Pope Francis
This week I’ve been reflecting on the ministry of Pope Francis, who is only the third pope of my lifetime. I’ll never forget the day that he was elected: March 13, 2013.
I was teaching at Cathedral High School in New Ulm, and the internet was not working because of the number of teachers trying to livestream video from St. Peter’s Square. We had heard that white smoke was coming from the Sistine Chapel chimney, and I was desperate to watch what was happening, so I brought my students to the school weight room, and we crowded around a small TV perched above the treadmill. Who was this “Jorge Bergoglio”?, we wondered.
I’ve been touched by Pope Francis from the beginning of his papacy, especially because of his focus on mercy, which was evident even in his choice of a papal motto: Miserando atque eligendo. The Pope took these words from a homily of St. Bede, who was commenting on the Gospel passage in which Jesus calls the Apostle Matthew from his life of sin as a tax collector to a new life of discipleship. While it’s difficult to translate this Latin phrase, it says, basically, “Seeing with eyes of mercy, he calls him.” The Holy Father later explained that this was exactly how he would describe his own vocation: Christ saw him with eyes of mercy and called him. Pope Francis named 2016 the “Year of Mercy”, and he reminded us that “God never tires of forgiving us; it is we ourselves who tire of asking for forgiveness.”
I thank God for the gift of Pope Francis, who touched my life and the lives of countless others during the twelve years of his papacy. May he rest in peace!
--Fr. Matthew Wiering
“Let us never allow ourselves to be robbed of the hope born of faith in the Risen Lord. True, we are often sorely tested, but we must never lose our certainty of the Lord’s love for us.” - - Pope Francis
Fr. Matt will be offering a Memorial Mass
for Pope Francis on Friday morning, May 2,
at the 8:10 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity.
