White smoke curled from a
chimney over the Sistine Chapel at 7:06 pm on March 13, 2013. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina
had been chosen as the new Pope. Within an hour he had selected his new name:
Pope Francis.
In 2008 our family rented an apartment in Rome overlooking St
Peter’s Basilica. We strolled through St
Peter’s Square, the open plaza where a standing-room-only crowd of more than
one hundred thousand gathered to welcome the new Pope. We visited the Sistine
Chapel and stood beneath Michelangelo’s images of Creation and the Last
Judgment, where cardinals have gathered to choose the next Pope since
1846.
Cardinal Bergoglio was the first Pope to choose the name
Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.
It was a significant choice. The man we know from history as St. Francis
lived at the turn of thirteenth century.
He grew up as a spoiled youth in a wealthy and influential Italian
family. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “No one loved pleasure more
than Francis; he had a ready wit, sang merrily, delighted in fine clothes and
showy display … the very king of frolic.”
By the time he was twenty, Francis became a mercenary, was captured in
battle and spent more than a year in prison with a protracted illness. That experience seems to have started his
spiritual journey that would set him apart. But his turning to Christ was
neither sudden nor easy.
Once released he decided on a military career of conquest and
glory, but a series of dreams began to redirect his journey. Through a series of missteps and, what
appears to be a confusing period of solitude, prayer and clumsy efforts to
serve God, Francis eventually came to a clear vision of God’s will for his
life. He found the focus for his life on
February 24, 1208 when he heard a recounting of Jesus’ instructions to go into
every village, two by two, carrying no money, neither bag nor shoes, greeting everyone
on the way with blessings of peace. To
heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God.
(Matthew 10:7-11). From that
moment forward Francis committed himself to a literal application of these
instructions from Jesus, devoting himself to the poor and a joyful proclamation
of the Kingdom. Francis is credited with being the first to celebrate Christmas
with carols and many Christians still sing his hymn, “All Creatures of our God
and King.”
The name emphasizes the transforming power of Jesus Christ, who
can change a profligate mercenary into a joyful servant of the poor. The
passing of Pope Francis serves as a powerful reminder that all of us need to
care for the poor, the refugee, the disenfranchised, the outcast. Ten weeks ago Pope Francis warned, “What is
built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every
human being, begins badly and will end badly.”
Christianity Today wrote, “His humility won the praises of
international evangelist, Luis Palau who called him a friend and ‘a very Jesus
Christ-centered man.’”
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