Holy Father Pope Francis while addressing the faithful gathered at Casa Santa Marta for his homily conveyed that the Church invites us to reflect on the end of the world but also on the end of our own lives. His Holiness reflected on the day’s reading, where the Lord speaks about the daily lives of men and women in the days before the great Flood or in the days of Lot- they lived normal lives, eating and drinking, doing business, marrying but the day of manifestation of the Lord came and things changed.
As reported by Vatican radio, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that “The Church asks us to pause for a moment and think about death, we should not become accustomed to earthly life as though it were eternity. A day will come when you will be taken away to go with the Lord and so it is good to reflect upon the end of our life.” Further, His Holiness added, “Thinking about death is not a gruesome fantasy, whether it is gruesome or not depends on me, and how I think about it- but what will be, will be. We will meet the Lord- this is the beauty of death, it will be an encounter with the Lord, it is Him coming to meet you, saying ‘Come, come, you who are blessed by My Father, come with me.’”
Holy Father concluded his homily with a story about an elderly priest who was not feeling well and when he went to the doctor, the doctor told him he was sick. “Perhaps we’ve caught it in time to treat it,” the doctor told him. “We will try this treatment and if this doesn’t work, we’ll try something else and if that doesn’t work, we will begin to walk together and I will accompany you to the very end.” His Holiness highlighted that like the doctor, we too, must accompany one another in this journey.
