Pope Francis has died. For us on the Discerning Leadership Team, this is a very personal loss. Over the past five years of our existence, Pope Francis has been a constant inspiration, a catalytic point of reference in our work of leadership development and organizational regeneration. Through our various roles in the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis even served as our “boss,” presiding over the gathering of this assembly of the People of God to discern the future together at this moment in the Church’s long history.

For me personally, he has felt not only like a much (much) older Jesuit brother, but also like a distant yet beloved grandfather who has so many children and grandchildren, a grandfather who wants, nearly impossibly, to give his attention to each one with his full presence and affection. Clearly, until his last day, this is what brought him to life- the everyday encounters with ordinary people. During the last day of the Synod on Synodality, Sandra Chaoul and I had the opportunity to share with him about our program, and in particular about an event we were hosting on building/re-building trust within the Church. He was interested, appreciative, and as usual, personable and funny. He conveyed to us that same encouragement he offered so many times throughout his papacy- “sempre avanti,” or “always forward.” Have hope, and keep going!”

When we prayerfully contemplate the scene that the Gospel of John 20:19-31 describes in today’s liturgy, despite the joy and celebration of the other disciples, how can our attention not be drawn to Thomas, who sits dejected, hopeless, perhaps even despairing in his grief. Obviously this is where the Risen Jesus’ attention is focused as well. Just as last week we focused on the way the resurrected Messiah goes to console his friends, so now he comes directly to one of his loyal yet conflicted apostles.

For those of us who know the stinging pain and aching emptiness of grief in the wake of losing a loved one, how can we not sympathize with Thomas? How can we reconcile what it feels like to know and love someone as a relative or friend in our lives with the experience of death? How can we not juxtapose existence with non-existence, as if when one dies, there is an absolute finality that precludes the possibility of anything else? And yet, and yet… God gives us hope for more.

The Risen Christ invites Thomas to use his physical senses to learn what his rational mind cannot comprehend. Christ bears the wounds of his torture and execution, and directs Thomas to touch and feel these marks of his passion. He wants Thomas to understand the continuity of his existence from one state to another, and to discover that the love that Thomas experienced in his relationship with Jesus never ended. It transcended Jesus’ physical death. Love does not end, because life changes, but does not end.

While Christ allows Thomas to use his sight and his other physical senses to learn this truth in order to believe, he declares that those of us who believe and have hope even without sight are even more blessed. This is because belief and hope have an intrinsic power to them that is qualitatively different and greater than the confidence that comes from evidence alone. Belief and hope lift us beyond the present moment, with all of its limits and trails, and carry us forward into the future.

Pope Francis had this belief, this hope, and urged us to have it as well. With all the uncertainty we face, and the natural fears and worries that come with “not knowing,” we believe that God redeems us, gives our lives and our love a future. This future is one worth laboring for just as Jesus did in his earthly life, and as the Risen Christ continues to work for us and through us in the power of the Holy Spirit.

As leaders, our belief, our hope, made even more powerful through grace, encourages and lifts others. It creates the space for an imagination of the future that is Kingdom oriented rather than catastrophic. Let us live this belief, this hope in the life we have in Christ, sharing it with others in the same spirit of consolation and love that he showed to Thomas. 

With gratitude for the life and witness of Pope Francis, we pray now, “Go, good and faithful servant, to your eternal reward!”

With you on the Easter journey,

David and the Discerning Leadership Team