And the Keys of The Kingdom Pass again: To Francis I

I started to write about the election of the new Pope the day it happened. But then, personal life got in the way, tooth pain and root canal, and an infected finger, the result, sigh, of my having bitten my thumb nail to a nub such that it actually hurt to type. So, I get in on the commentary late in time.




I had hoped, also, to give focused, rapt attention to the moment of the white smoke and the presentation on the balcony of the new Vicar of Christ. Like others I did not expect it to happen quite so soon. But I had to be at my own church for Mass and was unable to wait for the bands and cardinals to gather and for the curtains to part. I was serving the 12:15 when a note was given to our pastor. Our pastor's prayer joined legions of those that had already wafted to the heavens on behalf of the man who will fill the "Shoes of the Fisherman", that of the first human custodian of the Divinely Inspired institution, the Catholic Church.

Oh, I know, folks will disagree that there is anything Divine in that mess that is being made by the Church's caretakers. But here is how I see it, Catholic that I am---anything that has survived for 2,000 years given the muck we creatures make of everything, has to be in the Hands of God Himself. Or, as someone famous once said, I believe because it is absurd to do so. When, if you have read here before, I pare it all down, the Center of our Church is Christ in the form of a consecrated piece of bread, fully present as if He stepped out of the tabernacle (there was a famous painting showing precisely that) to stand with us, to hold us up despite our most intense efforts to send ourselves to hell--which is merely separation for eternity from Him. Fire optional. Ok, I'm joking about the last part.

So, this man, and he is a man, Francis, has a heavy beam upon him, which he has accepted. So far, he impresses with his ease and simplicity. His selection of name has sent me back to looking at St. Francis and his secular order after much attention to St. Benedict and his.

St. Francis it was who advised his fraternity to preach, without words. It is the action of the man (or woman) who most models the faith, by acts of good or ill. Pope Francis has so far eschewed the most ostentatious of the regalia of his role which mostly hails from the Middle Ages. Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of that. We are tactile creatures. We need the pomp to get our attention. And to remind us of the need to hold the Lord in our mouths and hands in awe. But we don't need it to show off to one another or to others. We need the example of the newest fisher of men to evangelize about the Gift of Salvation in which we are asked to participate so that we can see God freely and fully.

It is going to take Grace for this new Pope to root out the narcissistic human greed that may permeate the Curia because we are weak vessels who need His constant watchfulness and herding.

For David Letterman it may all be quite the joke; for the 1.3 billion Catholics and maybe for humanity itself, it may well be a last chance to utter, "Yes, Lord, I come to do your Will."