DeVaul: Pope is refreshing, renewing all Christians
A few years ago, during the papacy of Benedict XVI, a colleague of mine mentioned to me that he loved whenever the pope made a particularly divisive or poorly received public statement. He said it meant more ex-Catholics would soon be making their way to the Episcopal Church.
I have no idea whether or not my friend's statement had any statistical backing, or was merely anecdotal – all I remember was how sad it made me to hear him say it.
Jesus gave his life to the task of bringing God's love, grace, compassion, healing, joy, justice and truth into the lives of every single person he met. Jesus lived, died and was raised for the purpose of bringing the world into a real, meaningful, lasting relationship with God.
Ultimately, if we are followers of Jesus, fostering this relationship should be our primary (and secondary and tertiary) concern. Making sure people have a relationship with God exactly the same way we do is short-sighted. We want people to comprehend the height and depth and width and breadth of God's love for them – and our desire for this knowledge should trump our desire for how it comes to pass.
I write all of this with Pope Francis in mind.
Put simply, the new head of the Roman Catholic Church is blowing everyone's minds. He is saying and doing things that seem like fresh water in the midst of a desert. He is speaking and acting with compassion, honesty and generosity of spirit. His wisdom is grounded in love. My guess is that Pope Francis is going to bring a lot of people back to Rome.
This is fantastic. What's more, if some ex-Romans find themselves leaving our churches to return, then God bless them on their way.
There is a story in the Gospel of Mark where a man who is not one of the 12 disciples is going around driving out demons in Jesus' name. The disciples, of course, don't like this, but Jesus basically shrugs his shoulders and says that if this man is doing God's work in Jesus' name, it can only be a good thing – even if this man is not following the same path as the disciples.
We are all in this together. We want people to know what it means to be loved by God. When a Christian leader drives people away from the church, all Christians are injured. When a Christian leader brings people into a deeper understanding of the grace of God, everyone wins.
Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox – we are all refreshed, renewed and raised up by Pope Francis.
Someone asked me recently if he makes me want to be Roman Catholic.
No.
Something more important: He makes me proud to be a Christian.
And, of course, he'd be welcome in the Episcopal Church any time.
- Philip DeVaul is priest in charge at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Costa Mesa.
I have no idea whether or not my friend's statement had any statistical backing, or was merely anecdotal – all I remember was how sad it made me to hear him say it.
Pope Francis greets the faithful as he arrives for his weekly General Audience in St. Peter Square at the Vatican on Wednesday.
ALESSANDRA TARANTINO, AP
Ultimately, if we are followers of Jesus, fostering this relationship should be our primary (and secondary and tertiary) concern. Making sure people have a relationship with God exactly the same way we do is short-sighted. We want people to comprehend the height and depth and width and breadth of God's love for them – and our desire for this knowledge should trump our desire for how it comes to pass.
I write all of this with Pope Francis in mind.
Put simply, the new head of the Roman Catholic Church is blowing everyone's minds. He is saying and doing things that seem like fresh water in the midst of a desert. He is speaking and acting with compassion, honesty and generosity of spirit. His wisdom is grounded in love. My guess is that Pope Francis is going to bring a lot of people back to Rome.
This is fantastic. What's more, if some ex-Romans find themselves leaving our churches to return, then God bless them on their way.
There is a story in the Gospel of Mark where a man who is not one of the 12 disciples is going around driving out demons in Jesus' name. The disciples, of course, don't like this, but Jesus basically shrugs his shoulders and says that if this man is doing God's work in Jesus' name, it can only be a good thing – even if this man is not following the same path as the disciples.
We are all in this together. We want people to know what it means to be loved by God. When a Christian leader drives people away from the church, all Christians are injured. When a Christian leader brings people into a deeper understanding of the grace of God, everyone wins.
Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox – we are all refreshed, renewed and raised up by Pope Francis.
Someone asked me recently if he makes me want to be Roman Catholic.
No.
Something more important: He makes me proud to be a Christian.
And, of course, he'd be welcome in the Episcopal Church any time.
- Philip DeVaul is priest in charge at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Costa Mesa.
No comments:
Post a Comment