Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Pop(e) Star
The new Pope Francis, is nothing short of a Pop Star, with his style of working, and popping bubbles of age old traditions and decorum. His breaking traditions of monarchial style of functioning and reaching out to people, breaking the aura of royalty that was always associated with the Pope, and a continuation of simplicity of what he was before assuming the position.
His earlier days lifestyle as a priest and later as a Bishop are what Catholics are able to relate with, and something that is missing with clergy especially with those in power in the Catholic Church. A leader who is more Christ like and identifiable with his reaching out to people, and not someone who is moving around in a bullet proof car and sporting designer wear. Someone who refuses the trappings of royalty and stays in a simple abode rather than the palatial Pope residence Popes used to reside in. A message that Christ was born in a Manger.
Pope Francis’s opening speech after being selected was urging the laity to pray for him. His humility was accepting himself as a mere human being that needs prayers and God’s guidance for the journey forward. Every act of his is something that draws skeptics and critics (like me) to pause and rethink, and getting a feel good factor of having a shepherd that will lead in example with his way of life and action. Not clothed in royalty and ornamentation and trappings of luxury but cloaked in modesty. We as Catholics need to think and ponder of how we live, and not just pointing fingers on the flaws of the clergy on how they live. Driving a message “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone”.
At the same time taking a strong stance of wrongs that have happened in the Church and talking tough on scandals that have rotted the Institution of the Church. Not telling the laity what to do but showing the clergy how it has to be done. This may not go well to the many in Clergy who clamored for the power and glory in the Church, but may challenge youth towards better vocations for the Church where they will enlightened by his example of that it is the poor that needs to be attended too first. Reaching the ones who are persecuted, reaching the hungry and downtrodden and driving the message “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”.
Crowds that swell the Vatican now only confirms ‘a connect feeling’, which was missing. People don’t come to see the Pope, but someone who connects them back to faith. Homilies delivered by Pope Francis are not with verbosity of scriptures but with simple words of simple actions that need to be conducted as a Christian. Rituals of washing the feet earlier done on Bishops was now done on prisoners and one of them who was a Muslim. He even washed the feet of teenage girls. Evangelizing not by preaching but by serving and stripping off the ego and going on his knees not to wash perfumed and manicured feet, but the feet of prisoners, and driving the message of equality and importance of women in today’s world.
What Catholics should now realize is that Pope Francis is not a Magician, but he wants me and you to do the magic what Christ did. He does not want to lead but wants each one of us to take the lead. He does not want to preach and reach the gospel, but wants us to reach out like Christ. He does not want to be a star, but would like every Catholic to be one shining under the light of Jesus Christ the Superstar.
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