(Contact Dr. Frantz on the web at www.mlcchurch.com.)
Hurrah for Pope Francis! I have to tell you, I am excited about the new Pope, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope. He is such a breath of fresh air, so seemingly grounded and aware of what the Roman Catholic Church he now heads ought to be about.
I was reflecting on this a few weeks back in the presence of some of my church members and one of them remarked, Yes, I hear you! He's so Christian! And of course, that's exactly it. We have a Pope who is acting like and talking like a Christian, with his humble style and clear advocacy for the poor. Francis doesn't come across as some clerical hierarch, but as a servant to others.
For starters, he has chosen not to live in the ornate, well-manicured papal apartments; and on Holy Thursday (before Easter), Pope Francis went to a prison chapel in Romero (off the Vatican grounds) where he bathed and kissed the feet of inmates at a juvenile detention center (recalling Jesus' bathing the feet of the disciples in John's gospel), a stunning act of of humility. As it turned out, two of the inmates were women and one was Muslim.
In a speech to the poor in Rio de Janeiro, Francis gave a ringing declaration of the church's absolute commitment to the poor where he urged all people of good will to never tire of working for a more just world. Another salient quality of this Pope is that, during his time with the poor in Brazil, he was nearly always smiling.
Joy is one of the surest signs of God's presence. How this plays out is that people feel like hugging this Pope; people of all ages. Everywhere he goes, the hugs and human expressions of joy abound. It's the joy of feeling seen, valued and loved as human persons. The importance of the human person. A trademark of Pope Francis' Christian faith is the distinct emphasis he places on the human person, on the individual believer.
For him, religion and ethics are not the same thing. In an interview with the magazine Jesuit Publication America, Francis reminds us: The church must be more than the sum of small-minded rules. True religion, Pope Francis affirms, is an affair of the heart. At the end of the day, our religion must be about people, all people. We are all sinners, no matter anything about us; which means we should approach every human being with humble, nonjudgmental spirit – whether they are one of us or not; whether we like them or not; whether we agree with them or not. Ethical religion, without love, is arid and misleading.
Relationship to God and neighbor come first. The ethics part comes later – after we have already fed the hungry, healed the sick, bound up the wounded, lifted up the poor and done everything we can to make for a more just and fair world. Human dignity runs deeper than our failures. Pope Francis' priority of the person is a big deal; it is a powerful insight.
In an article on the Pope, columnist Michael Gerson says, For God's purposes, human beings are completely equal and completely loved. They cannot be reduced to ethical object lessons. Their dignity runs deeper than their failures. Human beings matter more than any cause; indeed, they are the cause.
Think of the implications of this powerful affirmation! Consider the world we could build if we really believed and practiced that a person's dignity runs deeper than their failures! That every human beings' dignity runs deeper than their imperfections! We all have our flaws and imperfections. Nations, too, lose their way and find themselves trapped in periods of inept and corrupt leadership.
Across the planet, the sting of poverty and one deprivation after another sounds out. However, this does not mean that human persons and nations everywhere are not worthy of being treated with dignity. Pope Francis offer a new glimpse of hope for our human situation. His prudent assertion that religion is an affair of the heart can potentially nudge us all to higher spiritual ground.