Issued by the Catholic Center for Studies and Media - Jordan. Editor-in-chief Fr. Rif'at Bader - موقع أبونا abouna.org

Published on Wednesday, 17 January 2018
'God’s people don’t expect us to be superheroes...'

By Andrea Tornielli from Santiago de Chile :

“God’s people don’t expect us to be superheroes but shepherds with compassion”
To the priests and nuns of Chile Francis delivers his most important speech of the journey and offers ideas that describe the mission and the relationship with the Christian world, “A Church with wounds can understand the wounds of today’s world and make them her own”.

“God’s people neither expect nor need us to be superheroes. They expect pastors, consecrated persons, who know what it is to be compassionate". Pope Francis, before the image of the Mother Mary placed for the occasion next to the altar in the Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, pronounces one of the most beautiful meditations of his pontificate. He speaks to priests and nuns, offering ideas that describe the mission and the relationship with modernity valid for every Christian. He does so by recalling three moments in Peter's life: when he is disheartened for Jesus' death, when he's shown mercy and when he is transfigured. Three moments he shared with the first community, because, Francis explains, “the life of apostles always has this twofold dimension, the personal and the communitarian", “They go hand-in-hand and we cannot separate them” because "We are called individually but always as part of a larger group. Where vocation is concerned, there is no such thing as a selfie! Vocation demands that somebody else take your picture, and that is what we are about to do!"

Bergoglio then described the destruction and loss of disciples after the crucifixion. "Peter had denied him; Judas had betrayed him; the others had fled and hid themselves. Only a handful of women and the beloved disciple remained. The rest took off. In a matter of days, everything had fallen apart". There are times “when the tempest of persecutions, tribulations, doubts, and so forth, is raised by cultural and historical events, it is not easy to find the path to follow. Those times have their own temptations: the temptation to debate ideas, to avoid the matter at hand, to be too concerned with our enemies… And I believe that the worst temptation of all is to keep dwelling on our own unhappiness”. Yes, dwelling on our own unhappiness.”

The Pope connects this moment of upheaval and desertion to Chile’s situation regarding the scandal of clerical pedophilia: “I know the pain resulting from cases of abuse of minors and I am attentive to what you are doing to respond to this great and painful evil" he says. “Painful because of the harm and sufferings of the victims and their families, who saw the trust they had placed in the Church’s ministers betrayed. Painful too for the suffering of ecclesial communities, but also painful for you, brothers and sisters". I know – he adds - that at times you have been insulted in the metro or walking on the street, and that by going around in clerical attire in many places you pay a heavy price. For this reason, I suggest that we ask God to grant us the clear-sightedness to call reality by its name, the strength to seek forgiveness and the ability to listen to what he tells us".

Francis then spoke about our rapidly changing societies. "New and different cultural expressions are being born which do not fit into our familiar patterns. We have to realize that many times we do not know how to deal with these new situations. Sometimes we dream of the “fleshpots of Egypt” and we forget that the promised land lies ahead of us, that the promise is not about yesterday but about tomorrow". Here, then, “We can yield to the temptation of becoming closed, isolating ourselves and defending our ways of seeing things, which then turn out as nothing more than fine monologues. We can be tempted to think that everything is wrong, and in place of “good news”, the only thing we profess is apathy and disappointment."

This attitude can be found in various parts of the world, especially in the West, where pessimism towards modernity spreads and makes certain Christians sterile so “as a result, we shut our eyes to the pastoral challenges, thinking that the Spirit has nothing to say about them. In this way, we forget that the Gospel is a journey of conversion, not just for “others” but for ourselves as well.”

Whether we like it or not, we are called to face reality as it is.

Then Francis spoke of Peter shown mercy. "It is time for Peter to have to confront a part of himself. The part of him that many times he didn’t want to see. He experienced his limitation, his frailty and his sinfulness. Peter, the temperamental, impulsive leader and saviour, self-sufficient and over-confident in himself and in his possibilities, had to acknowledge his weakness and sin. He was a sinner like everyone else, as needy as the others, as frail as anyone else. Peter had failed the one he had promised to protect. It is a crucial moment in Peter’s life".

"As disciples, as Church - Bergoglio explains- we can have the same experience: there are moments when we have to face not our success but our weakness. Crucial moments in the life of a disciple, but also the times when an apostle is born. Let us allow the text to guide us". "But Jesus, the Pontiff adds, asks Peter if he loved him, as Jesus neither reproaches nor condemns. The only thing that he wants to do is to save Peter. He wants to save him from the danger of remaining closed in on his sin, constantly dwelling with remorse on his frailty... Jesus wants to save him from self-centredness and isolation. He wants to save him from the destructive attitude of becoming a victim or of thinking “what does it matter”, which waters down any commitment and ends up in the worst sort of relativism."

"Jesus wants to set him free from seeing his opponents as enemies and being upset by opposition and criticism. He wants to free him from being downcast and, above all, negative. By his question, Jesus asks Peter to listen to his heart and to learn how to discern. What is it that confirms Peter as an apostle? What sustains us as apostles? the Pope asked himself, answering, One thing only: that we “received mercy... Jesus has looked upon us and drawn near to us. He has given us his hand and shown us mercy.”

“We are not here because we are better than others; we are not superheroes who stoop down from the heights to encounter mere mortals – Francis continued with words aimed at the Chilean Church - Rather, we are sent as men and women conscious of having been forgiven. That is the source of our joy. And as " Jesus Christ does not appear to his disciples without his wounds", His are also invited "not to hide or hide" their wounds. A Church with wounds - explains Bergoglio - can understand the wounds of today’s world and make them her own, suffering with them, accompanying them and seeking to heal them. A wounded Church does not make herself the centre of things, does not believe that she is perfect, but puts at the centre the one who can heal those wounds, whose name is Jesus Christ".

“The knowledge that we are wounded sets us free. Yes, it sets us free from becoming self-referential and thinking ourselves superior. It sets us free from the promethean tendency of “those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style of the past”.

In Jesus - Francis said again - our wounds have risen. our wounds are risen. They inspire solidarity; they help us to tear down the walls that enclose us in elitism and they impel us to build bridges and to encounter all those yearning for that merciful love which Christ alone can give. “How often we dream up vast apostolic projects, meticulously planned, just like defeated generals! But this is to deny our history as a Church, which is glorious precisely because it is a history of sacrifice, of hopes and daily struggles, of lives spent in service". The Pope does not fail to express his concern because there are "communities more worried about their image, about occupying spaces, about appearances and publicity, than about going out to touch the suffering of our faithful people".

“God’s people neither expect nor need us to be superheroes. They expect pastors, consecrated persons, who know what it is to be compassionate, who can give a helping hand, who can spend time with those who have fallen".

"Peter, thus, transfigures himself. He who resisted having his feet washed by his Master, “now begins to understand that true greatness comes from being lowly and a servant”. What a good teacher our Lord is! The prophetic gesture of Jesus points to the prophetic Church that, washed of her sin, is unafraid to go out to serve a wounded humanity". An invitation, Bergoglio explains, "to pass from being a Church of the unhappy and disheartened to a Church that serves all those people who are unhappy and disheartened in our midst. A Church capable of serving her Lord in those who are hungry, imprisoned, thirsting, homeless, naked and infirm… A service that has nothing to do with a welfare mentality or an attitude of paternalism, but rather with the conversion of hearts".

The problem in fact, Francis concludes,"is not feeding the poor, clothing the naked and visiting the sick, but rather recognizing that the poor, the naked, the sick, prisoners and the homeless have the dignity to sit at our table, to feel “at home” among us, to feel part of a family. This is the sign that the kingdom of heaven is in our midst”.

Therefore, "To renew prophecy is to renew our commitment not to expect an ideal world, an ideal community, or an ideal disciple in order to be able to live and evangelize, but rather to make it possible for every disheartened person to encounter Jesus. One does not love ideal situations or ideal communities; one loves persons”.

The Pope then sealed his speech with a prayer by the great Chilean Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, “The Church that I love is the holy Church of each day… Yours, mine, the holy Church of each day… “Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the bread, the Eucharist, the humble Body of Christ of each day. With the faces of the poor, the faces of men and women who sing, who struggle, who suffer. The holy Church of each day.”