we have a choice

 

I just finished preparing an entire blog update about another aspect of Hope for Life, but then Pope Francis died yesterday as I was about to post it. A friend then sent me this link to a video of Pope Francis’s life as pope (Twelve years of new paths, processes and open doors), and, with all that’s going on these days, it no longer seemed the best choice to go ahead and post the planned update. I wanted to write something else and use the prepared update in the next week or so instead.

Whether you are a Christian or not, Pope Francis’s death is felt. He touched people across the spectrum with his unconditional, non-judgmental love and his recognition of his own imperfections - - always asking people to pray for him, to offer their blessings over him. He acknowledged that it isn’t his – or our – place to judge divorced individuals, LGBTQ+ people, women who have had abortions, immigrants…you name the group of marginalized people. He made it clear through words, writings and his actions that his role, our role, is to love each other, to care for all of creation, to let people know we care, that we are together, we have all made mistakes, none of us are perfect, and that we need to see each and every one of us, beginning with ourselves, as another person struggling to get it right, yet stumbling along the way. His love and concern extended to all of God’s creation - - his encyclical Laudato si’ is just one of many powerful examples of his message of care and concern for all of creation. He set a standard of what should be considered basic morality at a time when other leaders exhibit next to zero morality.

I am thankful to have heard him speak in person a number of times (even if most of those times it was from across St. Peter’s Square), to have shaken his hand, looked into his eyes. I joke with people that while I was living in Rome, he and I used to have a beer together on Sundays after he prayed the Angelus and gave his blessing in St. Peter’s Square. (I honestly believe this could have been possible and that he sometimes did something similar with someone else.)

 

This humble man led as much with his words as with his actions, challenging us to do the same. For some, who prefer the status quo, who don’t want to risk their positions of power and wealth, the challenge felt personal in a different way, and he was not popular.

He literally kissed the feet of prisoners, of Muslims, of immigrants…of political leaders at war, begging them for peace.

And then we have the other examples of leadership today…politicians cutting off humanitarian aid, sending migrants not just away, but to prison without due process, cutting off funding to education and health care and environmental programs and the list goes on and on as we all know. Some of them do these things directly, and others by being too weak and fearful to speak out, allowing them to happen without any word of dissent.

I want to be marching and protesting with friends and family who are faithfully trying to defend human rights and the environment on a regular basis, on the coldest days of the year as well as on the beautiful spring days of the moment.

Thank you all who are speaking out, who are stepping out, who are letting our voices be heard. I’m with you, even if I have no protests to attend here. We have a choice…follow the humanitarian, caring, “Christian” example of non-judgmentally loving each other and the world as Pope Francis spoke of, wrote about, prayed for and demonstrated through his actions. Or there is the option of sitting back and using the excuse of not knowing what is really going on, choosing to remain ignorant and choosing to be fearful of something or someone we don’t understand and in most cases don't know much about, choosing to just allow the hatred and its disgustingly shameful results to happen.