AS WE watch TV screens giving us intimate details of Pope Francis's burial, each of us feels a personal loss, as if we had lost a wife, husband or daughter or someone so treasured. As our fingers caress each bead of the rosary we cite tonight, we are over come with regret, remorse. Although it was the will of the heavens above, we mere mortals who are not privy to the will of God the Father, or his Son Jesus Christ, must suffer this loss and pray that Pope Francis will be feted in Heaven. He will find his rightful place alongside all those who have a rightful place in Heaven, having lived the Ten Commandments and been similarly blessed Heaven and now have a permanent place there.
So, why is it that thousands, nay millions, feel the Pope's departure such a huge personal loss? It is because while he was with us, he lived a blessed life in as much as he blessed anyone he met, chatted with, celebrated with, prayed with or all those who prayed with him in the chapels, cathedrals, humble churches of the world. His holiness aside, he was also very human, like any of us, but without being fallible more often than most.
We mourn with so much pain and anguish because, knowing human nature, we know that it will not be a like-for-like replacement. It will be a new life leading the Roman Catholic Church and all of its millions. But we are confident that Heaven again will be generous.
There was always much of us ordinary folk in him, and he was not afraid to share it with us, and he did it with a huge smile and a blessed hearty laugh.
Pope Francis will not be really gone, you can find out by praying to him when you need his help!
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