Bishop Earl Fernandes reminded the congregation assembled at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral for a Mass, which was organized immediately after the announcement of the death of Pope Francis, that his passing is a sad moment but should not rob them of their Easter joy.
Bishop Fernandes celebrated the Mass on Monday evening, April 21, less than 12 hours after the world learned the shocking news that Pope Francis had died that morning in his apartment at age 88. The bishop was joined by 21 concelebrating priests, 15 deacons, seminarians, women religious in the cathedral, which was at capacity, as well as others watching the livestream or listening to a live radio broadcast.
Commending the Holy Father to God and praying that he reaches the New Jerusalem, Bishop Fernandes exhorted all those participating to “remember the promises of Easter and remember the joyful proclamation, ‘The Lord is risen. He is truly risen.’”
A portrait of Pope Francis stood simply on an easel next to the Paschal candle, which was still decorated with flowers from the Easter Sunday celebration.
“Tonight, we come before God to express our prayer for the many gracious blessings that have been poured out through Pope Francis upon the Church; to take stock of what he tried to teach us; and, to continue to read these events, including his death, in the light of the Resurrection,” Bishop Fernandes said in his homily.
The Cathedral pews reflected the diversity of the Diocese, reflecting Pope Francis’ legacy of reaching out to the margins of society. There were families with small children, young adults and the elderly, and members of the different ethnic communities now present in the Diocese.
Shunseen Nowlin, who is Baptist, attended the Mass with a friend while visiting Columbus. She said she often goes to Mass with her friend and has learned a great deal about Catholicism.
What stood out to Nowlin about Pope Francis was his humanity and his concern for the common people and the poor.
“Being African American and living in Chicago, I’ve lived through some things,” she said. “I was discriminated against and I know how that feels. And that’s what I like about him and that’s who he stood up for.”
Heather Whitt, a member of the St. Joseph Cathedral choir, brought her three young children to the Mass. Like many people, she was moved by the late pontiff’s humble example.
“I honestly always really admired how much he stood up for the poor and the marginalized of our society,” she said. “I just thought that is really a testament to how we all should be living and how we should be caring for our fellow brothers and sisters.”
Rick McMullen, wife Susan, and their 3 ½-month son, George, were among the families at the cathedral. Members of Columbus St. Patrick Church, they were attending a Mass with the bishop at the Cathedral for the first time.
“We were excited to come and hear the bishop, what he had to say, and to celebrate Pope Francis’ life,” Rick said.
The bishop emphasized Francis’ legacy of mercy and reaching out to those on the fringes in his homily.
“I thought that was a beautiful way to describe his papacy as dedicated to mercy to those either spiritually or materially poor,” Rick said.
In the homily, Bishop Fernandes recounted to the faithful that Pope Francis “dreamed of a missionary church, a church that goes forth to the spiritual and existential peripheries, a church that goes out of its comfort zone … a church that gets its hands dirty. He encouraged us to move from maintenance to mission.”
The bishop later summarized what he believed were the key lessons from Francis’ pontificate.
“One, that the Church is always missionary … and the Gospel should be joyfully proclaimed,” he said. Commenting on the women who announced the Resurrection, the Bishop noted that “a second thing we should learn is that it is everyone’s mission to proclaim the Gospel.”
Francis stressed repeatedly that Christ’s followers are always missionaries and have a responsibility to evangelize in the spirit of solidarity and fraternity.
“The third thing he wanted to teach is that we are to be a poor Church for the poor,” Bishop Fernandes said. “We need to be a poor Church for both the materially and spiritually poor.”
Francis’ legacy included a strong emphasis on being good stewards of earthly resources through the encyclical Laudato Si, and to protect the gift of human life in our “common home”.
“In Fratelli Tutti, Francis called us to recognize how each and every person on the earth, made in God’s image and likeness, is therefore a brother and sister to me,” the bishop said, “and he used the parable of the Good Samaritan to teach us about what it means to be brother or sister, to be a good neighbor.”
“Pope Francis did say many times that we are living in a throwaway culture where everything is being discarded, including people,” the bishop continued. “But we are the resistance to this throwaway culture through the virtue of solidarity and through the virtue of human fraternity.”
The way to honor Pope Francis, the bishop said, is by being faithful to the values he taught, “by not being embarrassed or ashamed to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ; by not being embarrassed by a poor person or a sinner but to rather gaze upon them with a gaze of mercy and let that gaze melt their hearts.”
Bishop Fernandes recalled that when the Jubilee Year of Mercy ended in 2016, Pope Francis stressed that mercy remain essential to the Church’s mission. It cannot be a parenthesis in the life of the Church.
“Perhaps we could honor the Holy Father by being a little more patient, a little less judgmental, a little more merciful to people in our family, to people in our religious community, to our neighbors and co-workers, and to co-workers who don’t share our politics …” the bishop said.
Closing his homily with a prayer for Pope Francis, Bishop Fernandes said that “this evening, we commend our Holy Father to the successor of the Apostles, to St. Joseph, the patron of this cathedral who is the patron also of a happy death, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the Holy Father dedicated his own priesthood.”
