Catholic and Enjoying It!
An intelligent look at Francis from the Atlantic.
If you are baffled by Francis because you have been trained to reflexively analyze all things through an American culture war and political lens, throw away the lens and memorize these words: they explain virtually everything you need to know about this pope and this papacy:
He has preached good news to the poor.
Seriously. That’s all you need to know about the guy. That’s his mission. He is all about evangelization in the name of Jesus Christ to (and on behalf of) the least of these.
Our culture is all about evangelization in the name of Venus, Mammmon, and Mars against the least of these on behalf of the One Percent.
And since, as St. Paul says, “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; ¶ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Ro 8:7–8), it stands to reason that the pope’s message is increasingly incomprehensible to our culture. When the gospel is seen only as a pool of raw materials to be cannibalized for our own ends and purposes, one is not a disciple of Jesus. As Augustine says, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
So: start with docility and work forward from there and this pope will become remarkably more comprehensible.
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