There is little doubt now in the minds of most Catholics that Pope Francis has much he wishes to teach us about service to the poor and marginalised. This Argentinian priest and bishop, whom the Cardinals chose to succeed to the See of Peter, as Vicar of Jesus Christ, brings a unique style and approach to the Petrine ministry. He is no Benedict XVI, neither is he a John Paul II or even Paul VI, who himself sold a Papal Tiara to the Catholics of the USA in a gesture of solidarity with the poor. No, Pope Francis is his own man, yet he ascends the throne of Peter in a long line of continuity with each of his predecessors and within the tradition of the Universal Church.
When he meets with his immediate predecessor on Saturday 23 March for lunch, we can be certain that the Pope Emeritus will pledge afresh his personal loyalty to the successor of Peter. What else will pass between them, we may never know but it is to be hoped that in his humility the Holy Father will listen carefully to gentle words of encouragement and advice from Benedict, beloved of us all.
Much is being written in these days about the focus of Pope Francis on humility and serving the needs of the poor. Thank god for this aspect of his teaching and his personal example, which we ought to imitate personally and through our support of sound Catholic charities. Those who delighted in eight years of Pope Benedict reinvigorating the papal liturgies with a sense of worthiness that befits the liturgy as opus Dei, may have been concerned at reports of Pope Francis allegedly saying to his MC ‘the carnival is over’ or at the loss of the red pontifical shoes, the pontifical dalmatic etc.
We should take heart however from His Holiness’s address to the diplomatic core in the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace on 22 March. Recognising the material poverty of the homeless, orphans and the sick he went on to talk about “another form of poverty”, he said, “It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the 'tyranny of relativism'.” Closely allied to this is a liturgical poverty which the devil creates in order to conceal the face of God from his people. It is the beauty of sacred worship, celebrated faithfully and according the norms of the Church, as Vatican II and other earlier Ecumencial Councils have required, which discloses the Godhead and which makes manifest the salvific works of the incarnation, life death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ afresh in our own time. We should pray ceaselessly that Pope Francis is given the grace to hold these things in their proper balance. As he said, to the diplomats, “It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God. But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people.”
At Mass on Monday, the second day of Holy Week, our Holy father will hear these words from St John’s Gospel, “Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was full of the scent of the ointment. Then Judas Iscariot - one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him - said, ‘Why wasn’t this ointment sold for three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor?’ He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to contribution. So Jesus said, “leave her alone; she had to keep this scent for the day of my burial. You have th poor with you always, you will not always have me”. We give to God our most precious possessions, ointment, skill, silk and gold because we love him. We give to the poor, our love, shelter, comfort, food and drink, because we love him in our neighbour - or at least we should! These things are not mutually exclusive, they are complimentary. The spiritual and corporal works of mercy have always gone together; Pope Francis is reminding us of this and we should remind one another and if I dare say it, him too.
GJ
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