I found it very fitting that Pope Francis passed away right before Divine Mercy Sunday, thus giving us a chance for greater reflection on his ministry as we priests were also working on our homilies for Divine Mercy Sunday.
The strongest theme throughout Pope Francis’ papacy — and his episcopacy — arguably, was mercy. His episcopal motto was Miserando atque eligendo, roughly translated, “Having mercy, [Jesus] called him.” Pope Francis called mercy “Jesus’ most important message” (The Name of God is Mercy, 5). Every 25 years, the Church has a Jubilee Year — right now, we are in the middle of the Jubilee of Hope. But sometimes, the Holy Father thinks there is a theme that is so important that it cannot wait until the next quarter of a century. So, back in 2016, we had an Extraordinary Jubilee Year, the Jubilee of Mercy. The Holy Father just couldn’t wait to ask the faithful to encounter the Lord’s mercy.
When Pope Francis became pope, I was in my third year of seminary, and my first year living in Rome. I had served for Pope Benedict XVI six weeks before he announced his resignation. Then, on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, I was hanging out in St. Peter’s Square, skipping school (as were many other students, and some professors) when the white smoke came up, announcing, “Habemus Papam!” — "We have a Pope!"
For his first few years, I actually read everything Pope Francis said. And I mean everything. I printed it all out and killed lots of trees! (And then the Holy Father came out with his encyclical on the environment, so I had to stop printing them out!) I met Pope Francis a couple of times, served Mass for him, and had him bless my chalice right before I was ordained a priest. I was then ordained during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
I think I know Pope Francis’ thought quite well. I also know that he drove a lot of people nuts … especially Americans. So, let me try to explain Pope Francis, and maybe it will help us to understand what he was up to for the last dozen years.
Pope Francis
First and foremost, Pope Francis was not American. America is a powerhouse in the economy, but money is the currency of the world, not the currency of God. America only has about 4 to 4.5% of the world’s souls, and most of those souls are not even Catholic. So, we always have to be very careful not to twist the Holy Father and his thoughts into an American way of thinking, and place American labels on him.
So, Pope Francis is not an American, and therefore, he does not think like an American. Secondly, Pope Francis is a Jesuit … and therefore he doesn’t think like anyone!
When I was in seminary at Sacred Heart in Detroit, I had a Jesuit for a couple of classes. The first week, he just asked questions all day: “What about this? What about that?” The next week, he asked questions all day. A couple months into the class, someone raised his hand and asked, “Father, you keep throwing all these questions at us; are we ever going to get to the answer?” “Yes,” Father answered, “of course we will!”
The next two months, nothing but questions! Someone asked again: “Father, are we going to get to any answers?” “Yes, last class.” We show up for the last week of class, and question, question, question! At the very end of class, Father said: “And the answer is Jesus Christ on the Cross!” We all thought, “That’s it?!!! Sixteen weeks of questions, and then we spend at most five minutes on an answer?!”
That summer, I told that story to a group of priests, and one said: “That’s a Jesuit for you. He’s more interested in the question than he is in the answer.” Honestly, that is Pope Francis! He is a good Jesuit. He is more interested in the question than he is in the answer.
Encounter
And there was a point to this, there was a method to his madness. Pope Francis was trying to get us to encounter. He always was trying to foster a “culture of encounter.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen would always talk about outer truths and inner truths. An outer truth is something outside yourself, something you set out to master, such as 2+2=4. I can get that. I can “master” that. You can count up the pews in a church. You can master that, but it’s probably not going to change your life.
An inner truth, on the other hand, is that which comes inside, and masters you. That should be God … but we have to encounter Him.
Often, when we get the answer, when we figure something out, when we “master” something, we go: “OK! Got it!” And we move on. But questions are funny things. You have to wrestle with them. They kind of force you into an encounter.
Pope Benedict wrote how in our technological world, we are so used to mastering everything. Back in the day, people had to be more humble. A couple hundred years ago, you wouldn’t know if a hurricane was coming. Even if you did know, you wouldn’t be able to escape it. And there wasn’t much you could do to defend yourself from hurricanes. You lost your house and all your possessions. That hurricane had its way with you, “mastered” you.
Today, to a large extent, we have mastered even hurricanes: We know when they’re coming, we can run from them, and we can build buildings that are pretty hurricane proof.
We are so used to mastering everything, that we just cannot stand being mastered anymore. This becomes a real problem when we encounter God — Who cannot be mastered. He is the Master. We’re not even sure how to encounter the Good Lord anymore.
Pope Benedict saw all this as detrimental to the faith, our ability to have faith, our ability to know the loving God. Pope Francis saw this, too. That’s why he wasn’t afraid of a little confusion. He wasn’t afraid to throw out a question, to get people wrestling, to get people encountering.
Pope Francis was trying to encourage a “culture of encounter.” A culture of encountering real things: Mainly God, and each other. The day after Pope Francis’ election, we had our weekly formation meeting at the seminary. The priest who gave the formation lecture was old and in poor health. He told us all how he had sat in his room and watched it all on TV. He could see it better, but we had a more real experience. We were there in person.
Pope Francis many times critiqued how we are always on our phones. He’d talk about how sad it was to see a family at a restaurant, but they were not really together, each one on his or her phone. There was a lack of presence. A lack of being there, encountering each other. And, as C.S. Lewis points out in The Weight of Glory, aside from the Blessed Sacrament, there is nothing more real and more sacred than the person right in front of you. But, as Pope Francis pointed out, so often we are on our phones, not encountering that sacred reality right in front of us.
Pope Francis also critiqued how crazy people were about their pets. He named himself after St. Francis of Assisi. The Franciscans are known for their love of animals, and Pope Francis loved animals, too, but he pushed back many times on how people treat their animals like human beings.
A few years back, as the Holy Father was greeting people, a woman asked: “Will you bless my baby?!” Pope Francis lit up: “Oh yes, of course!” She turned around, grabbed the “baby,” turned back to the Holy Father, and the “baby” was a little dog! Pope Francis scolded her: "That’s not a baby, that’s a dog! There are starving kids all over the world, and you’re treating that dog like a baby. There are naked children all over India, and that dog is wearing clothes!"
It’s a grave poverty how our culture is moving away from having children, and replacing them with pets. You can “master” a dog, you can’t “master” another human being. You have to encounter him.
For a number of reasons, Pope Francis was very critical of all the gender ideology stuff going around. One, because it starts getting away from nature, and denying reality. And — related to this — once our reality has been denied, we start losing the culture of encounter (once there is no reality, there is nothing to encounter).
Last year, addressing the international conference, "Man-Woman: The Image of God," Pope Francis said: “I would like to highlight something: It is very important for there to be this encounter, this encounter between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences. I asked for studies to be made on this ugly ideology of our time, which erases differences and makes everything the same; to erase difference is to erase humanity. Man and woman, on the other hand, stand in fruitful ‘tension’” (March 1, 2024).
Pope Francis pushed back on all this gender ideology stuff, but from the angle of encounter. Men and women are different. Those differences are good; they lead to a “fruitful tension." When men start fleeing their masculinity, and women start fleeing their femininity, it’s going to “erase humanity.” The self will be destroyed, and there will be nothing left to encounter.
Pope Francis was also very practical. Living in Rome, there are lots of beggars. Pope Francis would challenge us on how we interacted with them. He would say: "Do you place a Euro in a beggar's hand, like he's a human being? Or do you throw it at him, like he's a dog?" Again, the Holy Father was challenging us on reality — just what a human being is — and on encounter. Often, beggars would see us just as big American wallets walking down the street. That dehumanizes us. And we were often tempted to see them as dogs, just throw a Euro at them so they go away. Pope Francis challenged us to overcome this, and have real, human encounters with everyone.
Mercy
So, Pope Francis was all about encountering, that “culture of encounter,” encountering real things, each other. And particularly encountering God, and most especially, encountering God in His mercy. During the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis came out with a book, The Name of God is Mercy. I really like the title. It’s not just that God is merciful. God is Mercy. Mercy is God’s identity. When you encounter His Mercy, you encounter God. And when you encounter God, you encounter His Mercy. We are getting to the very reality of God Himself.
Pope Francis wrote: “The message of Jesus is mercy. For me … it is the Lord’s strongest message” (ix). This only makes sense. Jesus didn’t come to condemn us — we were already condemned! If Jesus wanted to condemn us, He just wouldn’t have come at all. The whole reason Jesus came was to save us … to save us from our sins. Jesus came out of mercy and for mercy.
One of Pope Francis’ most common lines — which I find very helpful myself — is: “The Lord never tires of forgiving: never! It is we who tire of asking him for forgiveness.” Most of us bring the same sins to confession month after month after month! That's OK; don’t stop! Don’t give up! The Lord never tires of forgiving!
Another great line: “God forgives not with a decree but with a caress.” God is a hugger!
This reminds me of my Grandpa Tomaszycki. I don't know how to describe it, but he just gave the best hugs! What do you think God’s hugs are like? … When we come to confession, God forgives us with a hug.
Pope Francis gave a definition of mercy — which I find surprising, even a little bit strange: Mercy means “opening one’s heart to wretchedness.” We don’t deny our sins. God doesn’t deny our sins. But He opens His heart. We can hand over our wretchedness, and He takes us in and heals us.
Pope Francis was asked why humanity is in such need of mercy, and he answered: “Because humanity is wounded, deeply wounded. Either it does not know how to cure its wounds or it believes that it’s not possible to cure them.” We all fall into these doubts: "Am I actually forgiven? Will I ever really be healed?" Martin Luther actually thought that humanity was irredeemably broken. He saw mankind as a pile of dung. Jesus sprinkles grace — like snow — on top of you, and He accepts you into heaven, kind of begrudgingly ... like snow covered dung, Luther thought.
As Catholics, this is not what we believe. We believe in redemption. Jesus is not only our Savior; He is also our Redeemer. And He redeems us through mercy.
Have you ever noticed that throughout the Gospels, no one ever stays dead in the presence of Jesus? Every time a dead person is presented to Jesus, life enters into him.
Our sins, our wretchedness, they kill us, they bring death. (That’s what sins does! Don’t ever belittle the seriousness of sin!) That’s why we need to go to confession, and go to confession often. Confession is the most concrete place where we encounter God’s mercy. He brings us back to life, with a big hug!
Conclusion
If I could recommend two things to pray about and do during these days of mourning for Pope Francis and transitioning to the next Holy Father — whoever it is that the Holy Spirit will give us — it would be these:
1.) Keep working on the culture of encounter. Put down the phones! Encounter your loved ones. Encounter the people right in front of you.
Encounter God's mercy. If we are not encountering God's mercy, I don't know if we are really encountering God. Make an examination of conscience every night, and ask for God’s forgiveness. And come to confession at least once a month. Get that big “hug” from God!
2.) Pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis. Both times I met Pope Francis in person, he asked me to pray for him (he asked this of everyone). Well, this is a good time. Holy Mother Church asks us to be very particular in praying for a deceased pontiff until about nine days after his funeral. We are being asked specifically to pray the Rosary for Pope Francis.
And if we could throw in a prayer for the next pope, that wouldn't hurt either.
God Love You, Pope Francis!
Fr. David Tomaszycki is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He currently serves as priest-secretary to Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger.
