This is a source of Christian hope, he said: that though death is a part of life and is present in creation, it is "an affront to the design of God's love, and the Savior wants it to be healed."
In another Gospel episode, there is a father with a very sick daughter who addresses Jesus with faith, asking him to save her, the Pope recalled. But then, someone comes out from the man's house to tell him it is too late, his daughter has died.
"Jesus knows that man is tempted to react with anger and despair because of the child's death, and advises him to guard the small flame that is lit in his heart: faith."
"Do not be afraid, only have faith," Jesus says to the father, telling him that when he arrives at home, he will find the child alive.
Also in his words to Martha, as she weeps for the death of her brother Lazarus, Jesus teaches us that he is "the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live."
These words are repeated to us every time death comes in order "to tear the fabric of life and affections," Francis said, adding that "all our existence is played out here, between the side of faith and the precipice of fear."
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, the Pope said, asking pilgrims: "do you believe this?" He then invited those present in St. Peter's Square to close their eyes and think of the moment of their death.
Think of your death and imagine the moment when Jesus will take you by the hand and say, "come, come with me, get up," he said. Jesus will come to each of us, taking us by the hand "with his tenderness, his mildness, his love."
"This is our hope before death," he concluded. "For whoever believes, it is a door that opens wide completely; for those who doubt it is a glimmer of light that seeps out of a door that has not closed completely."
"But for all of us it will be a grace when this light illuminates us."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.