The Radical Vision of Jesus: How Pope Francis Lives His First Encyclical

By Bishop John Wester

One of the numerous surprising moments of Pope Francis' young pontificate was the announcement that on Holy Thursday, March 28, he would celebrate the Mass of the Lord's Supper at Rome's Casa Del Marmo Youth Detention Centre. There, in an unforgettable moment, he washed the feet of 12 young inmates. In anticipation of the pope's visit, one of them said, "At last I shall get to meet someone who says he is my father!"

This observation captures the power of the pope's gesture. "True power is service," Pope Francis said in his inaugural homily and later on Twitter. And the power of this particular act of service is that it cast a light where there was darkness, a light that allowed a young person the world had forgotten to experience a father's love for the first time.

In Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (Light of Faith), published July 5, the pope says that faith is a light that comes directly from an encounter with God. "The light of faith is unique," the pope writes, "since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence."

This includes the past and all the people who have walked the path of faith before us, but also the promises for the future that God makes and keeps because he is faithful. And of course it includes Jesus, the embodiment of God's fulfilled promises.

"Faith does not merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself sees them, with his own eyes," Pope Francis writes. Christ's way of seeing the world "enables us to grasp reality's deepest meaning" and constantly guides us toward God. It is through this experience of Christ that our lives become "radically open to a love that precedes us, and love that transforms us from within, acting in us and through us in radical, often surprising ways."

It's not a stretch to think that Pope Francis washed the feet of the young inmates because he sees the world with the radical vision of Jesus, who sees that God loves these inmates as much as he love any other person. It also reflects the call of Jesus to serve those at the margins.

Like a light shining forth, faith makes a person go forth into the world. A person of faith must be ready "to come out of himself and find the God of perpetual surprises," Pope Francis writes. Even the Ten Commandments, he writes, aren't about rule keeping so much as "concrete directions for emerging from the desert of the selfish and self-enclosed ego in order to enter into dialogue with God, to be embraced by his mercy and then to bring that mercy to others."

Those who believe in the light of faith, he says, come to see themselves as members of a body, in an essential relationship with others. This relationship goes beyond powerful symbolic gestures like washing feet and applies the same love to big-picture issues like just economic systems, care for creation and forgiving one another. But little gestures are vital, because they allow the light of faith to spread, even reaching places it hasn't been for a long time or maybe has never been before.

Whether it's his Holy Thursday Mass in prison or the July 8 Mass for migrants on Lamedusa Island, how many people have responded to the gestures of Pope Francis with surprise, followed by an enthusiasm for faith and even an openness to Christ and his Church that wasn't there before? What a perfect example for the Church during the Year of Faith. The light of faith is powerful enough to help the whole world to see like Jesus.

Bishop Wester is bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City and chairman of the Communications Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

(CNS Photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

The Pope's Instructions for Building a City of Love

By Jill Rauh

Pope Francis, as pontifex maximus, is called to be a bridge builder. But his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (Light of Faith) suggests he's a city planner too. Faith, the pope says, compels us to build a city that is rooted in relationship with God and one another.

Faith is not about a "completely private relationship" between the individual believer and God, he says. It is instead about "we" as a Church community called to be together in relationship with God, one another, and the world around us.

The Church celebrates the sacraments as a living community whose faith is communicated across generations of witnesses. At baptism, we become a member of this community, embracing a new way of living and acting. We celebrate the Eucharist together and encounter Christ's self-giving, which we strive to imitate. We recite the Creed as a united body, and then we go out to live God's commandments of love as set forth in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7) -- in which Jesus calls the poor, meek and merciful blessed, and in which all are called to be salt and light to the world.

Pope Francis reminds us: faith doesn't "draw us away from the world or prove irrelevant to the concrete concerns" facing humanity. Rather, it calls us to follow the example of St. Francis of Assisi and Blessed Mother Teresa who drew near to those who suffer.

What does this mean for us during the Year of Faith, a year in which we are called to faith, worship and witness?

It means allowing the power of God's love to "penetrate to the core of our human experience." It means celebrating the sacraments -- and then living sacramentally by being people who are poor, merciful, seekers of peace and righteousness, and salt and light to the world. The USCCB Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development has new resources that can help us do so.

It means, again, being attentive to human suffering and responding in the model of St. Francis, Mother Teresa and so many other saints.

It means working to care for creation, and striving for development that prioritizes human dignity and care for creation above "utility and profit." It means ensuring that government serves the common good.

As Pope Francis says, the light of faith "does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter." It challenges us to build societies now that reflect God's vision of justice. Let's begin now!

Rauh is assistant director of education and outreach for the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

(CNS Photo/Paul Haring)

What's In (Chanting) a Name?

Pope Francis had some gentle words of correction for the crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Pentecost vigil. He took issue with people making the pope the focus of the event:

"Jesus. What is the most important thing? Jesus. If we push ahead with planning and organization, beautiful things indeed, but without Jesus, then we are on the wrong road. Jesus is the most important thing. I would like to take the opportunity now to make a small, but fraternal, reproach, among ourselves, alright? All of you in the square shouted out: 'Francis, Francis, Pope Francis' ... But, where was Jesus? I want to hear you shot out, "Jesus, Jesus is Lord, and He is in our midst.' From now on, no more 'Francis,' only 'Jesus.' Alright?"

(Hat tip to Vatican Radio, Salt + Light Media and others who brought this quote to our attention.)

This isn't the first time Pope Francis has asked this. He made a similar appeal to young people in St. Peter's Square on April 21. And it would seem the pope faces an uphill battle with World Youth Day, an event noted for its wall-to-wall papal name chanting, looming in Rio de Janeiro this July. But that's not Pope Francis' fault.

Jesuit Father Norman Tanner notes that the papacy has faced a growing cult of personality ever since Pius IX (1846-78) became the first pope to be photographed. The phenomenon crested in the made-for-television persona of John Paul II who met cheering crowds every step of the way as he circled the globe. In contrast, the shy and retiring Benedict XVI downplayed this image. John Thavis and other Vatican watchers have noted that the former pope looked visibly uncomfortable when crowds chanted his name. Even his surprise resignation seemed designed to draw a line between the man and the office.

Pope Francis has continued the trajectory, styling himself mostly as "the bishop of Rome," eschewing the luxurious trappings of the office and adopting this "He must increase, I must decrease"/from-the-visible-to-the-invisible approach.

Not long after his election, Pope Francis told the story of a layman who worked in the archdiocesan curia in Buenos Aires who would say "Jesus" before heading out to work. When then-Cardinal Bergoglio asked about this, the man said that saying the name of Jesus made him feel strong and ready to work, knowing Jesus was by his side. And now Pope Francis is urging Catholics to follow this man's lead and fix their gaze on Jesus.

The benefits of focusing on Jesus are almost too obvious and too extensive to mention, but here are a few tangential thoughts:

• Non-Catholics who see a crowd chanting a pope's name might think this earthly man has somehow displaced Jesus Christ as the one being adored.
• Ecumenists have long championed a model of dialogue with other Christians in which both parties focus as much as possible on Jesus because, like spokes approaching the hub of a wheel, they're closest to each other when they're closest to Christ.
• The Church has made the personal encounter with Christ the central thrust of the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith, recognizing that in encountering Christ, people find true faith.
• Catholics encounter Jesus Christ in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, which the Second Vatican Council calls the "source and summit" of the faith.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church says praying the name of Jesus is to invoke him and call him within us (2666). 

So yes, Pope Francis is probably onto something. And now, a whole blog post about the pope later, this writer had better take the message to heart too: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...

(CNS Photo/Paul Haring)

Holy poverty can help the poverty of hell

January is Poverty Awareness Month. To help raise awareness among Catholics of poverty and its underlying issues, USCCB has updated its website, www.PovertyUSA.org, and launched a Spanish counterpart, www.PobrezaUSA.org. Our blog is also running a series of posts by guest bloggers reflecting on poverty in our country and the world today. Today’s post is by Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas

Poverty is a virtue but also a sad state of suffering and want.

Christ calls us to be poor and said of Himself: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” Christ invites us, in imitation of Him, to renounce worldly possessions and let go of things we feel we need to embrace a life of simplicity. Yet while poverty is a virtue to be embraced, it also can mean living in less than human circumstances, bereft of basic life necessities.

Since becoming chair of the board of Catholic Relief Services and as bishop of Tucson along the Arizona/Mexico border, I have come face to face with dire poverty. Lack of food and safe water, lack of shelter and health care, no opportunity to provide a livelihood for oneself or one's family is the daily struggle and preoccupation of people as close to us as Mexico and as far away from us as Myanmar. Such poverty exists even in our own country. Tucson, where I live, is the sixth poorest metropolitan area in the United States.

Recently I was in Mexicali in the State of Baja California in Mexico where a major earthquake two years ago destroyed countless homes. Families were in makeshift shelters, scrambling daily to find enough food to survive. Our diocese and the Diocese of San Diego are building five homes for displaced families, a mere drop in the ocean of need of families there. During our visit, mothers begged us to help them rebuild their families’ lives. The need is intense and the resources limited.

On a visit to Haiti, a beautiful but desperately poor country, I saw people rummaging for food in garbage piles, searching for a drink of water in polluted streams, seeking a way to make a living. It tears at the heart to see human beings forced to live without dignity in such desperate situations.

People in Myanmar try to eke out a living in rural areas with only the basics needed to survive. Poverty cannot take joy out of a person, but it makes for a tough life. I left the visit there impressed by the goodness and hospitality of a people who have only the barest of necessities.

Poverty persists around the world even in this Third Millennium, a modern era when we have made technological advances and enjoy many blessings. Sadly inequality of resources and opportunities characterizes our advanced society.

As people of faith in this Year of Faith we are called to have hearts that sense where love is needed and to respond. We are moved to share what we have, to advocate on behalf of those in desperate need. We must stand in solidarity with the poor of the world. We must realize Christ's charge to care for the weakest. We must seek to bring human dignity to those forgotten or ignored.

Faced with the pervasive poverty in our world, it seems some people couldn’t care less. But it cannot be that way for us who long to be disciples of Christ. We need to become aware of need and respond to that need.

If we embrace the Gospel call to be poor in spirit, we come to see what we have as blessings from God to be shared not hoarded. We come to realize that true joy is not found in what we own but in who we are. If we are disciples of Christ seeking to live as he lived, we must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters most in need.

---

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, is chairman of Catholic Relief Services.

From Fortnights to Faith: When Ideas Collide

It's difficult to walk into a parish, visit a diocesan website or even tune into the secular news media without seeing or hearing something about the Fortnight for Freedom, the bishops' two-week (June 21-July 4) campaign of prayer and education on the value of religious liberty.

Garnering less attention in the media right now is the upcoming opening of the Year of Faith, which the Vatican is kicking off globally on October 11 (the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). The goal of the Year of Faith is to encourage Catholics, active and inactive, to experience a renewed sense of their faith through a personal encounter with Christ (a phenomenon commonly referred to as the New Evangelization).


On the surface, these two initiatives might not bear much resemblance to one another, but recent talks by leading figures in the U.S. Church at two major Catholic gatherings would suggest otherwise.


Addressing the U.S. bishops at their spring general meeting in Atlanta, June 13, John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America, outlined some of the ideas associated with the Fortnight for Freedom and the general erosion of religious liberty experienced in the United States, such as the HHS mandate, Catholic Charities being driven out of adoption services under same-sex marriage laws, and Catholic social services in general being discriminated against for government contracts for their refusal to provide or endorse contraceptives and abortion.

But then Garvey took it a step further and asked why this is happening. As he sought an answer, Garvey briefly departed from his prepared remarks (around 21:40 in the video below), observing, "This is a really depressing message." Basically, he said, "we protect religious freedom because we think that religion is a good thing," and "Perhaps the reason we see a loss of religious freedom today is that we are turning a corner in our collective view of religion." He cited dwindling-to-nonexistent Mass attendance in Europe and the rise in popularity of combative atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins as part of the same trend and concluded, "Our society won't care about religious freedom if it doesn't care about God."

(Here's full video of President Garvey's address.)



A week later, June 20, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., tackled the topic of religious liberty in an address to members of the Catholic Press of the United States and Canada, who were gathered in Indianapolis for their annual convention.


Just as Garvey's address raised themes associated with the Year of Faith and New Evangelization— decreased religious observance, greater secularism, etc.—Archbishop Chaput also zeroed  in on Year of Faith themes as underlying causes of the current struggles surrounding religious liberty. He described how the actions (and inaction) of believers themselves create the need for a renewal of faith.


"I think it's fair, in part, to blame Church leaders for a spirit of complacency and inertia, clericalism, even arrogance, and for operating off a model of the Church—often for well-intentioned reasons—rooted in the past and out of touch with reality," he said, adding, "Too many ordinary Catholics have been greedy to lose themselves in America's culture of consumerism and success. Too many have been complicit in the dullness—the acedia—that has seeped into Church life, and the cynicism and resentment that naturally follow it. These problems kill a Christian love of poverty and zeal. They choke off a real life of faith. They create the shadows that hide institutional and personal sins. And they encourage a paralysis that can burrow itself into every heart and every layer of the Church, right down to individual Catholics in the pews. The result is that Philadelphia, like so much of the Church in the rest of our country, is now really mission territory – again; for the second time." Enter the New Evangelization.


This dovetailing of ideas gives the current struggles over religious liberty broader context and deeper meaning. As Catholics speak out in the short term, they can reinforce their message and goals by rekindling their faith for the long term. Catholics who live out their faith with a sense of energy and authenticity provide a more powerful witness to the world, one that makes clear both the loving mercy of God and the saving work of his Church. This will benefit all Catholics, the cause of religious liberty and all of society.