Grieving Pope Francis

My mom's mom was a professional wrestler before she became a single mom in the 1960s with four kids under five. She raised them herself. She married again, to an alcoholic who hid it until they were married, and when he tried to kill her the third time, she divorced him. This was also in the 1960s. She then remarried the man I know as Papa, and he owned a scrapyard. She worked in a steel mill for over forty years and in the scrapyard with my papa. Until her dying day, my grandmother remained a pillar of strength and determination in the family, so much so in fact that, even in the shadow of her final days, we joked that it was not so much Death coming for her as her telling Death when she would go.

My dad's mom was the youngest of three but the age difference between her and her next closest sibling was fifteen years. She started drinking at age four, just a toddler, and was an alcoholic until the 1980s. She got sober in 1984. She had just earned her 25 years sober token from AA when she passed away of sepsis in 2009, two weeks after I graduated high school. She was a very creative woman, loved to laugh, and enjoyed computers. She was so good with computers. I'm wearing her perfume today as I type this.

That's the funny thing about family. In having children of our own, a piece of ourselves will always live on. We pass down bits of ourselves in our DNA to future generations. We make memories with those around us in the knowledge that those memories, too, will pass on in the traditions and words of our descendants. For centuries, families and lineages are the only legacy any of us can truly pass on to future generations.

The Church had a father figure on earth that we just lost. Pope Francis, may he be at peace in the arms of Our Lord, represented the presence of Christ and His Leadership. For years, the entire time I have been a member of the Church, Pope Francis guided us, lead us, counseled us, and challenged us. Now what do we do?

We mourn. We mourn what was. We mourn what will not be. We come to accept that this great spirit is no longer with us.

But then we move on.

We learn to be his living legacy. Like my grandmothers, Pope Francis lived his life to teach us lessons that we may carry on long after he is gone. He has no children of his own to carry on his name. We now must carry on, like we do for those in our personal lives who have gone on before us.

Be kind to others.

Strive to show mercy whenever you can.

Take care of the planet, because God told us to do so.

Open your doors to those in need.

Give freely of yourselves, just as God gave freely to us.

Make peace with your brother in Christ.

It is natural in the coming days to feel a sense of uncertainty. It is natural to wonder what will happen, what will come of doctrines and policies and attitudes we hold most dear now. But like with all those we love who have gone on before us, it is now up to us to carry on in their memory. We must continue to live out his teachings that Pope Francis may continue to live on in our lives. In this way, he is never really gone from us. In this way, we walk closer with the One Who brought this pope into our lives, into our time, that we may all see a new light of Our Lord.