My election at baptism

I am writing this article while in Rome on Dominican business. By the time you read it, not only will I be back in Ireland, but there may very well be a new pope. As you can imagine there is only one topic of conversation in the city, be it in a shop, taxi, restaurant, on a bus or waiting in line to go through one of the Holy Doors. Once people see the religious habit or a roman collar there is only one question, “Who will be the next pope”?
And of course any Italian one speaks with can give you a list of candidates and who they want to be pope. The atmosphere is something between the Rose of Tralee or the Grand National.

Celebrating

During week while I was in Rome, we were also celebrating the feast of St Catherine of Siena, a Dominican saint who was much preoccupied with the role of the papacy in the Church and the need in her day for unity and peace in the Church. Sitting by her tomb I was reminded of the divine role of the papacy. As we have been reminded, the cardinals are not electing a successor to Francis or Benedict but to Peter. Christ left us the papacy as a sign of his love for the world and as a means of communion. He knew that the devil sows the seeds of discord and disunity. Jesus left his Church a rock of unity and communion. He knew as none of us know, that in the midst of a sinful and broken world there needed to be a community of unity and peace. The pope is after all the “pontifex” the bridge builder. Jesus was fully aware of what he was doing. But as so often happens Jesus is the one forgotten in a world dominated by the categories used by the media and political discourse. When Jesus assigned Simon with the name Peter and the role of leadership it was a divine mandate, not a political one. The papacy is a sign of God in the world uniting and bringing together, not dividing and separating.

Reflection

This brings me to a more personal reflection on membership of the Church in Ireland. You and I have been loved into the Church at baptism by an act of God’s providence. Being baptised is God’s way of inviting you closer to himself, an opportunity for you to grow in a deeper communion with him in his community of the Blessed Trinity. In public discourse and maybe even in private conversations we can lose the divine origin and constitution of the Church and our calling into it. The Holy Church is not a political party or a golf club, it is God’s call made personally to you in the communion of his children to enter into the love of the Father for the Son in the Holy Spirit.
I think we are embarrassed to speak in such terms in the modern age. To speak of the divine origin of the Church or of the supernatural life of grace which unites us in the Blessed Trinity is to many an alien language, if not pure nonsense and idiotic. But it is the truth which I think the election of a new pope should give us all the opportunity to reflect upon. Let us ponder not so much upon the election of the new pope as on our own personal election into the internal life of the loving and eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pilgrim or tourist
During the Jubilee Year of 2000, one of our Dominican friars while visiting Rome was recalling his first visit to Rome for the Holy Year of 1950. When asked what was the greatest difference he noticed in the two events he said; “in 1950 people came as pilgrims now they come with their cameras as tourists”.
I was reminded of this observation as I sat in prayer at the tomb of Pope Francis. As far as I could see for the time I was there most of those passing the Pope’s grave were more intent on taking photos or selfies than praying for him. Maybe I should have been more focused on my prayers than looking disapprovingly at my fellow tourists.