HAPPY NEW YEAR, POPE FRANCIS!
-Fr. Cedric Prakash sj*
It was just a little
after midnight of March 13th - 14th 2013. Like millions
of others all over the world, I too was impatiently waiting for that white
smoke which would emerge from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
heralding the news that a new Pope was elected. There were all kinds of rumours of the “going-ons” :who would be elected, what are the possibilities,
how long it would take etc etc and suddenly the
ticker on one of the news channel which I was searching on my computer,
announced that the plume of white smoke had emerged. A Pope had been elected!
A Pope elected! But who
was he? From where was he? Was he one of the ‘papabili’?
There were hundreds of questions that crossed my mind as I desperately tried to
look for the answer from one news site to another and suddenly the spokesperson
from the Vatican arrived at the window telling us that name ‘Cardinal
Jorge Mario Bergoglio’ from Argentina was
elected as Pope and would take the name of ‘Francis’. Then ‘Bergoglio’ who? I had never heard of him? And why the name of Francis? Just as I was doing a ‘google search’ I got a call from a friend
congratulating me for the first Jesuit Pope in history; my reply was “a Jesuit?
It just cannot be!” I had taken for granted that a Jesuit cannot become a
Pope. Well my ‘google search’, was still
on and my friend was really right!
Bergoglio
was indeed a Jesuit – a well-known one at that. In the meantime, I began
receiving email messages, texts and calls from all over. I was too excited to
speak that night. And then I was in for a shock. As millions of people both in
the Vatican Square and across the world watched, Pope Francis wished all
gathered a very simple ‘good evening’
and in a style that was soon going to be the hallmark of his papacy, he asked
for the prayers of ‘all men and women of
goodwill to help him lead the Catholic Church’. This was something out of the ordinary. No Pope had ever done that before! The
revolution had begun!
A revolution indeed! As I look back at this one eventful year for
the Catholic Church and perhaps for the whole world, I try to place before me
the challenges that Pope Francis has thrown not only to me but to all of us. Personally, I am challenged in several ways.
·
Pope Francis
challenges me to simplicity
Wow! This man has
taken the name he chose “Francis” all too seriously! His gestures
and actions have gone beyond the ‘cosmetic’ or ‘symbolic’
- All of us seem to be noticing everything: the fact that he has refused to
stay in the Papal mansions; that his attire and even his shoes are not what the
past Popes ordinarily wore; his sensitivity to make a phone call or to write a
letter to the most ordinary person in a most unassuming way; the fact that he
can allow a little child to slowly walk up to the stage and literally take his
seat; the affection he exudes when he embraces a man with a disfigured face;
his warm simple gestures all the time has indeed warmed the cockles of many a
heart. St. Francis of Assisi whose name he chose must surely be
smiling from above, that the head of the Catholic Church today has the courage
to take him and all that he stood for very, very seriously.
·
Pope Francis
challenges me to be inclusive
And Pope Francis has done
this in a most amazing way. He has
reached out to perhaps every group on Planet Earth very specially to the poor,
to the marginalized, to the minorities. On July 8th, 2013, he
visited the Sicilian island of Lampedusa (which is
closer to North Africa than mainland Italy) which sees the influx of thousands
of immigrants from Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt and other parts of North
Africa as they seek a better future in Europe.
In his homily, he greeted those present saying, “I
give a thought, too, to the dear Muslim immigrants that are beginning the fast
of Ramadan, with best wishes for abundant spiritual fruits. The Church is near
to you in the search for a more dignified life for yourselves and for your
families”. A clear message to one and all that Christianity is about inclusiveness,
about going to the margins and welcoming “the least of our sisters and
brothers”. The Holy
Father then continued with a very powerful message to the whole world: “Today no one in the world feels responsible for this (the deaths
of immigrants); we have lost the sense of fraternal responsibility; we have
fallen into the hypocritical attitude of the priest and of the servant of the
altar that Jesus speaks about in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we look
upon the brother half-dead by the roadside, perhaps we think “poor
guy,” and we continue on our way; it’s none of our business; and we
feel fine with this. We feel at peace with this, we feel fine! The culture of
well-being, that makes us think of ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the
cries of others, that makes us live in soap bubbles, that are beautiful but are
nothing, are illusions of futility, of the transient, that brings indifference
to others, that brings even the globalization of indifference. In this world of
globalization, we have fallen into a globalization of
indifference. We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it
doesn’t concern us, it’s none of our
business.”
·
Pope Francis
challenges me to live the Joy of the Gospel
On November 24th,
at the conclusion of the year of the Faith, Pope Francis gave to the world his
first Apostolic Exhortation entitled “Evangelii Gaudium” (the Joy of the Gospel). In
this path-breaking document, he literally challenges the Christians to
transcend their narrowness and self-centredness in
order to truly understand the person and message of Jesus. In no uncertain terms, he reminds all that “the Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face
encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with
their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and
continues interaction. True faith in the
incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the
community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned
us to the revolution of tenderness”.
·
Pope Francis
challenges me to be more of a Jesuit
It still is such a dream
that the Pope is a Jesuit - something perhaps unthinkable just over a year
ago. I joined the Jesuits in 1974 when
General Congregation XXXII became a watershed for Jesuits the world over with
the faith-justice mandate becoming the
heart of the Jesuit way of proceeding.
In his one year as Pope, the world has not lost sight of the fact that
Francis is a Jesuit to the very core.
His words, his actions, his attitudes are Jesuit through and
through. When he speaks about
“conversion” he is obviously using the Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius of Loyola which has been so dear to him right from the time he joined
the Society of Jesus. In his native Argentina, he always championed the
cause of the poor. Last December, he
canonized Peter Favre, a close companion of St.
Ignatius of Loyola whom he praised for being “in dialogue
with all, even the most remote and even with his opponents.” Pope Francis has constantly been searching
for the magis in
all things just as St. Ignatius wanted all Jesuits to be doing so.
Challenges indeed for me
and for all and I am sure in the years ahead, we will have many more challenges
-Happy
New Year, dear Pope Francis! Thank you
for being my Pope, my brother and my Shepherd!
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