Friday, March 15, 2013

POPE FRANCIS


Not unexpectedly after the brief gushing upon his election about the humility, compassion, love of the poor radiating from Pope Francis, the media is now on their typical tear, attacking, attacking, attacking, without of course irrefutable evidence.

Truly while we should pray for, heed, love Pope Francis, we should also pray for the souls of those men and women, in the media and elsewhere, who spend their lives in absolute opposition to Christ, His Church, His Pope, His people.

We have developed such a culture of the angry, negative, tear down and destroy that it seems to me the media in particular have lost their way.

Media should inform with verifiable fact.

To be sure within the reality of human life not all reporting will be of good news stories, however these days things are so tilted towards the aggressive, the negative, the accounts of human hatreds, wars, violence, yes sins, rooted in the awful adage: if it bleeds, it leads.

We are left with a perception of human life, of various cultures, indeed of purported reality in our own cities, towns, countryside, which hardly reflects actual reality.

Perhaps part of the media fury is a reaction to the simple yet powerful, clear and challenging teaching Pope Francis gave in his first homily as Pope.

In this teaching he notes: “Walking: our life is a journey and when we stop, there is something wrong.”

Those who relish finding reasons, real or imagined, to attack others, irrespective be it the Pope or any person, are people who have stopped walking, thus they sink ever deeper in the mire of the dark and the negative.

Pope Francis also taught: “Build up the Church…..With every movement in our lives, let us build!”

We can extend this call to build, with every movement in our lives, beyond Church to society at large.

Always finding fault with family or co-workers or the government or culture or other races, religions, yes with the media [mea culpa] is to tear down, to destroy, rather than build.

To build is movement as elegant as ballet, as dance in general.

To tear down is a nasty, dusty, noisy aggressive, harsh action.

Drawing on words of Leon Bloy, Pope Francis continued: “’Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.’ When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.”

The Holy Father concluded with a call to true holiness in union with Jesus Christ, reminding us we too, like Jesus, must carry the cross: “When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly…..I would  like that all of us….might have the courage – to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord….My hope for all of us is that the Holy Spirit, that the prayer of Our Lady, our Mother, might grant us this grace: to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ Crucified. So be it.”

Friday, March 01, 2013

SEDE VACANTE


Last evening with a simple gesture of closing the doors of Castel Gandolfo the Church witnessed to the world the peaceful ending of the pontificate of now Pope Emeritus Benedict and, by the same gesture, opened the door into the awaiting time for the emergence on the balcony of St. Peter’s of the next Vicar of Christ for the Church and the entire human family.
In his final words to the assembled Cardinals Pope Emeritus Benedict quoted the theologian Fr. Romano Guardini: “The Church is not an institution devised and built at a table, but a living reality. She lives along the course of time by transforming Herself, like any living being, yet her nature remains the same. At Her heart is Christ.”
While the media frenzy has, mercifully, died down somewhat, the ignorance remains! To wit a commentator today on a major network suggested the Cardinals are already forming ‘alliances!’
For people of faith, Catholics in particular, these are not the times for speculation or gossip, for advocating for Cardinal X or Cardinal Y.
Rather we should be spending our time, with open hearts, praying, humbly and ardently, that the Holy Spirit will guide the Cardinals to the one He has chosen, that the Cardinals will allow themselves to be guided.
“There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.” [Phil.4:6,7]