During this Easter Season, we have the peculiar opportunity to celebrate Jesus’ triumph over sin and death, and to mourn the loss of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. This is not a unique opportunity for many in our Church. The last Pope to die in office, Pope St. John Paul II, also died within the Octave of Easter. And our last Pope to die (after his resignation) was Pope Benedict XVI who died within the Octave of Christmas. We see in these deaths the juxtaposition of life and death in the Christian life as we journey as pilgrims to our heavenly home.
Death is a reality for all human beings. None can escape it. It is a result of sin. God is immortal. We were made in his image and likeness, thus we were to be immortal as well. But sin is choosing anything that is not God to be our God. It separates us from Him. Sin cuts off from the source of life. When we cut ourselves off from the source of life, the natural reaction is death. We all sin, so we all die.
But God did not want this for us. He intended for us to have life. He loves us so much that He wants us to have His life even if we have rejected His life. He gives us His eternal life by taking the very consequence of sin and making it the doorway into eternal life. Because Jesus experienced death, even though He never separated Himself from God through sin, He deserved to be resurrected and given eternal life. He takes up His own life through divine justice. Then Jesus extends that life to us so that all who die in Him will rise with Him in an act of divine mercy. Now all who die, can have eternal life in Jesus.
This is the beautiful juxtaposition of our faith, and it is what we have been able to experience in the deaths of our last three popes. Each of them died, as we all will. They were sinners, as we all are. But the good news for us is that God has joined us in His incarnation, and raised us to be one in Him through His paschal mystery. Man can become God, through God. And death is the doorway into this life.
So as we celebrate Easter and mourn our Holy Father, we must celebrate the tension. Death is worth mourning because of where it comes from, but eternal life is worth hopeful anticipation and joyful celebration because it is the greatest gift that has ever been offered to us. And as we journey this earth, the juxtaposition of life and death is the catalyst for a life of faith and trust in God. So the more that we embrace the juxtaposition, the more we embrace the mystery of our loving God. May perpetual light shine on him, the soul of Pope Francis, and may we have eternal life through a happy and holy death.
