Pope Francis
Yet he was just the pope we needed. Coming from the ‘ends of the earth’, as he mentioned on that first evening as pope, he had none of the ‘baggage’ centuries of the European mind frames normally land on a pope even before he dons his white soutane.
His first words from the balcony of the residence adjoining St Peter’s were ‘Buona Sera’ (Good evening). Can you think of anything more banal as the day closes? Yet they unleashed a storm of greeting from the crowds waiting below in St Peter’s square. They marked something distinctly ordinary and down to earth in the new pope’s approach and the people immediately recognised it.
From then on, he connected with people all along the way for twelve years. We can remember, with immense gratitude, all the ways he expressed this ‘connectedness’. His first substantial message, in 2013, was called, The Joy of the Gospel. From a full heart, he shared with us his joy at the good news Jesus brought us through his life, death and resurrection. There is much to reflect on in its 288 paragraphs but one that is memorable is #223 where he writes, ‘giving priority to time means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing spaces.’ In other words, we often desire to possess – a farm, a qualification, even a constitution or a ‘final’ report. But we can be less concerned about the process of achieving our goal. Francis urges us to get the process right no matter how long it takes. That is messier and less glamorous. The Vatican Council called for synodality in the modern Church. A noble ideal. But the council did not go into how this was to be done. Francis did. And he knew he would not live to see the results. But he was content to set the process in motion.
Two years later, in 2015, Francis published Laudato Si on care of the earth, our common home. ‘Progress in technology is not the same as the progress of humanity’ (#113). We cannot squeeze riches from the earth with no thought for the future. We have to make choices to preserve the earth for our children and grandchildren. Our crisis is not a technical one but a moral one.
Then, in 2016, Francis issued the third of his four great letters. This one, on The Joy of Love ran to 325 paragraphs. (He always wrote comprehensively and at length but one does not have to read him all at once like a book. Each section is food for reflection and prayer). Here his emphasis is on encouraging families, marriages and fidelity in relationships. He writes of the vice of ‘wanting it all now’ (#275). Again we see his call to see life as a process, not a possession. In this letter he caused a furore among some Catholics for insisting on the primacy of compassion over law.
‘Life, for all its confrontations, is the art of encounter’, he wrote in his fourth letter, Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship, in 2020, quoting an Argentinian writer, ‘no one is useless and no one is expendable’, (# 215). Francis makes a plea to us to go beyond individual security and isolation. It is as if one says, ‘I am alright. As long as I have what I want, the rest of the world is none of my business.’ But we are all part of one another. One global community on one planet.
There were countless other occasions when Francis shared his message. He wanted us to ‘open our eyes’ (Luke 24:31) as the disciples did at Easter, and see the call to reach out to others – especially the poor, the marginalised, the migrants – in love and compassion. Everybody is important. Everyone has something to contribute.
I hope we do not just remember his message and celebrate his life. I hope we can also engage in processes – personal and global – that will move our world closer to the plan God wants for his people.
Post published in: Featured