Like many of you, I have been watching the news with excitement, waiting to see the white smoke and hear the words Habemus Papam!<\/p>\n
Yesterday was a day of great joy for so many of us.\u00a0 It was a great day to be a Catholic.\u00a0 Perhaps I am becoming a sappy old mother, but I cried the moment I saw Pope Francis and again when he humbly bowed his head in silence and asked for our prayers.<\/p>\n
By all accounts, Pope Francis seems to be a man of service, a man of action, and I love that.\u00a0 Our Church is a community, a family, and to be a part of it, we are all called to serve in different ways.\u00a0 In the past few weeks, I have really stopped following secular media sources regarding the papacy, most especially the more\u00a0 \u201celite\u201d sources like the New York Times and even the Wall Street Journal, because they just don\u2019t get it.\u00a0 They all sit back, many lapsed Catholics or not serious Catholics, and discuss the current \u201ccrisis\u201d in the Church and how the new Pope will have a huge job to fix all the corruption and scandal.\u00a0 And of course these media outlets never tire of obsessing over the sexuality issues \u2014 gay marriage, abortion, contraception, female ordination, etc. \u2014 as if all the Catholic Church needs to do is act more like the Anglican Church and their pews will be overflowing.\u00a0 For these writers, it\u2019s all about the problems with the hierarchy and how the Church can better accommodate me and my personal worldview.\u00a0 I find it all so discouraging.<\/p>\n
I see two huge problems with this focus.\u00a0 For starters, the new Pope will not change Catholic doctrine, because popes are chosen among men who are actually Catholic.\u00a0 Obvious to me, yes, but it seems our media needs a reminder.<\/p>\n
And perhaps more importantly, we as Catholics should not have an attitude of getting but giving.\u00a0 Instead of discussing what the Church will do for us, we must think and pray about what we can do for the Church.\u00a0 We are not called to sit back, uninvolved, and then give our thoughts on what needs to change for us to get involved or be a better Catholic.\u00a0 No, as Catholics we are called to SERVE.\u00a0 We must serve our family, serve our parish, and serve our community.\u00a0 We are called to bring the love of Christ, the light of Christ, to all people.\u00a0 Of course the path of service will be different for each person, but we are all called to a radical life of service.\u00a0 If you are sitting around, thinking about how the Church is failing and isn\u2019t serving you, then you are a part of the problem.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are things that need to be fixed.\u00a0 But if you followed most media outlets, you\u2019d think the the Church has hit its lowest point in 2000 years.\u00a0 The Church has faced many crises, some much worse.\u00a0 There were times and places where most church leaders were chosen not for their holiness or wisdom or even management skills, but because they were part of the right aristocratic family.\u00a0 Bishops and priests ignoring their calling and unabashedly living lives of sin, with little to no consequence.\u00a0 Politics and power not just influencing but utterly consuming Church officials.<\/p>\n
One man that faced such a time was a merchant\u2019s son named Francis.\u00a0 God began to move within him, and Francis listened.\u00a0 One day he was told, \u201cRebuild my Church.\u201d\u00a0 He did not go back to his father\u2019s comfortable house and pen an article for Rome\u2019s version of the New York Times, outlining all the problems with Church teaching or corruption in the Curia.\u00a0 Nor did he nail 95 theses to a door.\u00a0 He took his own two hands and began to rebuild the Church \u2014 first the Church building in which he prayed, and then the lives of the lowliest members of the Body of Christ.\u00a0 And he inspired one of the greatest reforms in the history of the Church.<\/p>\n
It is no coincidence that our new Holy Father has taken the name of Francis.\u00a0 He will make his mission the same.\u00a0 The Church is made of sinners, so it will always require rebuilding.\u00a0 Pope Francis will continue the rebuilding effort, showing us the beauty of giving one\u2019s life for the sake of others.<\/p>\n
The greatest crisis the Church faces today is a world that rejects love for the pursuit of individual pleasure.\u00a0 Sure, this has always been a problem, but never quite so acute.\u00a0 Thanks to modern technology and wealth, it\u2019s never been so easy to center your life around yourself and your desires.<\/p>\n
The last two Popes have been tremendous leaders, giving us the writings and clear teachings to contradict the lies of the modern world.\u00a0 I think Pope Francis will complement their work by making his focus showing the world how to live out these teachings.\u00a0 To get his hands dirty like St. Francis.\u00a0 To show us the way to true reform.\u00a0 He will be a pastor who is a martyr for the truths of our faith.\u00a0 A leader who by his actions will show us how to bring the light of Christ to all people.\u00a0 A leader who inspires us all to pray and ask how we can better serve the Church.\u00a0 Praise God for Pope Francis.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s get to work!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How Pope Francis will help us start serving the church and stop serving ourselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,20,21,1],"tags":[176,181,178,180,177,175,179,174],"class_list":["post-6808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-spiritual-life","category-catholic-church","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-church-2","tag-christianity","tag-conclave","tag-poor","tag-pope","tag-pope-francis","tag-service","tag-st-francis"],"yoast_head":"\n