The Pope in a place of pain
24/05/14 05:37
OK, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A jew and a muslim and a Christian go on a trip together. . . Oh, this isn’t a joke. It is another sign that the leadership of the Roman Catholic church is very different than once was the case. Four popes have traveled to the mideast in my lifetime. Pope Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI all visited the Holy Land and all met with leaders of the Orthodox Church. Pope Paul VI’s historic trip was the first meeting of the heads of the two churches in over 900 years of separation between Eastern and Western Christianity. It was an historic trip Pope Francis is scheduled to meet with Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew. The two are set to sign a declaration of friendship.
But there is more to the visit than that. Pope Francis has a long history of pursuing friendships that cross religious boundaries. He really is traveling with a rabbi and an imam. They are friends that he has had for many years, both are from his native Argentina where Francis was active in reaching out to members of other religions in mutual recognition and friendship.
The Pope’s first stop is Jordan. Regular tourists who visit the Middle East often schedule visits to Jordan, if they visit there at all, at the end of the trip because security officials are known to pay special attention to those who travel from Jordan to Israel. Something tells me that they can trust this particular traveler. While in Jordan, he will meet with King Abdullah II, celebrate a Mass in a stadium in Amman and meet face-to-face with Syrian refugees.
You can count on this pope to be as genuine and open when he meets refugees as when he meets with a king. That is the kind of person that he is.
On this trip he will visit the West Bank. That is where Jesus is believed to have been born. He will visit the al-Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock and pray at the Western Wall. His pilgrimage intentionally includes sites that are sacred to Jewish and Muslim faithful as well as those honored and revered by Christians. Remember he is traveling with a rabbi and an imam. This pope takes relationships with other religions seriously.
It is a very different kind of visit than ones made by previous Popes.
Of course the tragic history of the region is reflected in its current difficulties in achieving anything that looks like peace. I don’t expect the visit of a Pope, even this extraordinary man, to work some kind of magic and bring peace where so much convict and strife has left so many bitter feelings. Just a few weeks ago the latest round of Israeli=Palestinian peace talks collapsed. Israeli police are on high alert and several Jewish right-wing activists are under restraining orders because of tensions that have preceded the Pope’s visit. Yesterday offensive anti-Christian graffiti was painted on the wall of a church in the southern city of Beersheba.
Still, symbolism is important and people do pay attention to the Pope, even those who have no connection with the Roman Catholic Church. Among my colleagues we joke about Francis being “the protestants’ favorite Pope.” He is an amazing man and his first year has demonstrated an entirely different style of leadership for the church. His simple style has won him praise. He shuns the trappings of Papal power. He takes the bus with his cardinals and lives a very modest life. He kisses the feet of criminals.And he has brought change to the church that is deeper than simply style. He talks about social justice more than sexual morality. There is serious reform of the church’s central government going on. He has appointed a cardinal to provide strict financial oversight to the operations of the Vatican. Rolling Stone Magazine called him a superstar Pope. Francis wants no part of such titles and he shuns the praise. He does not seek attention and lives as simply as possible. After all, he chose the name of a saint who dedicated his life to poverty. He urges clerics to lead frugal lives and demonstrates that commitment in the way he lives his own life. He invites all to join him in resisting worldly temptations and concentrate on life’s essentials.
I don’t have illusions about what can be accomplished by the visit of one man. Francis himself is humble when speaking of what can be accomplished by his trip. But it can’t hurt for the leader of the world’s largest and wealthiest church to demonstrate how to reach across religious barriers by traveling with friends of other faiths and to greet the leader of the other side of a rift that has been boiling in the church for a thousand years.
It can’t hurt for the Pope to pray at the Western Wall and in a famous mosque. It can’t hurt for him to meet refugees face-to-face and listen to the plight of those who are displaced by the animosities. It doesn’t hurt that he lives and travels simply and has no interest in displays of wealth or power.
We’ve seen the failures of power brokers in the Middle East. We have witnessed that peace cannot be bought with billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid. Genuine humility and a simple love of people bring hope where power and weapons and wealth have failed.
As he left the Vatican for the trip, Francis told reporters, “My heart beats and is looking for love.” There is a worthy vocation - to look for love in a place where others have found pain and fear and hatred and destruction. It isn’t just that he is “looking for love in all the wrong places.” It is that he expects to find it. I‘m confident that he will. That’s what happens when you expect the grace of God to shine through.
Francis is more than a gift of God to the Roman Catholic Church. He is a gift of God to the world.
But there is more to the visit than that. Pope Francis has a long history of pursuing friendships that cross religious boundaries. He really is traveling with a rabbi and an imam. They are friends that he has had for many years, both are from his native Argentina where Francis was active in reaching out to members of other religions in mutual recognition and friendship.
The Pope’s first stop is Jordan. Regular tourists who visit the Middle East often schedule visits to Jordan, if they visit there at all, at the end of the trip because security officials are known to pay special attention to those who travel from Jordan to Israel. Something tells me that they can trust this particular traveler. While in Jordan, he will meet with King Abdullah II, celebrate a Mass in a stadium in Amman and meet face-to-face with Syrian refugees.
You can count on this pope to be as genuine and open when he meets refugees as when he meets with a king. That is the kind of person that he is.
On this trip he will visit the West Bank. That is where Jesus is believed to have been born. He will visit the al-Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock and pray at the Western Wall. His pilgrimage intentionally includes sites that are sacred to Jewish and Muslim faithful as well as those honored and revered by Christians. Remember he is traveling with a rabbi and an imam. This pope takes relationships with other religions seriously.
It is a very different kind of visit than ones made by previous Popes.
Of course the tragic history of the region is reflected in its current difficulties in achieving anything that looks like peace. I don’t expect the visit of a Pope, even this extraordinary man, to work some kind of magic and bring peace where so much convict and strife has left so many bitter feelings. Just a few weeks ago the latest round of Israeli=Palestinian peace talks collapsed. Israeli police are on high alert and several Jewish right-wing activists are under restraining orders because of tensions that have preceded the Pope’s visit. Yesterday offensive anti-Christian graffiti was painted on the wall of a church in the southern city of Beersheba.
Still, symbolism is important and people do pay attention to the Pope, even those who have no connection with the Roman Catholic Church. Among my colleagues we joke about Francis being “the protestants’ favorite Pope.” He is an amazing man and his first year has demonstrated an entirely different style of leadership for the church. His simple style has won him praise. He shuns the trappings of Papal power. He takes the bus with his cardinals and lives a very modest life. He kisses the feet of criminals.And he has brought change to the church that is deeper than simply style. He talks about social justice more than sexual morality. There is serious reform of the church’s central government going on. He has appointed a cardinal to provide strict financial oversight to the operations of the Vatican. Rolling Stone Magazine called him a superstar Pope. Francis wants no part of such titles and he shuns the praise. He does not seek attention and lives as simply as possible. After all, he chose the name of a saint who dedicated his life to poverty. He urges clerics to lead frugal lives and demonstrates that commitment in the way he lives his own life. He invites all to join him in resisting worldly temptations and concentrate on life’s essentials.
I don’t have illusions about what can be accomplished by the visit of one man. Francis himself is humble when speaking of what can be accomplished by his trip. But it can’t hurt for the leader of the world’s largest and wealthiest church to demonstrate how to reach across religious barriers by traveling with friends of other faiths and to greet the leader of the other side of a rift that has been boiling in the church for a thousand years.
It can’t hurt for the Pope to pray at the Western Wall and in a famous mosque. It can’t hurt for him to meet refugees face-to-face and listen to the plight of those who are displaced by the animosities. It doesn’t hurt that he lives and travels simply and has no interest in displays of wealth or power.
We’ve seen the failures of power brokers in the Middle East. We have witnessed that peace cannot be bought with billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid. Genuine humility and a simple love of people bring hope where power and weapons and wealth have failed.
As he left the Vatican for the trip, Francis told reporters, “My heart beats and is looking for love.” There is a worthy vocation - to look for love in a place where others have found pain and fear and hatred and destruction. It isn’t just that he is “looking for love in all the wrong places.” It is that he expects to find it. I‘m confident that he will. That’s what happens when you expect the grace of God to shine through.
Francis is more than a gift of God to the Roman Catholic Church. He is a gift of God to the world.