Que Viva el Papa!
I know you won't mind that I interrupt our little series on the Apostles Creed this week to speak about our new Pope! Brothers, all I can say is wow!
The Holy Spirit loves to surprise us and He’s done it again by choosing
the first Jesuit pope; the first pope from the Western Hemisphere; and, dare I say most importantly, the
first pope named after St. Francis of Assisi!
In a sense, all Catholics are Franciscan now and are invited to join
Pope Francis in rebuilding the Church through the radical living of the gospel!
Continuing where Pope Benedict XVI left off, the Pope wasted
no time in showing us where true and lasting renewal comes from: Our Savior Jesus Christ! Renewal is not a fruit of our own effort, but
is a fruit of proclaiming Christ crucified and allowing Him to live in us!
The day after his election he proclaimed: “…We can build many things, but if we do not
confess Jesus Christ, nothing will avail.
We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of Christ…
When one does not build on solid rocks, what happens? What happens is what happens to children on
the beach when they make sandcastles:
everything collapses, it is without consistency…. When one does not
profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil…. When we walk
without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ
without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly; we are bishops, priests,
cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord. I would like that all of us, after these days
of grace, might have the courage to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the
Cross of the Lord: to build the Church
on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one
glory, Christ Crucified!”
Brothers, now is a great time to be a Franciscan—to be a
witness to the individual, communal and Church-wide renewal that living the
gospel brings! Whether we are called to
don the Franciscan habit or not, all of us can heed Pope Francis’ call to
rebuild the Church by embracing Christ crucified and allowing Him to rebuild
us! What a blessed time to be a
Franciscan! What a blessed time to be a
Catholic! God bless you all!
Pax et bonum!
Fr. Isaac Mary Spinharney, CFR
St. Joseph Friary
Harlem, NY
The most powerful first impression that one gets from our new Holy Father is that he totally empties himself of his own ego to place himself at the center of Christ's will - an example that everyone can follow. In the pleasure-only world of secularism, where mere lip service is often paid to professing Christ, confessing Christ, striving to live at the center of His will, and taking up our daily cross within a life in the Sacraments shows that we are truly walking with Him.
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