By Fr. OKHUELEIGBE OSEMHANTIE A

Today, the world was in Rome. Beneath the vast embrace of Bernini?s colonnades, under the unblinking gaze of centuries of faith, Saint Peter?s Square became today the very heart of a mourning, praying, and grateful world. In a scene at once monumental and intimate, the funeral Mass of His Holiness Pope Francis unfolded?a ceremony as towering in its solemnity as the man it honoured.

The mortal remains of Pope Francis, borne before a sea of faithful and leaders of nations, lay at the threshold of the Basilica where he had so often proclaimed the Gospel of mercy, fraternity, and joy. Presiding over the sacred rites, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, offered a homily that was at once a tribute, a theological reflection, and a call to hope.

?We are gathered with sad hearts in prayer,? Cardinal Re began, ?yet sustained by the certainty of faith, which assures us that human existence does not end in the tomb, but in the Father?s house, in a life of happiness that will know no end.?

In poignant tones, the Dean gave voice to the unspoken grief and profound admiration that had, over recent days, flooded every corner of the globe. Heads of State, religious leaders, and ordinary pilgrims stood shoulder to shoulder, drawn by the magnetic humility of a pontificate that had dared to dream of a Church as wide as the arms of Christ himself.

The final public memory of Pope Francis?frail yet unbowed, blessing the crowds from the balcony of Saint Peter?s Basilica on Easter Sunday, then descending into the throng in an open-top Popemobile?remained vivid in the hearts of all.

?He chose to follow the path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life,? Re reflected, evoking the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

A Pontificate Shaped by Saint Francis

When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerged onto the loggia of Saint Peter?s on March 13, 2013, choosing the name Francis, he signaled a revolution not of doctrine, but of heart and vision. Inspired by the poverello of Assisi, Pope Francis set forth with an agenda crystal-clear: to rebuild the Church by placing the peripheries at the center, to weave mercy and fraternity into the fabric of a weary world.

?He was a Pope among the people,? Cardinal Re declared, ?with an open heart towards everyone.?

Through his 47 arduous apostolic journeys, to places torn by conflict, stricken by poverty, or forgotten by power, Pope Francis became a living parable of the Gospel he preached. His first visit to Lampedusa was a clarion cry against the globalization of indifference; his voyage to Iraq a balm to a wounded people and a bold demonstration of the possibility of interreligious fraternity.

Mercy, Fraternity, and the Joy of the Gospel

Pope Francis? pontificate revolved around twin poles: mercy and missionary joy. His Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium charted a course for a Church unafraid to get its hands dirty in the streets of the world, while his Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy reminded humanity that the heart of the Gospel is the inexhaustible compassion of God.

His environmental encyclical ?Laudato si? and the fraternal call of Fratelli tutti thundered against the tides of self-centeredness, summoning all peoples to recognize the earth as our common home and each other as brothers and sisters.

?No one is saved alone,? Pope Francis often insisted?an unflinching rebuke of a world tempted by isolationism and division.

He preached against the ?culture of waste,? championed the ?culture of encounter,? and tirelessly urged humanity to build bridges, not walls. In a century disfigured by conflicts, he was an unwearied voice for peace, a prophet of dialogue in a babel of weapons and walls.

A Pontiff Who Lived What He Preached

His charisma was not that of a distant sovereign but of a father, a brother, a friend. With gestures as simple as paying his own hotel bill on the morning after his election, and as grand as embracing refugees, the disabled, and the disenfranchised, he embodied the mercy he proclaimed.

He was the Pope who wept for the drowned, who spoke for the voiceless, who knelt before the wounds of the world. His was not merely a pontificate of words, but of tears, of smiles, of courageous, scandalous tenderness.

?Pray for me? ? The Pope?s Last Wish

In a voice that quivered with both sorrow and hope, Cardinal Re invoked Pope Francis? own familiar plea:

?Dear Pope Francis, we now ask you to pray for us.

May you bless the Church, bless Rome, and bless the whole world from heaven,

As you did last Sunday from the balcony of this Basilica,

In a final embrace with all the people of God.?

As the bells of Saint Peter?s pealed and the incense ascended into the Roman sky, the world bid farewell not merely to a pope, but to a pastor who had made tenderness a strength, and mercy a law.

And in the hearts of millions?Catholic and non-Catholic, believer and non-believer alike?the voice of Pope Francis still echoes: a call to walk together, to mend what is broken, to lift the fallen, and above all, never to forget the poor.

Today, history wrote a final page in the story of a pontificate that reawakened the ancient, burning dream of a Church that is ?a mother with an open heart.?

A man of the margins now rests in St. Mary Major, embraced by the arms of the Eternal Father.

?Fr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie Amos, PhD, is of the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

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