In Media Res

Hello from the diner,

It’s been a bit since I stopped in for breakfast, as the BK group has become the morning habit. And yet the diner is where I can find the closest thing to where my comfort breakfast is available. This simple fare of poached eggs and toast are what I still remember (the half grapefruit is missing and has been replaced by some seriously tasty home fries with green pepper and onion) as my morning happiness. As I woke this morning, I heard the news that Pope Francis has passed. Even though I am not Roman Catholic, I am feeling a sense of loss that I do not remember when other Popes have passed. I remember the passing of Pope Paul VI, and the incredibly short papacy of John Paul I; I have been to Kraków a number of times and visited both the place John Paul II lived and the cathedral where he served as the Archbishop of Kraków before his elevation to Pope. I learned of his skills as a linguistic person while studying at Jagiellonian University and how that ability may allowed him to survive the Nazis after Hitler invaded Poland. I think that connection to place and history (and my work with Bonhoeffer) probably interested me in the papacy in ways that had not previously occurred. The papacy of Benedict was not as interesting to me, though I was aware of both his German background and his significant actions as the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Additionally, it was both unexpected and atypical he resigned his papacy. His conservative doctrinal positions, and his more academic nature, made the election of Francis to the papacy more politically significant. As the first Jesuit, Francis’s focus on the poor, his theological position, which was more attuned to Liberation Theology, and his renewed focus on being the pastor, endeared him to many (as well as frustrated many others). As I listened to the extended commentary this more of Sylvia Poggioli this morning, the comment was made that the Holy Father brought the church into the 21st Century.

What I found interesting in my listening to the words of Francis was his ability to weave faith and politics into a cloth that compelled the faithful to live that faith. It was not merely something you “wound up on Sundays,” to use the words of Jethro Tull, whose album, Aqualung, contained a rather scathing indictment against Catholicism. I remember the line “And you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday School and have all the Bishops harmonize the lines.” The institution (the church) while instituted by Christ is a human institution, and as such, is deeply flawed. And yet, if we go back to its founding, the role of Jesus himself, Jesus regularly put himself in the middle of things. When I was in college I remember the first time I heard the phrase “In Media Res.” It was in my humanities class, and it was the consideration of Horace’s Ars Poetica, which was the use of the narrative technique of beginning in the middle of the story. To do something like that effectively requires both knowledge and skill. Often the knowledge comes from one’s experience, and the skill to pull it off is both a combination of tact and common sense (rhetorical savviness). The latter is much more nuanced. As I have listened to the onslaught of information shared about Pope Francis since he passed, which is only about 36 hours now, what seems readily apparent was he was a master of this latter ability, which allowed him to interject himself into thorny issues with both a sense of purpose and clarity. It seems too often we have become a society where we either gloss over the troublesome things or we simplify them and then reject those who question. Little is accomplished, and, in fact, we exacerbate the problems. Pope Francis, in his commitment to an inclusive Gospel, a Gospel that Christ claimed was based on love, was willing to push the world to consider the consequences of actions that lacked the central tenet of loving the other. To push others to reconsider, Francis placed the church in media res. As I am wont to do, I return to Bonhoeffer’s argument against cheap grace. The grace of God is incredible, undeserved, and limitless, but it is never cheap. The God in whom I believe and trust spared nothing to provide us an opportunity to experience that goodness. And yet, seldom do we share that profound gift with our sisters, brothers, or those whom we find different than ourselves. Such actions are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. It seems Francis not only understood this, he lived it. From his time as a priest and eventual Archbishop in Argentina to his papacy, Francis’s focus on the least of these epitomized the Gospel in action. If the church does not address injustice, does not reach out to all, there is nothing apostolic about it, there is nothing truly ecclesiastical, it becomes an exclusive club of self-service. I will argue that the present motion of the current rise of Christian Nationalism would make the church that very thing.

I believe the late Pope’s ability to speak truth in a spirit of love is what sets his papacy apart from what I have watched in my life time. Even though I am not Roman in my own practice, I find the example of Francis and his papacy compelling. Faith, for me, like ethics, is a verb and not a noun. Francis practiced this, and while he still fell short in some serious places, I do not believe it was for a lack of effort, but rather the unwieldy nature of church hierarchy, and my own non-Roman belief that even when publishing an Encyclical, he is first and foremost human. I know that is not what the Catholic Church teaches. Perhaps that is what I appreciate most about what I have read and learned about him. The words humility and humor seem to be used most often. Both are admirable, and not surprisingly linguistically related. One of the things about both traits is they require understanding and compassion. Both seem to be in short supply in our present world. A world leader noted that Pope Francis continually stood for compassion over cruelty. To be compassionate, you need to put yourself in the middle of things, working diligently to understand the other. This requires the humility that characterized the late Holy Father.

Certainly, the Pope had the platform of his office and the resources of the church, but it was who he was from the time became a priest. The stories over the past week demonstrated this clearly and continually. What if it could be who we are in our own individual way, in our own small corner of the world? One thing I have found continually as I work on the various things I am doing, if you treat people with respect, amazing things can happen. If you listen to them before you speak, what they say will be more forthcoming and honest because they are not afraid. If you try to understand them before you respond, community can be created. It is amazing that as the Pope placed himself in the middle of things, he worked diligently to make the Roman Catholic Church more inclusive; he worked to make the church more welcoming by speaking truth to power. That is an incredible thing, considering his position as Pope made him the most powerful person in the church. When we place ourselves in the middle, we immerse ourselves in chaos, but we also create the possibility of fostering order. On of the reasons I resonate with the mass is because if offers order and structure to worship for the parishioner. While the great majority of the mass has been in Latin, the Kyrie has remained in Greek. Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. I offer this as a sort of requiem for an amazing Pope, and an incredibly faithful human being. Thank you, Pope Francis for the outstanding example of goodness (and I realize he was not perfect) and as we say in our liturgy. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Rest in Peace.

Thank you as always for reading.

Michael