Our Task Now

"I shall sing forever the Lord's mercy" (Ps 89 [88]).

A reflection from Father Tudgay for the Sunday of Divine Mercy.

During this time of our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the Church mourns our late Holy Father, Pope Francis I, Supreme Pontiff, Bishop of Rome, and Vicar of Christ. His death having occurred during Easter, his life serves as a witness to fidelity to Christ and service to his Church. For twelve years, Pope Francis challenged the Church to seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the margins of our world, following the command of Christ, Himself: What you do for the least of my brethren, you do for me. With an iron will, Pope Francis’ unwavering insistence on solidarity with the poor, the oppressed and migrants challenged the hearts and minds of Catholics throughout the world toward God’s presence in those who might be considered the least among us. As many have said recently, Pope Francis has been “the voice of the voiceless”. 

What now for us? We know that the mission of Jesus Christ that is the Catholic Church will proceed. There are laws in place now that articulate how the institutional dimension of the Catholic Church holds itself together and selects a new pope. But that isn’t our focus now. Despite all of the speculation in news and social media about who the Papabible are, the task for the Catholic Church right now is to Pray! We are in a period now of mourning the loss of our beloved Pope. Yet this mourning is contextualized by the season that we celebrate in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Pope Francis was a disciple of Jesus Christ, just like you and I are, and lived his life in the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead, just like you and I do. Our responsibility to Pope Francis, to one another, and to the Catholic Church, for these days, is to simply remain faithful to prayer. 

Finally, as the Church celebrates the Sunday of Divine Mercy on this Second Sunday of Easter, we are drawn to reflect on the reality of mercy as the fundamental disposition of God toward us and, by extension and at the insistence of our late Holy Father, the disposition that we observe, one toward the other. Our Gospel passage takes us into the upper room, where Jesus’ disciples were gathered in fear. The consequence of this specific resurrection appearance is staggering, as Jesus’ first order of business to his Apostles is to give them the power to forgive sins!  

And this is the Church. It is the instrument of God’s reconciliation of the human race with himself. Our task, following the insistence of Pope Francis, is to reconcile, to forgive. Solidarity with the poor? Reconciliation! Solidarity with migrants? Reconciliation! Solidarity with those who struggle or are ill or marginalized? Reconciliation! Solidarity with those with whom we disagree about any number of things? Reconciliation! Sacramental confession? Reconciliation! Participation in the Eucharist? Reconciliation! Personal prayer? Reconciliation! Forgiving a friend or loved one? Reconciliation! In short, everything that the Catholic Church is about is reconciliation, itself. Let’s not miss out on that, ok?!