Christ ‘tamed’ death, but people may still feel sad or outraged, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christ crucified and risen has tamed and transfigured death with his love, Pope Leo XIV said.

“We are saddened, of course, when a loved one leaves us,” the pope said in his homily Nov. 3, during a memorial Mass for Pope Francis and the world’s cardinals and bishops who died over the past year.

“We are scandalized when a human being, especially a child, a ‘little one,’ a fragile person, is taken away by illness or, worse, by human violence,” he said during the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“As Christians, we are called to carry the weight of these crosses with Christ,” he said. “But we are not sad like those who have no hope, because even the most tragic death cannot prevent our Lord from welcoming our soul into his arms and transforming our mortal body, even the most disfigured, into the image of his glorious body.”

The worst form of death, he said, is “violent death that kills the innocent” and leaves people “disheartened, discouraged and desperate.”

“How many people, how many ‘little ones,’ today suffer the trauma of this frightening death because it is disfigured by sin,” Pope Leo said. God the Father does not want this form of death, “and he sent his Son into the world to free us from it.”

“The love of Christ crucified and risen has transfigured death: from enemy, He has made it sister, He has tamed it,” he said. And in the face of death, we do not ‘grieve like the rest who have no hope,'” he said.

For this reason, Christians do not call burial places “‘necropolises,’ meaning ‘cities of the dead,’ but ‘cemeteries,’ which literally means ‘dormitories,’ places where one rests, awaiting resurrection,” Pope Leo said. As the psalmist prophesies (Ps 4:9): “In peace I will lie down and fall asleep, for you alone, Lord, make me secure.”

“With great affection,” Pope Leo said, the Nov. 3 Mass was offered for the soul of Pope Francis, “who died after opening the Holy Door and imparting the Easter blessing to Rome and the world.” Pope Francis died April 21, 2025, Easter Monday.

“Our beloved Pope Francis and our brother cardinals and bishops,” he said, “have lived, witnessed and taught this new paschal hope. The Lord called them and appointed them as shepherds in his church, and through their ministry they — to use the language of the Book of Daniel — have led ‘the many to justice.'”

“That is, they have guided them on the path of the Gospel with the wisdom that comes from Christ, who has become for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption,” Pope Leo said.

“May their souls be washed clean of every stain and may they shine like stars in the sky,” he said. “And may their spiritual encouragement reach us, still pilgrims on earth, in the silence of prayer: ‘for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God.'”

The booklet for the Mass listed the names and dates of death of Pope Francis, eight cardinals and 134 bishops who died over the past year.

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