I'm in love!

Yes it has only been one day since I laid eyes on him and vicariously met him, but I am smitten. My spirit joins with millions of others who are rejoicing today, thanking God for our new pope, Pope Francis, and thanking the Holy Spirit for guiding the cardinals to choose him.

 

From Catholic Memes.
How can you not love this man?!

Why am I so in love? “Let me count the ways…” Where do I begin? Let’s start with my first impressions from his greeting on the balcony. His body language, to me, spoke many words. He seems somewhat shy, introverted, perhaps a little socially awkward, deeply humble, and one who doesn’t want to be the center of attention. I, myself, identify with many of these traits (although, Christ-like humility is a life-long learning process..). In being able to identify myself with him, I cannot imagine how truly uncomfortable and terrifying it would be to overlook a crowd of over 150,000 people who are all there to see you and only you. Not only that, but hundreds (thousands?) of video cameras were there to transmit your greeting all over the world. You know your face was going to be on the front of every major newspaper, TV and radio broadcast, and social media page around the globe. I can’t imagine the kind of courage it takes to face such a challenge, but these words ring louder to me than ever before: “I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME.” In his greeting, I saw the perfect embodiment of this Bible verse. Speaking of Christ and Pope Francis’ body language--his shirking humility also screamed to me, “Please don’t glorify me. Glorify Jesus! Don’t look to me. Please look to Jesus!” As John the Baptist put it simply, “He must increase; I must decrease.”

 

Second, I was deeply moved by his simple greeting, and the common theme through his entire greeting: prayer. He first asked us all to pray with him for Pope Emeritus Benedict with an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. Then he asked us to always pray for each other, and for brotherhood throughout the whole world. Before he blessed his adoring crowd, he asked them to first bless him. As he bowed, he asked for all to pray silently for him, and you could certainly hear a pin drop as an enormous crowd suddenly and simultaneously bowed their heads as silent voices lifted up to Heaven, and undoubtedly, graces fell back down to earth. Then he gave us all his blessing and bid us farewell. Prayer, prayer, prayer. This man is certainly tuned in to communication with Heaven.


Next, I’m in love with his bold choice of a papal name: Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi. A simple, poor, humble servant, but one who was fearlessly on fire with love for the Gospel. There is so much symbolism and potential for the future that we can speculate from what we know about St. Francis. We know that when St. Francis was praying one day, he heard God say, “Francis, rebuild my Church.” While I prefer the optimistic side of life, because God is Hope and my hope is in Him, I can’t deny the fact that there are flaws in His Church. Afterall, it is an organization run by flawed, sinful humans. But we have a Church that needs fixings, from the Curia to the invasion of secularism, and everything in-between. Maybe Pope Francis heard this call. There is also a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, where he said, “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.” Even researching just a little bit of Jorge Bergoglio’s life, you would assume that this is essentially his life motto. He is a true, humble servant of Christ, who truly believes that he is not more important than anyone else. You can’t really say enough about him. Finally, in relation to St. Francis of Assisi, who is typically depicted with a bird, the Sistine seagull may or may not have been a coincidence (or “God-incidence)… Who knows.

 

Finally, I am in love with the effect he has on people. Just like a warm, sunny, early spring day can bring out the best spirits in people, so too does Pope Francis seem to bring about a softened heart in others. I typically dread reading Catholic news on secular media websites because they usually have said something wrong. I dread even more when I scroll to the bottom and read the comments from anonymous people with inflated “keyboard courage.” I have read some of the most hateful, evil, and vile things about the Catholic Church from these comment boxes. So today, I held my breath as I looked through these comments, but I was completely taken aback by what I saw. Comment after comment seemed to say something like, “I’m not a Catholic, but I really like this guy and I wish him the best.”--WHAT?! Are these even the same people?! My heart swelled as I read through many, similar comments of just simple, kind words for our new Holy Father from people on “the outside.” Pope Francis, in his Christ-like humility, pure love, and his proof that he can “walk the walk” instead of just “talk the talk” seems to be a breath of fresh air in this world that is hostile to Christianity, and especially Catholicism. It seems as though the Holy Spirit has truly chosen a Supreme Pontiff, or literally, a Supreme Bridge-Builder. My hopes are so high. The more I learn about him, the more excited I get. I pledge my full obedience to him.
“Francis, rebuild my Church.”

 

I’m in love.



To learn more about him, check out some of the standing facts about Pope Francis, as well as blogs and news bits that trickle in daily from New Advent.