The pope died today. He was 88 years old. Pope Francis gave the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and to the World) on Easter Sunday, then a few hours later on Monday he passed away. This is a sad time for the estimated 1.4 billion Catholics around the world. Their leader, their spiritual guide, was gone. To the priests, their boss had died.
This is also worth looking into. The Pope has died. What does this mean. If you are a Catholic, really an actual Catholic then you believe in God. You believe that Jesus died for our souls. You believe that Jesus was born from a woman who was an actual virgin. Mary did not have sex to get pregnant with the child who would become Jesus who resided in her womb. You believe that there is heaven where you will exist forever after you die. You believe that during the mass wine and bread have a more spiritual meaning than just the wine and bread they were before the mass began.
And you know what. This is all amazing. Not the fact that Jesus existed or not, but that you believe it. If you are a Catholic, it is great that you believe this. And so you should believe in it. Lean into it. Now that Pope Francis is dead, he is going to heaven. If my relations who have died are in heaven, then Pope Francis is going to meet them. This is amazing and a beautiful thing to believe in. If you are a Catholic you should also believe that when you die, you will meet Pope Francis, and your parents, your long lost loved ones, your friends that have passed. I am not being crass here. The concept of the afterlife is an amazingly beautiful thing.
I would be lucky to believe such things. But I do not. I believe that when I die that I am going to return to the air, sea and sky from where I came from. My body will break down into little bits and I will be consumed by Mother Earth. This is my belief. This is what I believe. To me, this concept is an amazingly beautiful thing. When I think about it, I find it sad that I am going to leave everything I love here. I will leave everyone I love. I do not think I will meet relations or friends after I die. This is it. I have one chance at life and nothing more.
To the Catholics who believe, as they well should, that Pope Francis is going to go to heaven I am kind of jealous. What you believe has some cooler bits and bobs than what I believe in. You believe that the coolest thing is a literal afterlife of pure happiness. I believe that this life on Earth, with rainstorms, rape, hunger, war and depression is the best that it gets. But I also have rainbows, dogs, family, microprocessors, sea and pizza. Of course you have everything mentioned here too. This is the package I have, maybe your package can be said to be more “loaded with extras”. Again, I do not mean to be crass or ignorant here putting the afterlife down as an extra in your belief system. I am trying to get the idea across here that people have a certain number of beliefs. They have their own belief systems.
Today, with Pope Francis’ death, it is a good time to think of what you believe. Why do you believe it? How is it different to other belief systems. Are they wrong, or right? Is there a wrong or a right belief system? I believe I am correct and I believe that Pope Francis believed he was correct. This is a good thing to think about and maybe when you are finished thinking, you will say a prayer for Pope Francis’ soul. He would have liked this.