Call for artisans of peace during Pope Francis homily
Events
Archbishop Patrick O’Regan's homily at the Memorial Mass for Pope Francis in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral was a moving moment.
Adding colour and content when summarising the life of anyone is rarely straightforward but the congregation had come to hear about Francis as a human as much as a leader and with his Sunday Mass homily yesterday, Archbishop Patrick O’Regan delivered.
“If there was ever a pope who made the mercy of God the very heartbeat of his ministry, it was Pope Francis,” the Archbishop told the congregation. “He called us to be artisans of peace.”
Pope Francis lived by the words Peace be with you the Archbishop said.
“How many times during his pontificate did he echo this peace to the world, not as a vague sentiment but as a task and a mission?”
That the Lord never tires of forgiving and it is we who tire of asking for forgiveness was a constant theme from the Pope, the Archbishop recalled, stressing that Francis said God’s mercy was not an abstract but a lived reality.
Pope Francis reached out to the margins of society and the peripheries and saw everyone as dignified and every life as sacred.
“If ever there was a pope who made the mercy of God the very heartbeat of his ministry, it was Pope Francis,” the Archbishop said.
He met Pope Francis four times.
“And each time, what struck me was not grandeur, but simplicity. Not authority, but authenticity. His eyes held the weight of the world’s sorrows, but also the spark of joy that comes from knowing one is deeply loved by God,” he said.
He talked of how Francis was not a man of half measures and how love, for the pontiff, was always inclusive.
“Everyone, Everyone, Everyone,” the pope would proclaim.
“No one was outside the reach of God’s mercy,” the Archbishop said. “Not the poor. Not the divorced. Not the LGBTQ person. Not even the hardened criminal or the weary refugee. All were welcome.”
The Archbishop was adamant that it was not all plain sailing on the Pope’s watch as he confronted historic abuse and demanded transparency. Clericalism was “a cancer” the pope said.
Archbishop Patrick O’Regan during the memorial service for Pope Francis at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral.
But it was Pope Francis’ ability to bring people together and to talk that stood out as he met with Orthodox leaders, Evangelicals, Anglicans, Jews and with Muslims.
“He taught us that unity is not uniformity, and that we can disagree without condemning. He believed, deeply, that what unites us is infinitely more important than what divides us,” the Archbishop said.
Wryly, the Archbishop said that Pope Francis reminded us that the Church is not a museum for saints but a field hospital for the wounded.
“And to us, the Church — to clergy and laity, to the young and the old — Francis leaves behind not just a legacy, but a question.
“Will we walk the path he lit for us? Will we, too, choose mercy over judgement, encounter over exclusion, accompaniment over arrogance? Will we welcome the wounded and feed the hungry, care for creation and speak boldly?”
The Archbishop ended by thanking Francis for showing us that the Resurrection is not only something we await after death but “something we live now, in every act of love, every cry for justice, every step toward peace”.
“Requiescat in pace, Papa Francesco.”
Archbishop Patrick O’Regan’s homily for Pope Francis can be read here in full.
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