The Pope is again at home after 38 long days admitted at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. Together with the satisfaction of God’s good people it is impossible for questions about the way Francisco will exercise his ministry from … nowstarting with the convalescence period of two months that doctors have prescribed.
It can be paradoxical, in a first glance, that the man called to be a shepherd of the Universal Church, which we almost “demand” a continuous presence, with trips, gestures and speeches, is held and limited in his ability to communicate. He himself has remembered several times during these weeks that the experience of fragility did not prevent him Loving, praying and surrendering in the way that the Lord currently has. And he has recognized being carried and sustained by the prayer and closeness of the people of God, of which he is a part.
The questions that many ask these days about what the Pope’s situation implies for the Government of the Church has reminded me of the then Cardinal Ratzinger to Peter Seewald in the book “God and the world.” Seewald told him about the image that the world of church frequently has as a formidable power, and Ratzinger explained that the Pope, far from being a kind of absolute monarch, is, rather, the guarantor of obedience in the church. The Pope is the first who is obliged to obeyfirst, to the Word of God and the living tradition of the Church expressed in the teaching. His task is not to “invent a different church”, but to instill all the faithful the obedience to the truth that Christ has wanted to trust his church through the fluctuations of history.
To support the weight of the disease with the certainty that God sustains him and shows something new through fragility is, at the time, the form of obedience that is now asked of the Pope, and it is also the way he teaches us all something essential. Remember that, in the lake, What the risen asked Peter was “follow me” and “confirm in faith my brothers”. The two things that Francisco is also asking. Of course, this does not reveal how concrete Francisco will perform his mission from now on, but unfolds the matter and places it in its fair perspective.
#José #Luis #Restán #guarantor #obedience
