I was given the great grace to be able to attend the Holy Father's Mass in Philadelphia last weekend, thanks to a family member who lives in that area and who got a hold of an extra ticket through his parish. Words cannot begin to do justice to what it was like to be there, and see him in person. We got to see him ride very close to us in his Popemobile on his way to the Mass, as you can see in the attached picture. It made the five hour wait, and the two hour line through security that proceeded it, worth it.
It is too personal to reveal everything this visit meant to me, and I apologize if you were looking for more personal reflections on it. I feel everyday since a deeper meaning has been revealed to me, and I feel this event will have an impact on me for a long time to come.
The Holy Father has an impossible job. He is being asked to do what only the Lord can do. Only the Lord can build His Church. Only the Holy Spirit can unite people. Only around Jesus can true community be built. The Pope, in other words, is asked to do what only God can do.
Wait, you say, that is impossible.
Exactly.
The Pope is known as the Vicar of Christ. A "vicar", according to the dictionary, is "a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting 'in the person of' or agent for a superior. The Pope acts in the person of Christ. He does not merely have Christ living in him as all baptized Christians do. He does not merely reveal Christ; in a true sense, he IS Christ.
Wait, you say, that is impossible.
Exactly.
What a personal and spiritual anguish that must be, every day to get up and be asked to do the impossible. No wonder Pope Francis asks everyone whom he meets to pray for him.
It must get very lonely for him. No one else on Earth is asked to do what he is, to be Christ's representative as superior of the Church. He has many supporters, many friends, and many prayers, but in the end, when the dust settles, he is alone with the Lord in his decision making, in the depths of his soul as he seeks to carry out the impossible. His smile is heavenly, but at times, perhaps it is faked, and deep down he is in anguish. I do not know.
Being the Holy Father has always been hard down through the centuries due to the impossible demands on the person who occupies the office. There have been Popes who have struggled during times of great world war; I think, for example, of Pius XII who had to work to save his fellow believers in Yahweh, while at the same time balancing that need with the need to not further incense the Nazis and cause even greater harm to an even larger amount of people. How much anguish he must have suffered! There are Popes who have lived during times when Christians were martyred, during times of famine, during times of rebellion in the Church, during times of attack on the Papal States, just to name a few.
Well, our present Holy Father, Pope Francis, is living through all of this and more. Christians are being martyred today. Morality is being challenged; people all over are questioning, like Pilate, "what is truth"? Traditional societal beacons like the family are being attacked. There is rebellion in the Church. There are wars, terror, and disunity all over the world, and yes, in the Church.
In his actions and words, he is seeking to counter all this, to bring people together to unite in Jesus Christ, who fully reveals what it means to be human. I feel so much for him as he tries to do what I consider an impossible task, to unite a broken world, and yes, a broken Church. This Holy Father is trying his hardest to bring unity to the Church, and to the world.
It is making me wonder. Benedict XVI seemed to speak of a smaller, but more zealous Church, in the future. I wonder if this Holy Father shares this vision; I do not think he does. I think he is trying to cast a "wide net", and unite and bring as many people into the flock under the Shepherd as possible. He addresses all people on the different ends of the spectrum; for example, he speaks and befriends persons with homosexual tendencies, and at the same time, he does the same with people who stand up for traditional marriage. He spends time and embraces the poor, but also the rich, and everyone in between. He extols traditional marriage and family values, but also goes out of his way to say that the divorced, even if they are remarried, are welcome in the Church.
My personal feelings about the future of the Church lie more with Benedict's vision, that the Church will likely not grow in number, but that it will become smaller, but more faithful and zealous. I admire so much what Francis is trying to do, at least in my eyes, and that is to grow the Church. I feel, unfortunately though, that he is not going to be successful.
Think of what transpired over the past few days; he meets with someone who stands by her view on the family, and many who were with him seemed to have turned against him. Likewise, he speaks his views on scientific matters like climate change, and people who are normally with the Vicar of Christ turned against him.
I think he is trying to cast a wide net, but the net, I do not sense, is catching a lot of fish. For example, I do not see any evidence that more people are going back to Church since he became Pope. A lot of talk happened during and after this past weekend that people may consider going back, may consider practicing their Faith again, as a result of his visit, but I have a wait and see attitude on that one.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I admire so much our Holy Father and what he is trying to do, but I do not think he will be successful. It breaks my heart to say that because I love him so much. I pray that he recalls the words of Blessed Mother Theresa that we are not called to be successful, but faithful, and I believe personally Francis is doing just that, but only God can judge now and in the end.
Saint Joseph's life was not about success, but faithfulness. He never was rich. He never was comfortable, he seemed to always be on the move. He had to work by the sweat of his brow all his life. And he never had sexual relations with a woman (which is kind of the goal of most men if you think about it).
Yet, Joseph was faithful, and that was the important thing, and that is why he is a Saint, and continues to work in heaven for us (I am sure the work is more enjoyable now).
Our Holy Father's joy and peace, like that of Joseph, must come from faithfulness, more so than success. He must be faithful, as Joseph was, to what the Lord asks of Him. If he does that, he can smile genuinely, not just externally, but in his soul, despite what those on different cultural, theological, and political persuasions might say about him. We must answer his call to pray for him as he seeks to do an impossible job.
During his visit, the Holy Father made a surprise visit to Saint Joseph's University. I don't want to read too much into the fact that the place he chose was named after Saint Joseph, but for the sake of this blog, why not? Joseph is the patron of the Universal Church. He supports the entire Church. No other human being, alive or in heaven, can claim that title as a supporter of the entire Church. The Holy Father, who as the Vicar of Christ, is the acting head of the Church so-to-speak, absolutely needs the intercession of one who can support the entire Universal Church.
Saint Joseph, protector of Holy Church, pray for the Holy Father, and pray for us.
Thank you, Holy Father, for visiting me.
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