The Pope is here, as everyone knows, and he is a different kind of pope. Like millions of other people, including non-Catholics, I feel I have a special relationship with him, for we saw him two years ago in Vatican Square, along with 100 thousand others. We have a picture of him from our own camera, as he came riding by less than 10 feet from us. I have, on my desk, a medallion of the Virgin that was blessed (en masse - we held our items in the air, like so many pagans, for the blessing) by the Pope. He is quiet of voice, gentle of voice, understanding, not only willing to forgive, but anxious to.
We feel that he is in our corner, this holy man, who Matt Lauer said was "Buddhist-like," as if only Orientals - I use the old term on purpose - had inner holiness and peace. He wants not to condemn, but to heal. That is clear. A cloud follows him, that is for sure, one that is exhaled by our own political concerns, from Global Warming to Abortion. But that is our problem, not the Pope's. What he wants is clear - healing and brotherhood. We might believe he caters to our own visions, or does not, based on his stances that are used politically, but that is not his point. If I can be so presumptuous, that is, for what do I know?
For I cannot prove this intellectually. It is in the feel of him, the Pope's aura, that I make that statement. Talking to a friend of mine a few days ago, one who has long been dismissive of Catholicism, I was somewhat surprised to hear her say that this visit "is a point of change for the world." She said she could feel it. I coldly replied that, based on the normal stream of events, his presence was less than world-changing; that it palled in comparison to, say, Russia's involvement in Syria. I reasoned that she, as an intellectual and foe of capitalism, found his presence important because he believed as she did on this issue.
Now I am not so sure, and in fact am coming to believe, hoping to believe. It is not only that Pope Francis's messages challenge everyone - would the anti-capitalists agree with his views on abortion or gay marriage? - just as Christ did, but that he operates on this different level, what Lauer called Buddhist- like. I do believe strongly in the strength of presence. Miracles alone did not make Jesus the Christ to his followers, just as Antisemitism alone did not make Hitler. Just as we have dream worlds that seem so complete to us in a dream, so we have other avenues of experience that deeply affect us. Dreams are usually personal, but spiritual presence is its own world, one that can be universalized. Dreams are unconscious, as we understand it, and we know full well that the unconscious is behind many of our greatest decisions - from whom we marry to our political and religious beliefs. Yet we do not always know where these impulses come from. Much of social science is dedicated to this mystery, and social science is far from answering decidedly this fundamental question.
Neither do we know how the spirit works, but it does work. Faith has, indeed, moved mountains, but the mountains are, more often than not, not of this world - just like spiritual power. It works in mysterious ways. It does not work through proclamations about global warming, but in the presence of that something special. It is this something special that Pope Francis has, and this, we could only hope, would be recognized definitively by the chattering political heads in the news. Matt Lauer got it more right than he knew.
They will not recognize this, but many of us already DO have a sense of this spiritual quality that we cannot explain. It will not work its wonders through legislation, but, as Christians would say, through the heart. That is the mountain that is to be moved. How it will be translated into action in this world, from a spiritual perspective, is not the most important part of it, but for us, it often is, and this we cannot know; thank God, for if we did, we would screw it up. Who can tell what can grow from an unknown seed? But I can feel it, yes, and I hope my friend is right. The spirit is there, but are we willing? Are we willing to let our sails pick up the wind that blows us to who-knows-where?
We should be. As every heart beat I have tells me, this life passes. There is something more, much much more, and sometimes it comes to us more clearly than at others. Perhaps it comes to us now, with a force that we cannot know but that will lead this world with the wiser hand that comes from beyond impulse, from the heart of the mystery of being itself. FK
We feel that he is in our corner, this holy man, who Matt Lauer said was "Buddhist-like," as if only Orientals - I use the old term on purpose - had inner holiness and peace. He wants not to condemn, but to heal. That is clear. A cloud follows him, that is for sure, one that is exhaled by our own political concerns, from Global Warming to Abortion. But that is our problem, not the Pope's. What he wants is clear - healing and brotherhood. We might believe he caters to our own visions, or does not, based on his stances that are used politically, but that is not his point. If I can be so presumptuous, that is, for what do I know?
For I cannot prove this intellectually. It is in the feel of him, the Pope's aura, that I make that statement. Talking to a friend of mine a few days ago, one who has long been dismissive of Catholicism, I was somewhat surprised to hear her say that this visit "is a point of change for the world." She said she could feel it. I coldly replied that, based on the normal stream of events, his presence was less than world-changing; that it palled in comparison to, say, Russia's involvement in Syria. I reasoned that she, as an intellectual and foe of capitalism, found his presence important because he believed as she did on this issue.
Now I am not so sure, and in fact am coming to believe, hoping to believe. It is not only that Pope Francis's messages challenge everyone - would the anti-capitalists agree with his views on abortion or gay marriage? - just as Christ did, but that he operates on this different level, what Lauer called Buddhist- like. I do believe strongly in the strength of presence. Miracles alone did not make Jesus the Christ to his followers, just as Antisemitism alone did not make Hitler. Just as we have dream worlds that seem so complete to us in a dream, so we have other avenues of experience that deeply affect us. Dreams are usually personal, but spiritual presence is its own world, one that can be universalized. Dreams are unconscious, as we understand it, and we know full well that the unconscious is behind many of our greatest decisions - from whom we marry to our political and religious beliefs. Yet we do not always know where these impulses come from. Much of social science is dedicated to this mystery, and social science is far from answering decidedly this fundamental question.
Neither do we know how the spirit works, but it does work. Faith has, indeed, moved mountains, but the mountains are, more often than not, not of this world - just like spiritual power. It works in mysterious ways. It does not work through proclamations about global warming, but in the presence of that something special. It is this something special that Pope Francis has, and this, we could only hope, would be recognized definitively by the chattering political heads in the news. Matt Lauer got it more right than he knew.
They will not recognize this, but many of us already DO have a sense of this spiritual quality that we cannot explain. It will not work its wonders through legislation, but, as Christians would say, through the heart. That is the mountain that is to be moved. How it will be translated into action in this world, from a spiritual perspective, is not the most important part of it, but for us, it often is, and this we cannot know; thank God, for if we did, we would screw it up. Who can tell what can grow from an unknown seed? But I can feel it, yes, and I hope my friend is right. The spirit is there, but are we willing? Are we willing to let our sails pick up the wind that blows us to who-knows-where?
We should be. As every heart beat I have tells me, this life passes. There is something more, much much more, and sometimes it comes to us more clearly than at others. Perhaps it comes to us now, with a force that we cannot know but that will lead this world with the wiser hand that comes from beyond impulse, from the heart of the mystery of being itself. FK
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