I felt like I was in Rome in St. Peter’s square, praying and singing with the other pilgrims who had come to be with the Holy Father in the last hours of his life. My sister, Cathy and I, lit candles and placed them by the television set. We prayed the psalms, sang hymns of Easter, and waited eagerly for any news concerning our Holy Father. In some ways, I re-lived the last hours of my father’s life, keeping vigil with him as the cancer slowly took his life. Not until the end, when I watched my Dad take his final breath, did I realize that it was the peace of God, not the cancer that finally took Dad home. With the same love I had for Dad, I prayed for our dear Holy Father, imagining his agony, imagining his sweet surrender, imagining that I was there to wipe the sweat from his brow and kiss him tenderly on the cheek. The Holy Father was a good Papa, a loving Papa, a tender Papa.....He was a Papa who knew our hearts.
Let us never forget what the Holy Father said to us when he wrote his encyclical, “The Gospel of Life:”
“I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord...” (99 Evangelium Vitae)
Through the Holy Father, we heard the invitation of Christ to come home, to come home to His mercy and receive new life. Through the Holy Father, we heard our call to live as women of mercy, women who believe in a Risen Lord, women who witness to others the power of God’s love to transform tears of grief into songs of joy.
In these days following our Holy Father’s death, I hold fast to the words he spoke which began his pontificate: “Be not afraid.” God is with us, Emmanuel, in all our fears, our sadness, our distress, our questions, our failures. Yes, God is with us, for all these moments have already been offered to God, the Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Now Jesus lives in all of our tears and songs….We are never alone….Jesus is with us forever.
And so we pray,
“Father, into your hands we commend our dear Papa, Pope John Paul II. With the help of Your grace, may we never forget to trust you always even when we are afraid. For Christ is our hope, our joy, our Beloved forever!!”
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