The “rock” of our faith is not found in “wise and persuasive words,”
Pope Francis said, but rather in the “living word” which is Christ's
death and resurrection.
Human history culminating in Christ's coming was the main focus of the
Pope's homily for Mass, celebrated in Saint Peter's Basilica on behalf
of all cardinals and bishops who have died over the last twelve months.
Jesus' death and resurrection, said Pope Francis, “represents the
culmination of the entire journey: it is the event of the resurrection
which responds to the people of God's long search, to the search of
every man and all of humanity.”
“Each of us is invited to enter into this event,” he continued. Like
Mary, the women, and the centurion, we are first called to be before the
Cross. There, we are to “listen to Jesus' cry, and his last breath, and
finally the silence,” which continues until Holy Saturday. After that,
the Holy Father continued, “we are called to go to the tomb,” and hear
the words: “He is risen. He is not here”.
The answer, the “foundation, the rock” lies here, Pope Francis said, “in
the living word of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus,” not in “wise
persuasive arguments.”
The Holy Father recalled the words of Saint Paul, saying if Jesus is
“not risen, then our faith is empty and inconsistent. However, since he
is Risen, in fact, and He is the Resurrection, therefore our faith is
full of truth and eternal life.”
“Thanks to the Word of God,” the Pope said, reflecting on the readings
for the Mass of suffrage, “this celebration is illuminated by faith in
the Resurrection.”
“All of Divine Revelation is the fruit of dialogue between God and His
people,” the Holy Father said, and “faith in the Resurrection is tied to
this dialogue,” accompanying God's people throughout history.
It is no wonder, he added, that a mystery as decisive and “superhuman”
as the Resurrection necessitated the lengthy journey ending with Jesus
Christ.
Jesus can say he is the “resurrection and the life,” Pope Francis
continued, because in Him the mystery is not only fully revealed, it is
actualized, and for the first time becomes a “definitive reality.”
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis recalled the cardinals and bishops
who have died over the past year.
“Our prayer is enriched by sentiments, memories, gratitude for the
witness of persons we knew, with whom we shared the service of the
Church,” he said.
Pope Francis closed his homily by entrusting the departed to the “gaze
of the Heavenly Father” and the intercession of Mary.
“Together with the faithful who have served here on earth, may they
delight in the Joy of the New Jerusalem.”
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...