A quick look at the Mass readings for that day may offer a few themes, as they prepare to cast their first votes for the next pontiff.
From Acts, a persecuted Church grieves but courageously goes into the world to preach the Gospel:
There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word…
And in John’s Gospel, we hear this famous declaration, and a message of profound hope:
Jesus said to the crowds,”I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day…”
In these last hours before the conclave, we can’t know what’s going through their heads, of course — or what’s in their hearts. But as I noted elsewhere, all of us in a sense are in the Upper Room. Let’s keep the cardinals — and each other — in prayer:
O God, eternal shepherd,
who govern your flock with unfailing care,
grant in your boundless fatherly love
a pastor for your Church
who will please you by his holiness
and to us show watchful care.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
