Michaelangelo Buonarotti’s famous Pieta depicts the lifeless body of Jesus taken down from the cross and placed on his mother’s lap and in her loving arms.  The horrific anguish of the scene illustrates that Christ’s rejection, condemnation, and killing by our world fulfilled the prophecy that a sword of great sorrow would pierce Mary’s heart.  It was a theme that accompanied the Holy Family from the outset.  When He came into the world as a baby, Jesus’ parents were told that there was no room for them.  As a toddler His family was again rejected and forced to flee as immigrants to a foreign nation.  As an adult, His role as an outsider resulted in His death.  Yet, from beginning to end, He found refuge in His mother’s loving arms.

When Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the Americas was elected to be successor to Christ’s earthly vicar, he chose to break protocol and live not in a palatial papal residence but to live humbly with and among others.  Before he died, he broke protocol again requesting to be buried outside of the Vatican in the primal church dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.  He identified as an outsider and perhaps he chose this resting place as a final act of solidarity with all those who are rejected or feel ostracized or who get marginalized by our church or society. He wanted them to see beyond Good Friday’s cross to Easter Sunday’s resurrection.

Like Francis of Assisi, whom he honored by his papal name, the late pontiff wanted the Catholic Church to identify more closely with the poor and forgotten members of society.  Like Francis Xavier, a founding member of his Jesuit community, he wanted each Catholic to have a missionary spirit that reaches out to those who are different from us. Like Frances Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants, he wanted us to care for those who leave their native homes in search of better lives.  Beyond the holy father’s life of love and vocation of service, his legacy will continue to inspire from another realm and his name will forever be associated with care for the downtrodden and the stranger.

When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires earlier this century and had to make an annual trip to the Vatican, Francis chose to do so before Easter.  He joked with his staff that it was part of his Lenten penance. After he arrived in Rome and before he departed each time, he would visit the Church of Mary Major, the place he is now buried, because of his great devotion to Our Blessed Mother and because he, too, found solace in her maternal embrace.  As his earthly remains are entombed there, let us pray that those who make a pilgrimage to his grave—especially those who are outcasts—will look to this first pope from beyond the Oceans for solace and refuge, too.  He was an outsider in many ways who always walked among the lowly and, even after he was made supreme pontiff, he never forgot the poor.  As Mother Mary always pointed away from herself and to her son, Jesus, so does Francis now point us to Mary who can help us find a way to God.