Huge Pope Francis Fans, By Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures

“Huge Pope Francis Fans”
by Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lately it seems like the readings for Sunday Mass have been picked out specifically for Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, even though they’re not (they’re on a 3 year cycle in case you’re interested).

Pope Francis, as you know, has a lot of huge fans. The kind of fans who would paint their faces and make poster-board signs to go to a football game. The kind of fans who would camp out for concert tickets. The kind of fans who just can’t get enough of the guy. We’re seeing that energy all over the place with the Pope’s visit to the United States.

And yet you’ll occasionally meet somebody who says, “I’m not so sure that I like the guy. I don’t think he’s Catholic enough.” Really? Not Catholic enough? Umm…he’s the Pope. They might say things like, “Francis is too soft on sin” when he’s trying to be welcoming. Trust me, he’s trying to get us all to strive for holiness and turn away form sin just as much as Pope Benedict XVI and Pope St. John Paul II, but Francis has a particular gift of presenting the Church’s teaching in a welcoming way so people can actually hear it and then go deeper in their life of faith.

This reminds me a lot of both the First Reading and the Gospel this week. In the First Reading, God sends down his spirit upon the 72 elders who were with Moses. These two other guys names Eldad and Medad weren’t with them at the time and were back at the camp (maybe they overslept), and they ended up receiving the spirit too even though they weren’t with the group.

Then Joshua (who goes on to be a pretty awesome leader of the Israelites) tells Moses he needs to crack down on the way these guys were praying since they weren’t with the group when they received the spirit. Moses is quick to remind him that he has it all backwards. Yes, it was a special moment for the 72 of them to receive the spirit, but it would be even greater if everybody received it. It wasn’t meant just for them, but it was something to be spread to everyone.

Then we have Jesus basically doing the same thing. John (the youngest of the Apostles) says to Jesus, “Lord, we saw some guy driving out demons in your name. But don’t worry – as soon as we noticed, we confronted him and told him he had no business doing that and we kicked him out of the place.” Jesus then explains to John how anybody who isn’t against you is for you, and even though they might not do things exactly the same way as we do and they aren’t part of our group, that doesn’t mean that what they’re doing doesn’t have value and isn’t important and helpful.

Pope Francis knows this well – he’s all about bringing people together despite their differences, and we should be too. That doesn’t mean we compromise anything we believe or soft-sell the Gospel message to our friends who aren’t spiritually on the same page as we are, but we need to meet people where they’re at and recognize the things they’re doing that are already in accord with our faith, even if they don’t realize it.

Do you have an atheist friend who likes serving at the soup kitchen? Great, start there. Don’t tell him, “Well, you know, it doesn’t really count since you’re only doing it for your college resume.” The guy is serving the poor! It counts! And hopefully through the experience he can come to encounter Christ in a deeper way through those people he serves.

Do you have a friend who goes to a Protestant Christian Church? Great! Don’t spend all your time debating about whether purgatory is in the Bible or not. Focus on what you have in common, and maybe one day through knowing you, she’ll come closer to the Catholic Church. But you can’t go around saying she’s not a real Christian because she’s not Catholic.

So take a page out of the Pope’s playbook this week as he speaks to lots of people who disagree with each other. Focus on the common ground you can find, and go from there. You’ll bring people a lot closer to Jesus that way than you will debating them. Am I a huge fan of Pope Francis? You better believe it.