Faith: To See as God Sees
- Raymond Melendez
- Oct 29
- 7 min read
At TheGoodNewsCast.com we believe that faith is the bridge between farewell and fulfillment—where every ending becomes a legacy, and every curse reveals God's blessing.
In a week marked by profound farewells, the world has lost three distinct voices—each leaving behind a message that echoes far beyond their final moments. Jane Goodall’s gentle plea for the earth reminds us of our duty to it; the tragic assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk confronts us with the cost of educating a divided age; and Pope Francis’s passing offers a blessing of peace.
Their departures, so different in tone and circumstance, converge upon a single truth: the enduring struggle to see rightly—to understand what is truly blessed. Holy Scriptures give us a timeless guide in these moments: “Do not bless what I have cursed, and do not curse what I have blessed.” (Numbers 22:12) This warning calls us to discernment—to look beyond human intellect and see the world as God does. Like Jacob’s final blessings over his sons in Genesis 49, the story of our lives is a mixture of weakness, strengths, and redemption.
Each of these individuals, in their parting words, invites us to look deeper—to bless rightly, to love wholeheartedly, and to remain faithful. Their legacies remind us to align our sight with our faith. May we see again and break free from the curse in a world that is frequently tainted by chaos and strife.
Love: What's Faith Got to Do With It?
In the twilight of her ninety-one years, Jane Goodall left the world not in silence, but with a call—a gentle, urgent plea for the next generation to care for the earth she so deeply loved. Her final message, part scientific and part spiritual, was about the future (Goodall). She spoke to the young, as she always had, urging them to protect what remains, to live with reverence for life, and to endure.
Even as she said goodbye, Goodall's voice retained the same steadiness that characterized her life's work: that we should multiply and be fruitful. She believed in humanity’s capacity for change; she believed that small acts of care could heal what is broken.
Jacob's firstborn son, Reuben, provides a different account in the Bible. He was powerful, talented, and full of potential, but a vicious passion cost him his inheritance.
“Unstable as water, you shall not excel,” Jacob lamented (Genesis 49:4).
Reuben’s passion lacked faith, and his heart floated in every direction the wind blew. Desire, when ungoverned by faith, destroys what it intends to bless. Judas’s kiss, too, was born of affection without faith—a love that denied the Holy Spirit. The lesson resounds through generations: passion without faith becomes cursed.
The Fire: When Zeal Turns to Light
The world watched in shock as news broke of Charlie Kirk’s sudden and violent death. At thirty-one, the outspoken conservative activist, known for his fervor and unyielding energy, was struck down while speaking to college students in Utah (Kirk). His final words were “This too shall pass.”
For his followers, Kirk’s death became a rallying cry; for his critics, a symbol of the growing fury that grips publicity. Yet beyond politics, his life reminds us of a deep truth about our passions: the same fire that inspires can also consume.
Scripture tells a similar story through the lives of Simeon and Levi, Jacob’s sons whose zeal for justice turned to violence. “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations” (Genesis 49:5). Their righteous anger at wrongs done to their sister became unrestrained vengeance, what began as a search for justice ended as desecration.
Their story is a mirror for every generation: zeal without the Holy Spirit becomes destruction. When passion loses its way, pain turns into a weapon. The Word of God—meant to heal—can, in faithless hands, wound. Christ himself showed the way. He was not silent in preserving peace but spoke it in mercy.
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).
True blessings are found in God's redemption.
Charlie Kirk’s final words—This too shall pass—may hold more wisdom than he knew. The tempests of politics, the fires of conflict, and even the wounds of zeal will fade. What remains is the blessing that endures: faith that directs our zeal.
As the Book of Mormon reminds us, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind... seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked” (Moroni 7:45). May the zeal that once divided us be a light that guides us, for only when our fire burns in faith does our passion reveal God's face.
The Blessing: Crown of Thorns
As dawn broke over Rome on Easter Monday, the bells of St. Peter’s tolled with a reverent sorrow. Pope Francis, servant of servants, had entered his final rest at eighty-eight—his last wish a blessing for peace, spoken to a world aching for unity (Francis). The day before his passing, he stood before the faithful one final time, his voice frail yet clear, pleading for cease-fires, for dialogue among nations, and for hearts to choose mercy over justice.
His farewell was not a proclamation to conquer but a blessing of peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” his life seemed to reflect, echoing the Sermon on the Mount. In a time of division, he embodied a kingdom of peace. His was a leadership that knelt to wash feet, that saw God's spirit in the poor, and that found strength in the weak.
Centuries earlier, Jacob’s words to his son Judah foretold another kind of kingdom—one founded on worship.
“Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise... the scepter shall not depart from Judah” (Genesis 49:8, 10).
Judah’s name itself means praise, a reminder that passion is born to worship. From his descendants would come the Lion of Judah—the Christ whose crown was first a curse and then became God's blessing.
Pope Francis’s life traced a similar pattern: the strength of surrender, the dignity in defeat, and the majesty of peace. His final blessing called humanity to what Judah’s line was meant to reveal—that the highest throne belongs to the Holy One, the God of Jacob.
The priesthood, at its best, is a gift offered to God and neighbor. The pope’s passing and Judah’s blessing together whisper the same eternal truth: that the world is ruled by those whose love is grounded in faith.
And in that love, may God be praised.
The Revelation: Beyond the Dream
In the span of one extraordinary week, the world said farewell to three distinct voices—each leaving behind a message that transcended their field, their ideology, and even their death. Jane Goodall spoke softly to the future, urging a generation to cherish creation. Charlie Kirk spoke firmly to the present, calling his audience to endure the trials of their time. Pope Francis, in his final blessing, lifted his hands toward heaven and spoke peace over a divided world.
Different as they were, their parting words converged on a single truth: life’s last lessons lie beyond our sight. Each reached outward—Goodall to the young, Kirk to the striving, and Francis to the suffering—calling us to remember what endures when the dream fades.
Jacob’s final blessings in Genesis 49 follow a similar pattern. To Joseph, he said, “The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains… Let them rest on the head of Joseph” (Genesis 49:26). Joseph was the interpreter of dreams—the one who saw the meaning and its salvation. Yet even Joseph’s sight was limited to the dream.
Christ came to reveal where dreams come from.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
The interpretation Joseph received through a dream, Jesus fulfilled on the cross. The redemption Jacob longed for became evident in the Son who sees God face-to-face.
In the same way, the last words of Goodall, Kirk, and Francis remind us that human intellect, at its best, points toward spiritual revelation. Their farewells—rooted in care for the earth, endurance through trial, and peace among nations—echo the call to have faith and see beyond the dream, toward the eternal.
Jesus did not come to reveal the end but rather what is blessed and continues. Like Christ, we are called to walk by faith into our passion and, like Joseph, find meaning and purpose in it. Together, they form a living revelation of God's kingdom to come.
Beyond Farewell: God's Blessing
The world pauses at the crossroads of blessings and curses. Three lives—so different in calling and character—have now reached the end, yet their final words still ripple outward like living parables. Jane Goodall, the voice of nature’s conscience, urged the next generation to protect the world entrusted to them. Charlie Kirk, whose life was cut short amid public strife, left a message of endurance—“This too shall pass.” And Pope Francis, in his last blessing from St. Peter’s Square, prayed for peace on earth; his voice carried the weight of a shepherd’s heart.
In their parting moments, we hear a deeper truth: a fulfilled life is measured by what it leaves behind. Goodall’s outreach calls us to responsibility. Kirk’s final words summon resilience. Francis’s blessing offers reconciliation. Together, they remind us that every farewell can be a doorway to much greater—a summons to live not merely for ourselves, but for One who lives forever.
Long before these farewells, another patriarch, Jacob, spoke his final blessings over his sons. His words revealed the full spectrum of the dream through strength and weakness, blessings and curses, and finally redemption. Yet each blessing, even the greatest, pointed beyond itself—to the One in whom every dream would find its fulfillment.
“For through Christ,” Scripture tells us, “our desires become God’s desires, and our weaknesses a testimony of God’s strength.” It is Christ who reveals God's purpose in Jacob's blessings; it is Christ who redeems Reuben’s instability through faith, and it is Christ who turns Simeon’s wrath into God's justice and Levi’s zeal into God's mercy, and it is the Heavenly Father who turns Judah’s praise towards the one who is cursed but only to be made holy, blessed, and called, the One God loves.
Faith, then, is the bridge between our farewells and our fulfillment. As the Book of Mormon reminds us, “Press forward with faith in Christ, having a perfect sight of the things we hope for” (2 Nephi 31:20). This is the resurrection. It is the assurance that love, when rooted in faith, sees no end.
Beyond the farewell, Christ continues to speak. Beyond life, death continues to transpire, and beyond death, Christ remains—the fulfillment of every blessing and curse.
Works Cited
Francis, Pope. “Pope Francis, Latin America’s First Pontiff Who Ministered with Charm and Humility, Dies at 88.” Associated Press, 21 Apr. 2025, apnews.com/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
Goodall, Jane. “What Jane Goodall Said in Her Last Video Message Before Her Death.” Good Morning America, 2 Oct. 2025, www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/jane-goodall-famed-primatologist-anthropologist-conservationist-dead-91-109868347. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
Kirk, Charlie. “Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point, dead at 31.” The Washington Post, 10 Sept. 2025, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/10/charlie-kirk-dead/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
