VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With Pope Francis watching from the hospital, the preacher of the papal household told top members of the Roman Curia that eternity "is not just a future reward but a reality that begins here, in the measure in which we learn to live in love and communion with Christ."
"Ultimately, our destiny is not written in fear but in hope," said Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, whom the pope appointed in November, to be the preacher of the papal household.
The Capuchin friar was leading a Lenten retreat for cardinals and senior officials of the Roman Curia and the Vatican March 9-14 in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall. He provided summaries of each reflection to Vatican News.
The theme chosen for the 2025 retreat, long before Pope Francis was hospitalized, was "The Hope of Eternal Life."
The Vatican press office said Pope Francis watched the evening talk March 9 and the first morning talk March 10 from his room at Rome's Gemelli hospital. Participants in the retreat could not see the pope, though.
Father Pasolini wrote in the summary of his first talk that "death is not a defeat but the moment when we will finally see the face of God and discover that the end was only the beginning."
Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he noted that there are three possibilities for each person after death: heaven, "final damnation" or hell and purgatory.
Heaven or paradise is "an eternal communion with Christ in which each person finds their true identity," while hell "is described as the definitive separation from God," he said.
However, he added, "the church has never declared with certainty that anyone has been condemned there."
In Catholic teaching, "purgatory is seen as a process of purification for those who, though in God's grace, are not yet ready for heaven," Father Pasolini said. "The possibility of a final 'moment' of purification is an opportunity to fully come to terms with God's infinite love."
"Purgatory," he wrote in his summary, "can be understood as the 'moment' in which we finally stop trying to prove something to God and simply allow ourselves to be loved."
Father Pasolini's second talk focused on Matthew 25:31-46 and its description of the final judgment, which is based on whether a person helped Jesus by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and other acts of mercy.
"It is not a judgment in the traditional sense but rather a declaration that unveils the reality already lived by each person," Father Pasolini wrote. "The criterion for entering the kingdom is not religious affiliation but concrete love for the least of our brothers and sisters, who, in the Gospel perspective, represent Christ’s disciples."
The Gospel, he said, "invites us to recognize that eternal life has already begun; it is manifested in the way we live and love, opening ourselves to the transforming presence of God."
The officials making the retreat begin with prayer at 9 a.m. each morning, followed by a meditation offered by Father Pasolini, and they return each evening at 5 p.m. for prayer and another meditation.
From March 10 through March 13, they were to end the day by praying the rosary for Pope Francis. Members of the public could join online or by watching on video screens in St. Peter's Square. The usual 9 p.m. rosary in the square was suspended during the retreat.
The retreat was scheduled to end the morning of March 14 with prayer and a final meditation. The Vatican said the rosary for Pope Francis would resume in the square that evening "in a renewed manner," but as of March 10 they had not said how it would change.
