Dear Parishioners,

We mourn the death of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us Francis as our shepherd these past twelve years. Receive him into your eternal banquet. Please, Lord, guide the College of Cardinals as they prepare to elect our next shepherd. May he be a good, holy priest and bishop who will teach us how to love you even more and live in the joy of the Kingdom of God. Amen.

I mentioned the following story in my daily Mass homily this past Monday. As I was walking to the sacristy to start the 8:30am Mass at St. Paul of the Cross on Monday, the day after Easter, a woman named Mary asked if I had heard the news. “What news?” I inquired, as I don’t read the news or check emails in the morning before Mass. “Pope Francis died,” she said. I was taken aback. My skepticism immediately kicked in. “Really? Are you sure about this?” “Positive,” she retorted. “It’s all over the news,” she added. I thanked her for letting me know and went back into the rectory to quickly confirm the news on my computer. Indeed, our Holy Father was dead.

I was saddened by this and celebrated Mass with a somewhat heavy heart. We were shepherdless. Then the Holy Spirit came over me and revealed the irony of all this. How similar I was to the apostles after the resurrection. Mary Magdalene was the first to announce the good news to the eleven gathered in the upper room, and they didn’t trust her word. Even St. Thomas didn’t believe it when the ten said they too had seen the Lord. Luckily I wasn’t as cynical as Thomas, not trusting the news and insisting that I fly to Rome to see the body of Francis myself. But I didn’t trust my parishioner Mary at first (it wasn’t her fault–it was mine).

Also, I didn’t completely trust in the Resurrection. I was sad about the death of Francis and somewhat off-kilter. Once I was able to break the bread at Mass, though, I was soon filled with joy and hope. Yes, we will miss Pope Francis and we thank God for his papacy. But how exciting this is! First, Francis, we pray, is with God and all the angels and saints. Second, our Church is about to enter a beautiful springtime. God will provide us with a beautiful new shepherd and our Church will blossom like the flowers in our gardens right now. Jesus wants our growth, our holiness, and our joy as much as we want it. He is faithful and he will deliver for us. May we be filled with hope and joy this Easter season. 

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I want to thank all of those individuals who made the Triduum and Easter celebrations last week very beautiful and special, especially Fr. John, our musicians, our greeters, Colleen and the OCIA group (congratulations and welcome, Dylan and Erisa), our maintenance team, and all of our staff. Thank you all for your support of Our Lady of Ransom.     

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James Wallace