“In Memory of Pope Francis,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

May 2, 2025 / 4 Iyyar 5785

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection, as we make our way toward Shabbat. You can listen to it as a podcast here.

One of the first stops to visit when we arrived off the plane in Casablanca was a Catholic church, Notre-Dame de Lourdes. In a Muslim country, we thought it was curious to step off the bus into a small plaza that would lead into a very large sanctuary. It turns out serendipity led us there. As we arrived, we learned the sad news that Pope Francis had died. We stood in the courtyard and considered the moment. There was a plaque that conveyed a familiar idea: Pray as if everything depends on God. Act as if everything depends on you.

The life and passing of Pope Francis deserved our attention. Much would be offered by others in his honor and memory in those coming days. Before we entered into the sanctuary, I felt the desire to lift up what I believed was the essence of this important figure in the world. This was not about the institution of the Catholic Church but rather the focus of Pope Francis’ life which was…

Mercy.

In 2016, the Pope conveyed his idea of the Divine in a book entitled, The Name of God is Mercy. I read that book and was inspired by its message. His life’s work was the manifestation of the idea of compassion. Openness, healing, lovingkindness, accompanying people in their suffering, being present with them, and facilitating encounter with the sacred formed his core. He called the church the field hospital for the soul. He said:

“The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal [the] wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. … And you have to start from the ground up.”

Pope Francis’ life’s work was to do this. He lived it, embodied it, and shared it with the world. It was his faith, modeled in his life. There was much healing to be done, those excluded, ostracized, ignored, and hurt by the world and the church. Pope Francis made the effort to heal even within the challenges that surrounded him, imperfectly as all human beings are. His life has much to teach and to inspire us.

As many have reflected, he prayed as if everything depended on God, but he acted as if everything depended on him, a mere mortal in the presence of the Divine. May his memory bring blessing and may he rest in peace.

שבת שלום

Connect with me with comments and reflections here.

Rabbi Elaine Zecher