Pope Francis at Mass for the Dead Says "..it will do us good to look at the cemeteries and look up. And repeat, like Job: "I know that my Redeemer is alive..." FULL TEXT Homily + Video















Celebration of the Holy Mass in the Church of the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Camposanto, 02.11.2020
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In the afternoon today, in the commemoration of all the faithful departed, the Holy Father Francis presided at the Holy Mass in the Church of the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Camposanto.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, the Pope paused in prayer at the graves of the cemetery.

We publish below the transcription of the homily that the Holy Father gave spontaneously after the proclamation of the Gospel:

Homily of the Holy Father

Defeated Job, indeed, finished in his existence, due to illness, with the skin torn off, almost on the point of dying, almost without flesh, Job has a certainty and says: "I know that my Redeemer is alive and that, last, it will rise on the dust! " (Job 19:25). At the moment when Job is further down, down, down, there is that embrace of light and heat that assures him: I will see the Redeemer. With these eyes I will see it. "I will see him, myself, my eyes will contemplate him and not another" (Job 19:27).

This certainty, in the very near final moment of life, is Christian hope. A hope that is a gift: we cannot have it. It is a gift that we must ask: "Lord, give me hope". There are so many bad things that lead us to despair, to believe that everything will be a final defeat, that after death there is nothing ... And Job's voice returns, returns: «I know that my Redeemer is alive and that, last, it will rise on the dust! […] I will see it, myself », with these eyes.

"Hope does not disappoint" (Rom 5: 5), Paul told us. Hope attracts us and gives meaning to our life. I do not see the afterlife, but hope is the gift of God that draws us to life, to eternal joy. Hope is an anchor that we have on the other side, and we, clinging to the rope, support each other (cf. Heb 6: 18-20). “I know that my Redeemer is alive and I will see him”. And this, to repeat it in moments of joy and in bad moments, in moments of death, so to speak.

This certainty is a gift from God, because we can never have hope with our own strength. We have to ask for it. Hope is a free gift that we never deserve: it is given, it is given. It is grace.

And then, the Lord confirms this, this hope that does not disappoint: "All that the Father gives me will come to me" (Jn 6:37). This is the purpose of hope: to go to Jesus. And "he who comes to me, I will not cast out because I came down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me" (Jn 6, 37-38). The Lord who receives us there, where the anchor is. Life in hope is living like this: hold on, rope in hand, strong, knowing that the anchor is there. And this still does not disappoint, it does not disappoint.

Today, in the thoughts of so many brothers and sisters who have left, it will do us good to look at the cemeteries and look up. And repeat, like Job: "I know that my Redeemer is alive, and I will see him, myself, my eyes will contemplate him and not another". And this is the strength that gives us hope, this free gift which is the virtue of hope. May the Lord give it to all of us.

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