On Christmas morning that is clear and cold, and
confronting an overflowing folder marked “Porta Fidei” with the animus of
throwing it all out – the Year of Faith having terminated – my eyes fall on the
second paragraph of Benedict XVI’s motu
proprio which reads: “Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of
Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to
shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with
Christ.” And I immediately think of pope Francis on November 6 last and his
heading straight for Vinicio Riva, 53, from Vincenza, Italy, who suffers from a
startlingly disfiguring (and repugnant) neurofibromatosis. “He didn't have any fear
of my illness. He embraced me without speaking. I quivered. I felt a great
warmth… I felt like I was in paradise.” Francis had no idea if his wounds were
contagious. Robert Moynihan of “Inside
the Vatican” wrote: “People are usually afraid to come close to the hundreds of
boils that cover Riva’s body, fearing that his
very presence could make them sick. He thought the Pope would speak to
his aunt, who was with him and that he would only get a cursory glance. But
instead, Francis headed straight towards Riva, wrapped his arms around the man’s
head and pulled him in for a tight embrace. It was like nothing Riva had ever
experienced before.”
In
that second paragraph, Benedict quotes himself from the homily of his
inauguration Mass in 2005: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like
Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life,
towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and
life in abundance.” And he continues in Porta
Fidei: “It often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social,
cultural and political consequences of their commitment, continuing to think of
the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society. In reality, not
only can this presupposition no longer be taken for granted, but it is often
openly denied.”
And
the event of Benedict’s resigning from the papacy at the midpoint of the Year and the election of Bergoglio as Francis impresses the action of God on
me. Bergoglio's pre-conclave call to renounce the “self-referential” and to go “to the
peripheries” becomes iconically impressed on the imagination. And as someone
remarked to me last week: It doesn’t matter what the media say. What is
important are the pictures: the New Evangelization has no words, and should not
have them. The New Evangelization is Francis heading straight for Riva.
Merry
Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment