Today, March 13, Pope Francis celebrates the Fourth Anniversary of his election to the Papacy.
With reverence and devotion, we congratulate His Holiness and ask the blessings of Almighty God upon this good and decent Servant of the Servants of the Lord.
It's hard to believe that the last four years have passed so quickly!
Many will celebrate this anniversary looking back on the last four years of Francis’ pontificate from different perspectives.
I am sure that the media will be anxious to highlight the diversity and controversy which the Holy Father’s reforms have introduced.
Some will look back with joyous enthusiasm over the fact that this Pope has done much to trim the fat off Vatican bureaucracy and streamline procedures and processes which were once onerous and exhausting.
Others will express anxiety that Francis has not moved the Church far enough and fast enough in keeping with their progressive agendas.
Still others will lament the fact that Francis has introduced some confusion into the traditional moral teachings and disciplines of the Church.
I, for one, choose rather to reflect upon what I consider to be the central vision and focus which has occupied much of the Pope’s rhetoric and action.
Pope Francis has challenged the Church, its hierarchy and faithful, to embrace a new ecclesiology which is less academic and more existential.
What do I mean by this?
Traditional Catholicism centered itself upon the cerebral and rational faculties of human nature. In this context, one identified his or her Catholic Faith by assenting to a prescribed set of credal formulae and submitting to the authority of religious superiors over the dictates of their conscience. Religion meant accept ng what the Church authorities taught and commanded officially, following the authority bestowed upon them by Christ from the Supreme Authority of the Pope, through the ranks of Bishops, down to the authority of a Pastor within his parish.
Francis, while not denying any of the doctrinal and disciplinary aspects of Catholicism, has reset their value in the scheme of things.
For Francis, Christian Faith (Catholicism foremost) is about encountering the Mercy of God in the individual and collective experience of suffering humanity.
There, in that arena of life experience, one comes face to face with Jesus, the Savior. Religion becomes a journey of accompaniment (Francis’ favorite word): the individual with Christ Himself and the individual with others, especially the weak and the needy.
For Francis, orthodoxy is important, but not so important that it obscures the Merciful Face of God. Precision in teaching is important, but not so important that it gets in the way of people sharing their personal experience of Divine forgiveness in language which is comfortable and understandable to them. Discipline is necessary, but not so essential as to prohibit the People of God from having access to the Sacraments which refresh and nourish them.
Francis has introduced a whole new paradigm of what practical Catholicism is: first, the experience of God’s eager and generous forgiveness; second, the joyful proclamation of the generosity of this Divine forgiveness of all of us, His daughters and sons, brothers and sisters.
None of this will make sense to Catholics who are unwilling to challenge long and rigidly held attachments to past models and formulas of Catholicity.
What is needed is a “conversion of heart and mind”, a willingness to look at the Lord not as Teacher and Law Giver, but first and foremost as Lover and Friend, the Eternally Loyal Friend Who is always there with us and for us, in the easy and tough times, when we succeed but more importantly when we fail, ourselves and others.
We Catholics have always had a problem with this. We always asked whether the Lord was Just or Merciful, as though the two were mutually exclusive.
In the four years of his pontificate, Francis has challenged the Church to see that Almighty God is both, just and merciful, in one and the same instant. The Father justly condemned the world for its sinfulness, and He mercifully forgave the world in the Sacrifice of His Son for our sins, once and for all time.
Francis has opened a doorway to the Merciful Face of God which we Catholics simply have never seen before, at least at this level of the institutional Church.
Francis constantly reminds us that God loves us, that God has forgiven us, that He will never abandon us, no matter what!
God bless Pope Francis. Please give him strength of faith and strength of mind and body to continue the work which the Holy Spirit has begun through him.
On the Fourth Anniversary of Pope Francis, join with me in wishing him ad multos annos (many more years). Viva il Papa -- Long Live the Pope!
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