by Fra Emiliano Antenucci
Pope Francis was a mystical of the action, a practical theologian of the people, a shepherd until the end among the people (his last appearance around with the Mobile Pope in St. Peter’s Square). He went up to heaven with “The smell of sheep” and took place until the last breath for world peace. Nobody highlights that behind the Pope of the people, there is his nature of good Jesuit who soon got up at four in the morning, he loved silent silence and prayer, he meditated the Word of God, let himself be looked at by the Madonna, very expert of discernment and was essential in everything. His spiritual writings as master of the novices and by the provincial of the Company of Jesus are very interesting. Few people know that when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires he wrote a pastoral letter of advent everything about silence.
From silence the authentic and hope of the faith are born. True charity arises from silence, without hypocrisy and without narcissism. The trick of the popes, but also of all the saints, was an intense basic spiritual life, this was the secret of our dear and beloved Pope.
I can testify from the personal interviews made with Pope Francis, all this, up to insistence with a new sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna del Silenzio, who has become one of his personal devotions. There are various icons inside the Vatican from the elevator of the courtyard of San Damaso, in Santa Marta, but also in his personal desk. The Virgin of Silence invites the inner silence, but also against the chatter, one of the most bad “sport” practiced in all environments, and perhaps within the church even more, because it is the weapon that the devil uses to destroy people, families and communities.
In a photo that took him inside the coffin and that highlighted his hands I wrote on the Mi page this meditation:
“Your hands, dear Pope Francis, touched an infinity of people, touched my hands and your embrace remained indelible in me forever. Your hands have prayed, blessed, written, phoned, worked for the holy people of God. You thought of everyone, from the heads of state to the poorest of the poor. I remember the four keys to every interview:” How are you? I love you! Go ahead! Greet me your mom! “
I reflected that as Padre Pio, of which he was so devoted, Pope Bergoglio, will make more death from dead than live, just see the river of people who populate Rome these days.
Pope Francis was a great man, a great pope and great prophet, and I believe that we still have to meditate on his gestures, his words and his magisterium.
For me, the best “mourning elaboration” for Pope Francis is to get up every morning with the strength and joy of the Risen One, loving silence, prayer, Holy Mass, Holy Rosary, letting yourself be looked at by the Madonna, meeting all the categories of people and treating them as unique and unrepeatable with respect and with love. The best way to honor Pope Francis is to return to the essentials, to the sobriety of life, to have a great sense of humor, make gestures of tenderness, peace and mercy. The best way is also humility, not to love power, the career, but to meet the last, but to seek the last uncomfortable places and that nobody wants in the Church.
