Of Pope Francis, of Words, of Love

You have this opportunity, this moment.

What was that?

It was a moment, a unit of time that is not, strictly speaking, a unit. An opening. A point. A juncture. You have that.

What for?

I can't tell you, as I do not know. I know less than you do what any moment or juncture is for, or what it means. If lips are meant for kissing, moments are made for doubt.

What is this moment?

Well, for one thing, I want to talk about Pope Francis, who is getting a lot of people excited because of the positive messages he is putting out in the media. But now I will skip a whole lot of background and context.

I do not not want anyone to forget that the "great man" syndrome is always and forever alive. There is no great man. There is God, the Father, and his only son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, There is the Holy Spirit, who communicates to us the wishes, the will, the words of the Lord.

We are well advised to be skeptical of the "great man." We should be careful not to succumb to any man, no matter how perfect appear his intent. There is nothing about Pope Francis that is new, or notable, except insofar as God speaks through him.

I am a Catholic. I love Pope Francis. I loved Pope Benedict. I love you, I hope....I hope I can love as our Lord has commanded me to love. I aspire to love; even as I love, I hope that my love is as true, as certain, as perfect, as we are assured is the love of the Lord.

I would rather that any one person reserve judgment than that anyone "believe" in the Pope. Heaven and the world - this physical world - is alive at this very moment with the intentions of the Saints. We are surrounded and embroiled in their acts and prayers. Of this I have no doubts. We might aspire to this world. God willing by his infinite mercy, we might act thus: to help.

This is the world to which Pope Francis speaks. Make no mistake. His statements, such as are related by the media, are an enactment of a species of conviction that goes far beyond mere choice. It is as if a river were to speak to the purpose of water. I say, as a fellow Catholic, a brother, that the Lord is all, the Alpha and Omega. Pope Francis will speak to the world and its people as one who is of this world, indeed, or so his words might appear. But, do not fool yourself into thinking that the world is the subject of his encounter or address. Oh no. Not by a long shot.

This world, this occurrence, has no language and no address. Trees that drop their dead and dying leaves have a stronger purchase on the claims of immortality than do the worrying precepts of humanity.

We will most certainly die. We most certainly can be saved.

Understand this, and all that any man or woman declared to be great should shudder into perfect focus: a thing, such as one might perceive and name or slip into one's pocket.