CAMDEN – “He was God’s choice for the Church at this time,” Bishop Joseph Williams told those gathered this afternoon for a Mass celebrating the life of Pope Francis.
Parishioners, visitors, religious women and men, clergy, diocesan staff and more filled the pews of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception as Bishop Williams celebrated the 12:05 p.m. Mass. A dozen priests of the Diocese concelebrated.
“‘How I have longed to eat the Passover with you.’ These are the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, knowing that His hour was approaching and that He would have one last Passover meal with His disciples,” the Bishop said, recounting the Last Supper. “I wonder if these words can shed some light on the events [the Church has] journeyed through with our Holy Father Francis, beginning Feb. 14 when he entered the hospital and stayed there for five weeks.”
Bishop Williams related a story of his own priestly journey, when in 2007, he was asked to leave his assignment at two small, Minnesota country churches for a new and difficult assignment in South Minneapolis.
“I asked for one more Easter Triduum with my people, one more Christian Passover, and they granted that to me,” he explained. “I felt without that, things would be incomplete, unfinished. But with one more Triduum, which goes to the heart of our Christian faith, everything would be accomplished.
“I wonder if that was in our Holy Father’s heart and mind: ‘Just one more Easter Passover with my people.’ Why he struggled so hard in the hospital just to live, just to breathe. … How he longed to eat one more Passover meal with all of us.”
Bishop Williams went on to reference the day’s Gospel reading – Luke 24:13-35, the Road to Emmaus – explaining that two years ago to this very day, April 23, Pope Francis preached an Easter message on this same passage.
Upon Pope Francis’ passing, at a time when Catholics worldwide find themselves feeling much like the disciples after Jesus’ Death – confused, sorrowful and possibly abandoned – the Bishop urged all to take to heart Pope Francis’ advice:
“It is important to reread our history together with Jesus: the story of our life, of a certain period, of our days, with its disappointments and hopes,” Pope Francis told nearly 30,000 people gathered April 23, 2023, in Saint Peter’s Square. “There is a good way of doing this, and today I would like to propose it to you: it consists of dedicating time, every evening, to a brief examination of conscience.”
This Daily Examen prayer, Bishop Williams said, is a way to slow down and talk with Jesus through all of the events of a given day. “Take 10 minutes every morning. Do this prayer. God is with you. He is alive, but if we run … from one day to the next, we might think we have to do it all by ourselves. We think about what we didn’t do yesterday, all the things we have to do today, and our minds start to race. “When we stop, when we reread the day with Jesus … suddenly, new light is cast upon those events because we are seeing them with new eyes. Jesus speaks into our day and lets us know exactly what He is accomplishing.”
Pope Francis, the Bishop said, wanted this way of prayer and Jesus’ presence for the Church’s faithful. “As we reread the events of the last weeks of the Pope’s life, we understand Jesus is speaking into it, Jesus has revealed something. A final Paschal Mystery for this paschal pope.”
Like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, as the Church mourns Pope Francis, “we say to Jesus in this moment, ‘Stay with us, Lord.’ Exactly what the apostles said to Him. ‘Stay with us.’”
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