A lingering smell of sheep

"For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

Overheard at the Chancery, March 2013

Whaddya think?

When the Pope

pays his own hotel bill?

Drives his own car?

Makes his own toast?

And whaddya think

when the Pope

has lunch with a beggar?

Washes the feet of thieves?

Tells rich folk to get a life?

Whaddya think?

Is the Pope getting religion?

The shepherd never lost the smell of the sheep.

Francis – A.K.A. Jorge Mario Bergoglio – will be missed.

I don’t do hero worship well. For the most part, history and personal experience has taught me that popes and bishops are just ordinary guys who dress funny…and for the most part, popes and bishops are likely to take offense at that assessment. From all I can tell, Francis wouldn’t have been among them.

“I am a sinner,” was how he described himself. Publicly confessing to being an oft-failing human, like the rest of us; readily admitting he didn’t get absolved of human weakness, much less endowed with spiritual superpowers when he put on the white robes.

I rather like that in a pope…it reminds me a bit of Peter – the apostle who goes through the gospels screwing up, putting his foot in his mouth, getting stuff wrong and then ends up the predecessor to the next 266 to sit in his chair.

To me, the most significant liturgy of the church year is celebrated on Thursday of Holy Week to recreate the scene recorded in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John:

“Jesus rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

“When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

It’s a hard teaching, because it is so clear and within our reach, yet so contrary to what is so easy and tempting. And despite our oft repeated petition, we are constantly led into temptation and collaborate with evil.

No one’s immune. Not even…particularly not…the pope.

In word and in action Francis acknowledged that in his struggle to carry out the command of John’s gospel. “The shepherd should smell of the sheep,” he said. That smell never left him.

And now he’s gone. After a dozen years Peter’s chair is again vacant. Looking back, what was true then is even more so now. In February 2013, I wrote of the coming Conclave:

“…If tradition serves, the pool of applicants won't be all that large - sort of surprising since, at least in theory, they're launching a worldwide search. It's funny how for so many centuries the best and most qualified candidates keep turning up in the College of Cardinals

“Well, I suppose when the guy holding the top job drops dead there isn't a lot of time to do interviews, so for six centuries they've just gone with the internal candidate and hoped for the best. Sometimes that's worked out well - think John XXIII - but then again, there were the Borgias ...

“Perhaps this time the Conclave might want to consider hiring somebody from outside the company. Somebody more concerned with furthering the mission than protecting the institution

“The Dalai Lama quickly comes to mind, but considering he has a flock of his own to shepherd, I guess it's not likely he'd be interested

“The truth is, the people of the world doesn't need another Head of State, another diplomat, another power broker. We'll get along just fine without fine-tuned doctrinal pronouncements or arcane exegesis justifying the unjustifiable. In its third millennium, the Church has less need of an infallible pope than a humble and compassionate pastor.
“A servant, not a CEO ...

“Another carpenter, fisherman, tentmaker to recognize, respect and celebrate the divine that lives equally within each of us.”

The cardinals chose well then…let’s hope they do so again.