April 21, 2025
Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere
Prayer on the day of Pope Francis‘ death
Reading of the meditation prepared by Andrea Riccardi on the occasion of Pope Francis’ death
Mt 28:1-8
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, 2 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.
The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.
Then the angel said to the women in reply,
"Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you."
Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples
Dear brothers and sisters,
there was a great earthquake and the grieving, uncertain, and stunned women who went to visit the sepulcher of the crucified, saw an angel sitting over the stone; his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
Today, in the early morning of the Monday of the Angel, in full Easter light, our Pope Francis passed away after a long illness.
Yesterday with an immense effort, he wanted to greet the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, passing among them. Then he went up to the balcony of the Basilica to bless – with a faint voice – Urbi et Orbi (which means in Latin the City, Rome, and the World).
His last blessing is an Easter one. He gathered his last strength to die among the people, like he had always lived.
A gesture of faithfulness till the end.
Every Church of the book of Revelation has an angel. Today the angel of the Church of Rome, pope Francis, tells us who are frightened like those women, uncertain about the Church and the world:
“Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.”
The death of pope Francis, who has accompanied and led us since 2013, scares us: the world is not in an easy situation and the future is not clear.
But he repeats to us: “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.”
Today more than ever, we need to follow the crucified Christ who is risen.
The death of the pope does not lead us so much to the tomb, but to a life that does not end. For the Orthodox faithful, death at Easter is the most beautiful one as it is already invested with the light of the Resurrection.
In the silence of death, the pope’s gestures resound: the last ones. First of all, his life for a church of the people, the one gathered in St. Peter’s square and well beyond that, the people of the entire world. He has lived for a borderless people and the people of God will remember him.
How can we forget his words in the midst of the pandemic; he alone in St. Peter square, thinking about the people who was distressed, scattered, and sick? I remember also that during the pandemic he showed to be a friend of science and medicine and not caught up in the superstition that affected various Christian sectors.
In St. Peter Square he said:
“Faith begins when we realize we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves we sink, we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars. Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them. Like the disciples, we will experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck. Because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.”
He has been a great witness of Christian hope, especially for the poorest, because it needs to be said that this pope has gathered the Church of the poor, not that of assistance to the poor, but of the poor in the midst of the Church. It is not by chance his last exit from the Vatican, when he was already very sick, was to visit the prisoners in the Roman prison of Regina Coeli. He went there on Holy Thursday to wash symbolically their feet (as he was not able to do it anymore).
He has been the pope of migrants against any wall, he denounced the globalization of the indifference from the shipwreck in Lampedusa and Lesbos. This is why he was also loved little, if not hated or mocked by some. He has confirmed us, as a community, in the love for the poor and the peripheries.
Francis felt that this is the hour of the Church, the only boat that can save the world from inhumanity. As soon as he was elected, he invited his people to go out with the Evangelii Gaudium, the joy of the Gospel, the manifest of his pontificate:
“The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who “primerean” take the initiative, who are involved and accompany, who bear fruit and rejoice. “Primerear – take the initiative, please forgive my neologism.”
We could say much of him in this time in which like the women, we are afraid of the future, taken by the grief of the pope’s death but also in a moment in which the Gospel urges us to be faithful to a greater joy: it is the joy Francis has preached since his first steps, the joy of Easter, the joy of not being dominated by fear and pessimism.
Pope Francis lives in his Lord and we give thanks to God for the beautiful years we have spent with him, a teacher of faith and life, a guide of hope, a friend of the poor and communicator of the joy of the Gospel.
Pope Francis pray for us!
