We just learned the morning after Easter as we're celebrating Jesus Christ's great conquering of sin, Satan and death, that our Holy Father has gone home. To receive his eternal reward, a reward that is richly deserved after a life of service to the church in a variety of capacities in his native Argentina, and certainly since 2013 as the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
He was born George Mario Bergoglio, and everything changed on March the 13th, 2013, when, in the conclave following the resignation of retirement to Pope Benedict the 16th, he was selected to become Our Holy Father, the 266th man to wear the fisherman's ring and to follow in the succession of Saint Peter. It was amazing. On Easter Sunday morning, when I woke up to turn on the television, as I was getting ready for Easter masses and see him appear on the balcony, one last time.
We didn't know, of course, that that would be the last time he would give his blessing to the city of Rome and to the world.
and then to get into the Popemobile one last time to greet the pilgrims in the square. It is almost as if, in retrospect, that he had some idea that this might be his long farewell and a chance to say goodbye to the people he loved so much in the church he served so well.
What I admired most about Pope Francis is his great love of the poor. He truly left the gospel the way Jesus did. Jesus was born poor, lived poor, and died poor. I remember the day after Pope Francis was selected in that conclave of 2013, when he decided to ride on the bus with the other cardinals instead of riding in a limousine. When he decided to go and pay his own hotel bill using his own money instead of sending someone else to do it for him. And then, of course, as we've seen him throughout the years, rather than traveling around in a Mercedes. So Rolls Royce, Red Jaguar, he traveled around in a Fiat Chico, Trento, as they say in Rome, a little car for a very humble and holy priest.
He made his impact on his love of refugees, his love of the poor, his care for the environment.
And like Jesus telling us that we have a responsibility to care for the least among us. His legacy will be great and he will be dearly missed. The church will continue to mourn his death and pray for the repose of his soul before he is buried, at Saint Mary Major, representing his great love for the Blessed Mother Tomb.
He entrusted his whole priesthood and his papacy and the Holy Spirit of God. That third person of the Trinity already knows who is going to be his successor. It's a reminder to us and in the Catholic Church, we have an unbroken line of succession that goes right back to when Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom, to Saint Peter.
That gives us some confidence that God is in charge, the Holy Spirit is leading the way, and the risen Christ will bring Francis home to heaven, where we hope to join him again someday.
ALL ROADS CATHOLIC MEDIA
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