I think a light bulb just clicked on in my brain.
Perhaps, for just a millisecond, I believe my spirit merged with the Cosmic and Divine Wisdom which governs all things and, in that instant, I believe I was allowed to glimpse the resilience and the brilliance of Pope Francis.
The Holy Father is a Jesuit wrapped in Franciscan tenderness.
As a Pastor of souls, Francis exudes the profoundly charming charism of his namesake. Gentle, patient, kind, without harsh words or judgments, deeply serene and unshakeably confident in the bounty of the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness.
As an administrator, the Pope is both studied and careful, practical and daring. He possesses the characteristic trait of all Jesuits, that is, the ability to be faithful to the Church while, at the very same time, testing the Church’s limits both structurally and theologically.
For this reason, Francis has appeared to be an enigma.
To conservatives, Francis is the antithesis of institutional tradition and orthodoxy, challenging the Church to explore the full implications of a Gospel whose charity looks beyond the narrow confinements of credal formulas and catechetical axioms.
Yet, to liberals, the Pope is a source of great frustration in his hesitance and reluctance to reform ancient customs and disciplines which have been a source of continuity and stability for centuries.
I believe this is the reason Francis continues to be puzzling to so many.
Indoctrinated and formed in the theology and praxis of classical Western European philosophy and culture, most Catholics see reality in terms of black and white. A thing, an idea, an action is either real, true or right or it is an illusion, a lie, or wrong. A thing cannot be real and illusory at the same time. An idea cannot be correct and incorrect in one moment. An human act is either right or wrong, meritorious or sinful, deserving of reward or punishment.
Francis, however, seems disposed to see reality, especially Christian reality, not as black or white but predominantly grey. For Francis, there is no difficulty in accepting the reality that people are both saints and sinners, not one or the other. In each of us, both the divine and the mundane find harbor. In so many ways, we yearn for the peace and comfort which the Grace of the Sacraments promise, yet we remain obstinate to the very virtues which the Sacraments are meant to inspire and nurture.
How else can we understand how Francis can accept and allow those who are in an objective state of serious sin to still be capable of having access to the Sacraments? Because the Franciscan and the Jesuit co-exist in this Pontiff.
The overwhelming majority of Catholics want the Holy Father to give definite answers to definite questions. They want the Pope to demand that Bishops allow their Priests to provide Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics unwilling to practice sexual abstinence. They want the Universal Church to allow for the ordination of married men to the Priesthood everywhere. Most Catholics want definite responses that will be universally binding upon all the Christian faithful.
Instead, the Holy Father is content to respond to specific questions and issues with a "maybe, let's see" answer.
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, for example, Francis says that “in some cases” divorced and remarried Catholics “might be able” to approach the Sacraments, while “in other cases” they “might not”. Each situation must be considered individually, through a process of discernment and pastoral accompaniment.
For Pope Francis, there are no universal answers to what are always uniquely personal circumstances. The Gospel is not meant to be a book of rules with which the faithful are pounded over the head until they comply. Rather, the Gospel is a primer of sorts, helping the troubled and the weak in Faith to be assured of God's understanding and forgiveness. The Lord does not make demands upon His followers but accompanies all those who draw close to Him seeking His compassion and mercy.
It’s been suggested to me that the Oriental culture and mindset lives comfortably in a world of both “ying” and “yang”. According to the wisdom of the Orient, life unfolds amidst the constant effort at finding a balance between the pulls and tugs of the cosmic tension that exists in all things.
I confess to being quite ignorant of the South American (and especially Argentine) culture and outlook on life. But it seems to me that this Argentine Jesuit Pope is equally comfortable in accepting a world in which humanity finds itself in a struggle to achieve some sense of balance between the tensions of moral opposites.
Of this, I am reasonably sure. No European or American Pope could possibly have compoased and promulgated Amoris Laetitia. No African or Japanese Pope ever would consider permitting married men to be ordained to the Priesthood. Their cultural and ecclesiastical formation simply prohibits them from accepting the apparent contradictions in theology and history which such reforms suggest.
And so, I think we should all accept the fact that the best answer we can expect from this Pope to any question put to him will be “yes and no”, "maybe, let's see".
For Francis, it is and rightfully should be the duty of the Bishops to provide answers to these questions in a way which provides for the welfare of those entrusted to their pastoral care.
And so, the Church’s response to certain questions or issues will be answered in one way in certain places and in others ways in other places, depending upon the discernment of the local Bishops and not the Pope alone.
The days of "Roma locuta, caua finita est" are over. No more universally applicable Vatican solutions. No black or white answers. Rather, grey responses based upon individually discernable circumstances and situations.
Whether or not my assessment of this Pontiff is correct, whether or not that light bulb which went off in my brain was just a short-circuit only time will tell.
The question for the moment is whether or not we Catholics can live in this present world of grey-ness without watching the Church we love fragment and dissolve before our very eyes.
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