From Pope Francis on this Father's Day

06-18-2017Weekly ReflectionFr. Brian Jazdzewski

I have become intrigued about our current Pope Francis. Some of my curiosity stems from the opinion of some people about his radical, progressive and liberal ideas. Some of my curiosity stems from his decision to depart from his Jesuit upbringing and, rather than embrace a Jesuit saint for his name, takes on the name of Francis, the founder of a different religious congregation. Some of my curiosity stems from his election as the first non-European pope in Catholic Church history; he's from Argentina in South America. Some of my curiosity is a consequence of his formative years in Argentina, his ordination class, his lived experience; a good portion of his ministry has been lived post Vatican II (1965).

Finally, since we all look to him as our spiritual father as Vicar of Christ, I'm sharing some thought-provoking quotes from Pope Francis on this Father's Day. With all of that being said, I'm gleaning my references from The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh.

The first thought I'll share is Pope Francis' approach to listen to the people of God. He supports our faithfulness to the Magisterium, where we find the voice of the Holy Spirit, he also supports the voice of the Holy Spirit coming from the people of God. And, since we are all oriented to growing in holiness, we are supposed to be oriented toward God, as individuals and as the Body of Christ.

Bergolio [his name before becoming Pope] had what theologians call a hermeneutic – an interpretative key, or yardstick – that would allow him to reform and unite the province by focusing very directly on the poor. It was neither conservative nor clerical: he did not believe that the clergy or Rome were in possession of the truth that they distributed downward, but that the Holy Spirit was revealed through a dialogue between the people of faith and the universal Church.

The second thought I'll share are the principles he preached when working with his Argentinean Jesuits for a sense of reform. Their numbers, and vocations, were dwindling and he was tasked with helping bring new life into their Order. In order for deep reform to take place, he suggests signs to watch out for: "where conflict is more important than unity, the part more important than the whole, and personal ideas more important than reality." Perhaps, in your personal reform, family reform, organizational reform, whatever reform, you might consider how Pope Francis' signs might apply.

The third thought is connected to his reform of the Argentinean Jesuits. He suggests two vaccinations to bring about health of the organization.

The first was the God's-holy-faithful-people idea, God's power was to be discerned not in elite schemes but in the ordinary believing poor. The second was a series of governing "Christian principles" captured in a series of criteria for discernment. In 1974, there were three: unity comes before conflict, the whole comes before the part, time comes before space. By 1980, he added a fourth: reality comes before the idea.

In conclusion, these citations do not satisfy the answers to my curiosities. These quotations do, however, suggest some of the backdrop for his leadership as Pope. He has experience in significant reform; after his work with the Argentinean Jesuits, their numbers and vocations significantly increased. He also upholds a great influence in listening and caring for people; he wants to hear how God speaks through them. At the core of it all is his deep affection for God. He wants to discover God's love more deeply each day and help others see God's love for them. We pray for Pope Francis, our spiritual father, that he will continue to help us be Church in the modern day.

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