Happy is my New Year Because POPE FRANCIS IS MY SHEPHERD

Happy is my new year because Pope Francis is my shepherd and no one else  who is unlike him. To assert or even just say such a thing  is the height of arrogance and bespeaks  of  negativism  towards other  apostles or other clergy of the Catholic Church. But surely, I am not alone as  there are many faithful like me whose beliefs  and actions  probably had  influenced  Pope Francis himself to speak out.  So by way of greeting 2015 as the most hopeful  of  Catholic New Year of the decade, let me try to understand the words personally delivered by   Pope Francis in the last Synod (October 2014). Very fast, it seems this holy man  is already producing what they call “the Francis effect” on me and countless others.

Pope Francis referred to the Synod as “a path of solidarity;”  he said  dynamically it is “a journey” together.  It will be another article if I write an analogy  of PNOY”s  more  secular  “Straight path”  (or tuwid na daan). Anyway these two paths do not contradict  or countervail each other. The problem of logic or perspective is whether there is causality which will bridge the two paths as when attempts are made to establish whether one is the cause and at the same time the result of each other. Like saying you can’t be in a journey of solidarity unless you embark on traveling the ‘Straight Path’  of PNOY.

Pope Francis was very clear and concise about taking the journey  along  the path of solidarity. Although he was not cocksure, judgemental, even authoritative. He did not say the path of solidarity is paved with devotion, with holiness, or of selflessness.  He said the ‘Journey” may have “moments of running fast, moments of fatigue, of enthusiasm, of ardour.” Likewise there are “moments of profound  consolation, of grace and comfort.”

            So when one (meaning a Catholic person  or every member of humanity) takes the path of solidarity what really is in store for him?  Before  Pope Francis answers that question I like to say how I understand this path in terms of a  mortal’s space and time. To me as space the path has no length, no width, no height, no floor, no ceiling,  no physical  beginning and no physical  end. Beyond measure  cyberspace is more like it.   The path to solidarity is timeless; not short or long; not in seconds or minutes or hours, or days or weeks, of unspecified beginnings and endings. Only immeasurable moments, said Pope Francis of immeasurable enthusiasm, fatigue or  whatever. That’s probably why the Popes of antiquity were hailed as infallibles. Their teachings and utterances never erroneous.

            And that is the iron clad difference between Francis’ and Noynoy’s  paths  of  reason. Noynoy’s  time path  has only six years  and  his space is the entire governance or public administration embracing organizations and territorial jurisdictions, including the citizenry and their properties.  PNOY’s  path  possesses   spatial and temporal aspects which are finite,  tangible, measurable and   susceptible to constant criticisms.  While the characteristics  of  Pope  Francis’  holy path of solidarity are theological abstractions  seemingly criticism-proof.  

            To embark on a journey to solidarity according to the Pontiff Francis  is to expect and confront and vanquished five temptations. The first is “temptation to hostile inflexibility” limiting oneself “to what we know, not to what we can learn  and achieve”; adherence to the letter of the word or of the law.  It is “temptation of the zealous, of the scrupulous, of the solicitous, also of the intellectuals.”  To me the Pope having an open mind is guardedly progressive to any point  within the confines of dogma.

            The second temptation is so clearly stated: “The temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness, that in the name of deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them; that treat the symptoms and not the causes and the roots. It is the temptation of the ‘do-gooders’, of the fearful and also of  the ‘progressives and liberals’. Admittedly this temptation is difficult for me and also for politicians dubbed progressive or liberals to really pin down into concrete examples. I can only surmise  sincerity  and purity of intentions, avoidance of reciprocity in extending any kind of assistance to believers’ fellowmen.

            The third temptation seemed to check unqualified dynamism to “transform stones into bread to break the long, heavy and painful fast and also to transform the bread into a stone and cast it against the sinners, the weak and the sick. That is to transform the bread into unbearable burdens.” I think the Pontiff or his Cardinals need  to break this temptation into understandable units. My guess is that those who have the authority and power need to be very careful in their means to feed the hungry so also they should be very careful to apply the same means  against wrongdoers, against the weak and the sick.  I see this temptation mentioned by the Pope as a need to refine or re-think the saying the ends do not justify the means.

             The fourth is the “temptation to come down of the cross, to please the people, and not stay there in order to fulfill the will of the Father, to bow down to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending to the spirit of God.”  I think this temptation addresses the behavior of some of the clergy than of the laity.  The men of the cloth should be careful in dealing with the people, in pleasing them for the purpose of achieving the will of  God, that the clergy should be thoughtful of what they should do in return for what they will accept  in fulfilment of  God’s will.

            The fifth and last: “the temptation to neglect the deposit of faith, not thinking of themselves as guardians but as owners and masters of it. On the other hand the temptation to neglect reality, making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say many things and to say nothing.”  Again, I think this temptations bedevil more the shepherds than the flock or the herd. If the Lord is my shepherd and I am just a member of the herd, it is from Him and his other shepherds that I will draw my strength to face the five temptations.

I believe what Pope Francis is telling me are: Clergy and laity  should not be inflexible because of the breath of their  knowledge and experience just as Jesus Christ  was not an absolutist; that if we do anything good it is not for any expected return; that if we go down our pedestal of knowledge and experience to humble ourselves  to the downtrodden it is not for insidious ends; that regardless of our positions or roles  we are  guardians not  masters in our  families or  organizations.

            Those who attended the synod may not have noticed it, Pope Francis ably amplified to clarify what happened when the devil tempted the tired, weak and hungry Jesus Christ in the mountain. It was as if the light of the Holy Spirit shone so bright in the mind of the Pontiff. So it is with much anticipation that I am waiting  for Pope Francis as my shepherd  to enlighten me about the Sermon on the Mount.  For this piece I wish to thank  the  SALT and LIGHT Publications: Saltandlighttv.org/connect  ****