Everyone

By Paolo Ruffini

Everyone. Everyone really was there on Saturday, 26 April, in Saint Peter’s Square, which was so full of people that no one else could fit. Even on the Via della Conciliazione leading to the Square, in the streets around it, and along the way to Saint Mary Major. Everyone was there. All. As Pope Francis repeated so many times, from World Youth Day to his final greeting on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection: “Happy Easter to all”.

There were old people and children, even babies just a few months old, brought by their parents to be witnesses of a special moment in the very earliest days of their lives. And there were many, many teenagers (themselves not so much older), as if called by something beyond them and us to take the baton of faith from a Pope who knew how to speak their language and challenge them to believe, to hope, to dream, to show that it is possible to live in peace, and to build a better world step by step. They saw with their own eyes that the hope that brought them here for their Jubilee, transcends death.

There were countless priests concelebrating. Bishops, Cardinals, and baptized laypeople, all confirming one another in the faith. There were the powerful of the earth, the rich, but also the poor, greeting Pope Francis and thinking about what the future holds. There were also non-believers, or believers of other religions. Friends as well as enemies. All listening to Peter’s words: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all”.

Everyone recalled, with Cardinal Re’s homily, Pope Francis’ words on peace, how war is always a defeat, and on the fraternity that we so often deny, on the need to understand that no one is saved alone, and on the Church as a field hospital, a home with open doors. For everyone.

And everyone was there; everyone really was there on Saturday. It was like when Pope Francis’ presence alone filled Saint Peter’s Square during the Covid-19 pandemic — everyone really was there, the whole world connected through every tool of modern communication.

Under a cloudless sky, the simple secret of the communion that unites all humanity, the people of God, united in a single embrace, was also revealed in a mysterious way. A possibility. A real possibility. Under the eyes of all. Like a truce for a special day. A day of celebration. A day where the mysteries of the Rosary we celebrate are the Glorious Mysteries. A day that turns sadness into song, and celebrates death and life together. Death and Resurrection.

This was also signified by the spontaneous applause before the coffin, which arose as if in mutual parting: a “see you later” rather than a final farewell. And a commitment that concerns us all — no one excluded.