Sunday, July 28, 2013

Pope Francis Gets It

Over 3 million gather in Brazil to hear
Pope Francis (AP image)
I grow more in awe of our "new" Pope every week. 

To be honest, I was hooked from minute #1, when he chose the name Francis and asked us to pray for him.

My admiration grew as I heard that he stopped his motorcade to kiss a baby, took the bus instead of the limousine, and paid his own hotel bill.   

Then came Holy Thursday.  I remember stopping dead in my tracks when I heard he spent that day at a juvenile detention center.  This is someone who is going to teach us by example, I kept saying to myself.

My admiration is now at an almost-fanatical stage as I read what he told millions of people in Brazil yesterday:

"At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity," he said, "Without the grammar of simplicity the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of His mystery."

He gets it.  

All my Catholic life I have been frustrated with the intellectualism of our Faith.  So many religious documents can barely be understood by the most learned, so many classes taught as if the students were Theological doctorates, and so many homilies preached as if the audience were only Cardinals.   

What was missing in all of them was a connection.  And to state the obvious, people tend to hang around with principles and people they understand and connect with.  

Often times, that connection begins with simplicity.  

After all, Jesus didn't use some sophisticated language when he preached to those around Him.  His preferred method was the memorable parable.  

Pope Francis gets that.

I pray that he continues to dazzle us with simplicity in message and action, and that his example converts millions to (and back to) our Faith. 

God Bless.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

He definitely does, Michael. I too was an instant fan of this Pope. The basic tenets and teachings of our faith are quite simple. By over intellectualizing things, we do lose people, not just in mind, but some even leave the Church because it seems too complicated. Like you said, Jesus didn't make things complicated; he used parables that the people of His time could understand.
Thanks for another great post. God bless.

Victor S E Moubarak said...

When we get to meet St Peter at the Gates of Heaven, he will not check how many Degrees we have in Theology, or whether we can recite the whole of the Catechism by heart. My guess is that he will check how well we understood Christ's parables and lived according to them.

God bless you.

Unknown said...

Amazing indeed.
God chose St. Francis of Assisi centuries ago to re-build his church. Pope Francis chose this name and lived by his essence of simplicity. May this pope leads us all to a new revival in our church which we all badly need! Let's continue to pray for our beloved pope!
Amen!

Michael said...

Karinann - thank you!

Victor - you are probably right. (Although I still have much work to do on that front too!)

Angelina - thank you for your comment - I join you in prayer!

Colleen - amen!

God Bless all of you, and thank you for taking the time to comment!

Daily Grace said...

He is amazing Michael! I am just crazy for Pope Francis. Every time I see him I think, "thank you Jesus for this wonderful man!"

Thanks for this post and I love the picture!

Mary N. said...

I agree, Michael! I love Pope Francis! Great post :)

Michael said...

DG/Mary - thank you both for stopping by and commenting! God Bless.