What It’s Like To Actually Care About The Conclave

It is very, very good to be Catholic. We have the remarkable capacity to actually care about the conclave. The media, bless them, cannot fathom the explosion of love happening here, and are doomed to report with all the banality, divisiveness and cluelessness with which one goes about reporting an American presidential election. They’re talking about the conclave, sure — it’s political ramifications, the potential ideological leaning of the next Pope, the “necessary” changes the Church needs to make in order to stay relevant — all with a detached sense of irony over the fact that “these things still happen?” to the point that it’s easy enough to play Bingo with the whole situation:

But to the Catholic, the conclave is not just a reportable event. It is that event which ensures the continued existence of the universe, and Eternity’s continued love for us fickle, finite creatures.

“God so loved the world that he sent his only Son,” and that same Son of God told his disciple “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18)

God — in a radical display of trust that we do not deserve — builds His Church on a man, and thus grants to man what was said of him: The power to speak with authority. In the election of another Peter, we are all embraced by Heaven. In the Pope, Christ is represented on Earth, in the true sense of that overused word, re-presented, despite all human sin, weakness, and idiocy. Our Creator and Bridegroom binds himself to us as he did 2000 years ago, saying to his flock “where you go I will go,” shocking Creation with his impropriety. But lovers aren’t known for sensible behavior.

“I am the good shepherd” Christ says, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14) But who will be our shepherd now that our Christ has ascended into Heaven? This is the question that the conclave is answering, a question answered by Christ when we took aside Peter, the first Pope, and said “feed my sheep,” (John 21:15) “tend my sheep,” (21:16) and “feed my sheep.” (21:17) We belong to Christ, and Christ has chosen to speak through man, and now we are fed heavenly food by a Church lead by the Vicar of Christ.

This is what it’s like to actually care about the conclave: To be stunned in the realization that God is among us, and to delight in the pomp, secrecy, and reverence that surrounds this intimate action of love. God bless this wonderful Church! God bless this Church that has clung to Christ for 2000 years and passed on his authority, unbroken, 266 times: