to be “witnesses” to the life that the Easter event invites us to embrace. We are invited to proclaim that we should not live in tombs but spread the message of hope, love, and life by the witness of our lives.
Over 12 years ago, when he first appeared to the world from the balcony of St. Peter’s, Jorge Mario Bergoglio asked the people there to pray for him and pray for Pope Emeritus Benedict. Now that he has gone to his “Father’s home,” let us continue to pray for him, and pray that he may inspire us to become witnesses to hope, to care for others, to love, to life, to building bridges not walls, to tenderness, to justice, and to Easter joy.
Dennis C. Smolarski, S.J. is a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Santa Clara University and a Jesuit.