It is Pope Leo’s first time at the Verano Cemetery – one of the largest in the city of Rome with its 83 hectares of extension and the city walls that run around it – on the occasion of November 2, the day on which the Church remembers all the faithful deceased. Prevost continues the tradition inaugurated by his predecessor of visiting a city cemetery on this day. Even the purple color of the vestments worn by the Pontiff and the other concelebrants, including the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Baldassare Reinarecalls the meaning of today’s anniversary.
Upon his arrival, just before 4pm, Leone is welcomed by Silvia Scozzese, vice-mayor of Rome, and places a bouquet of white roses on a tomb. Then on the sober stage set up he presides over the Mass in the space of the monumental entrance. Today, he immediately recalls at the beginning of the homily, «we are not here only to commemorate those who have passed from this world. The Christian faith, founded on Christ’s Easter, helps us to experience memory, not only as a past memory, but also and above all as a future hope. It is not so much a looking back, but rather a looking forward, towards the goal of our journey, towards the safe harbor that God has promised us, towards the endless celebration that awaits us. There, around the Risen Lord and our loved ones, we will taste the joy of the eternal banquet: “On that day – we heard in the Reading of the prophet Isaiah – the Lord of hosts will prepare for all peoples, on this mountain, a banquet of rich foods. (…) He will eliminate death forever”.
The Pope remembers all the deceased and in particular those buried at Verano: «On the day of their death they left us, but we always carry them with us in the memory of our hearts», he underlines, «and every day, in everything we experience, this memory is alive. Often there is something that refers us to them, images that take us back to what we experienced with them. Many places, even the scents of our homes, speak to us of those we loved and are no longer with us, and keep their memories alive.”
November 2, therefore, is not only a day of pain and remembrance of those who have left us but is oriented towards hope: «This “future hope”», explains the Pope, «enlivens our remembrance and our prayer on this day. It is not an illusion that serves to assuage the pain of separation from loved ones, nor a simple human optimism. It is the hope founded on the resurrection of Jesus, who defeated death and it also opened for us the passage towards the fullness of life. He – as I recalled in a recent catechesis – is “the point of arrival of our journey. Without his love, the journey of life would become an aimless wandering, a tragic mistake with a missed destination. (…) The Risen One guarantees the landing, leads us home, where we are expected, loved, saved””.
The Pope recalls that “this final destination, the banquet around which the Lord will gather us, will be an encounter of love”, because, he adds, “God created us out of love, in the love of his Son he saves us from death, in the joy of love with Him and with our loved ones he wants us to live forever. Precisely for this reason, we walk towards the goal and anticipate it, in an invincible bond with those who have preceded us, only when we live in love and practice love towards each other, in particular towards the most fragile and the poorest. In fact, Jesus invites us with these words: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”.
Pope Leo reiterates it: «Charity conquers death. In charity God will gather us together with our loved ones. And, if we walk in charity, our life becomes a prayer that rises and unites us with the deceasedbrings us closer to them, waiting to meet them again in the joy of eternity. While the pain of the absence of those who are no longer among us remains imprinted in our hearts, let us entrust ourselves to the hope that does not disappoint (Rom 5.5); we look at the Risen Christ and think of our deceased loved ones as surrounded by his light; let us allow the promise of eternal life that the Lord addresses to us to resonate within us.”
The Pontiff underlines that God, in Jesus Christ, «he defeated death forever by opening a passage of eternal life – that is, making Easter – in the tunnel of death, because, united with Him, we can also enter and cross it. He”, he continues, “awaits us and, when we meet him, at the end of this earthly life, we will rejoice with him and with our loved ones who preceded us. May this promise sustain us, dry our tears, turn our gaze forward, towards that future hope that never fails.”
At the end of the celebration the Pope prayed for the deceased with the sprinkling of the tombs with holy water and the prayer ofEternal Rest.
