Pope Francis: An Authentic Disciple

Pope Francis (1936-2025) lived a life attuned to the heartbeat and reasoning of God. 

The last five pontiffs who touched my life during their respective tenures have enriched my faith.

I was a child when Paul VI was pope. I remember his visit to my city, Mumbai, in western India, for the Eucharistic Congress in 1964. That was also the year I received my First Holy Communion, and Jesus became real to me.

The life of St. John Paul II impressed me as a youth and strengthened my faith. He visited Mumbai in 1984. Around that time, I had lost my father. Seeing Pope John Paul II on my home ground consoled me and gave me new life. For the next twenty-five years, I found in St. John Paul II a fatherly figure and a spiritual guide. God then gave His Church Pope Benedict XVI, a gentle, amiable, and deeply faith-filled shepherd — a man of prayer and contemplation. In hindsight, his resignation in 2013 seems directed by the Holy Spirit. Pope Benedict XVI obeyed, even at the cost of becoming nothing, making it possible for the Church to receive its next shepherd.

In 2013, God had already prepared this successor: Pope Francis! God is faithful to His Church. His unseen hand fulfills His promise: “Upon this Rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Hearing the announcement of the new pope's name—"Francis," a name never before taken by a pontiff — stirred me deeply. Once again, God revealed His love to me: “I will never leave nor forsake you.”

Francis’ pontificate over the past twelve years, one month, and eight days has been a fresh stirring of the Holy Spirit for the Church and the world. As bishop of Rome, he undertook his role with determination and wisdom, marked by humility. His impact on world leaders and his outreach to foster unity with the heads of other religions have surely left their mark. His continuous plea was, Let there be an end to bloodshed." Yet what touched me most was Pope Francis' authentic discipleship — lived with perseverance and courage — reawakening in everyone who met or followed him a call to live out that discipleship personally.

Francis' regular visits to prison inmates and his gesture of washing their feet gave many the freedom from guilt to realize that God is indeed forgiving. As the Holy Father said, "It’s horrific for me to go to jail because what you see there is very hard. But I go anyway because God wants me to be face-to-face with the one most in need." Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17)

The Pope also showed profound compassion toward people living with disabilities. Echoing Jesus' outreach to the maimed, blind, and crippled, Pope Francis reached out to the unborn, the infirm, the differently abled, and the elderly. He invited all of us to eliminate physical barriers and foster genuine inclusiveness.

God is sovereign. Amid a troubled world facing the fear, death, and uncertainty of COVID-19, Pope Francis stood strong as a beacon of faith, praying for the world and begging for God’s mercy. He was there, praying for us: "And they went and woke him, saying, 'Master, Master, we are perishing!' And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm" (Luke 8:24).

Francis did not hesitate to emphasize "the feminine dimension of the Church," calling everyone to rethink and foster the Marian or mystical principle of the Church. He had logged into the heartbeat and reasoning of his Master, sensing the needs and cries of the Marthas and Marys, the Magdalenes, and the Samaritan women in our world.

"Laudato Si’," Pope Francis’ wake-up call to treasure and preserve the environment, reawakened our dulled consciences to value God’s gift of nature. Just as Jesus preached in the open ranges of Galilee, attentive to the treasures of creation, Pope Francis challenged us to care for our common home and to get out of our comfort zones. Becoming poor to reach out to the poor was Pope Francis’ life motto. His lifestyle revealed his stance; his outreach proclaimed what he believed. Like Jesus, who became poor for our sake, Pope Francis lived the call, "If you were perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

Pope Francis spoke forcefully about setting aside human success, fame, and popularity and seeking instead God’s glory — which for him meant loving to the point of laying down one’s life. He lived his faith through continual silence in the face of insult, perseverance through loneliness and opposition, and personal suffering up to the end of his earthly pilgrimage. He became the living embodiment of the Suffering Servant imagery in Isaiah: "He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised..." (Isaiah 53:3).

Pope Francis' discipleship reflects the face of the Master. He has now gone to his father's home. The Church and the world will continue to bear abundant fruit by learning from and living this unique discipleship. These days, the Universal Church — and even those who do not share our faith—experiences a strange sense of unity and affection toward one another.

May God heal our world!

(Severina Peres, a retired banking professional who lives in Mumbai, contributes regularly to Catholic magazines and is involved in ministry to senior citizens.)