As his “impromptu papacy” careens along, Pope Francis
continues to make headlines. After half a year, he decided to sit and chat,
about 10,000 words worth, with a fellow Jesuit about whatever the interviewer
wanted to ask. Maybe it’s time for us to sit, take a breath, and take the
measure of this thoroughly unexpected head of worldwide Catholicism.
First of all, what’s not different is the fact that the pope
upholds Catholic doctrine, as his recent speech to gynecologists descrying
abortion makes clear. What he did the following day illustrates what is
different.
He went to an Italian town stricken by poverty and
unemployment, and he amplified on Jesus’ contention that we cannot serve both
God and money. Those who place the acquisition of wealth above any other
priority, he declaimed, are idolaters whose greed deprives humans of the
dignity conferred by productive work.
During his talk that day, he departed from prepared remarks,
a favorite maneuver. Going off-script is one of three distinctive
characteristics of Pope Francis that have gripped even casual observers of the
man’s approach to leadership. He is most interesting when he is winging it.
That’s when you can clearly detect the soul of this unabashed lover of God and
God’s creation, especially the weak and the marginalized.
When he spoke to the unemployed about his own father’s
journey to the Americas to achieve a better life, a life devastated by the
Great Depression, they knew he understood their deep frustration and
humiliation, their stark fear. His imagery is always personal, vivid,
unadorned, and memorable.
The second element of the Francis trademark is in fact that
imagery, his preference for a metaphorical moment. We saw it when he asked us
to bless him as he was introduced as pope. It was patent in the amazing scene
of a pope washing the feet of young prisoners on Holy Thursday. And when he
held a cross made of the bark of a boat that had transported desperate
refugees, when he pleaded for immigrants at the very port where a similar boat capsized
killing many of those immigrants, we felt his message in a way no words could
ever transmit.
The third characteristic of this pope is his enduring and
endearing willingness to engage us. When asked questions, by the press, by a
fellow Jesuit, or by a wide-eyed child, he just answers. No vetting, no prior
constraints, no worries about the inevitable misunderstandings. He just
answers, and the chips fall where they may, often right into the headlines. One
of those headlines, by the way, tells us his Twitter followers have pushed him
to second place among all world leaders; only President Obama has more.
Like all popes, he also receives thousands of letters.
Unlike all popes, he is willing to engage these writers on their own terms. An
atheist pens an open letter to Francis, and the pope answers with an open
letter to the same publication. A pregnant single woman writes with great
anxiety; she discarded her boyfriend when he demanded she abort the child and
now wonders what priest will baptize this baby. The pope picks up the phone and
says, “I will.” Maybe the most effective pro life statement ever.
There are numerous instances of going off script, direct
engagement, and metaphorical moments. You might ask why he would resort to
metaphors. Aren’t they subject to misinterpretation? Perhaps, but think a
minute. The pope washed the feet of a young Muslim woman in juvenile detention.
Did he leave Catholics with any doubt about whether Muslims should be accorded
dignity and respect? How about young people? How about women? How about
prisoners?
Is there a priest somewhere who now has a question about
whether to baptize the child of a single Mom? Are any of us left with any
question about the worth of that mother or of her child? Metaphors can be as
unequivocal as the strongest statement of dogma.
Noted scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan contends that
Jesus used stories, parables, to teach his disciples for one reason: he wanted
to challenge them, get them questioning, talking, rethinking accepted wisdom.
He was less interested in transmitting narrow, static statements of doctrine.
I see Pope Francis also challenging us, making us question
the deepest meaning of our faith. In a world envious and worshipful of great
wealth, he points to the unemployed and says, “Someone is worshiping a false
idol.” In a world mistrustful of those who are hard to understand, hard to look
at, hard to respect, he asks, “What if you just bent down and washed their
feet?”
In a world wary of hucksters, tired of dogmatists, sick of
violence, and fed up with duplicity, he says, “What is your question?” And then
he smiles, looks you in the eye, and gives the answer welling from his heart.
It’s a heart warmed and lit by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a
heart completely open to the irresistible call to proclaim it. He has become
for many of us — if I may use a metaphor — our Good News anchor.
No comments:
Post a Comment