A leader, in whatever human grouping you have, always sets the tone. Now, tone is not something that you can define easily in words, but you sure can feel it. You take on a new job and within the first few hours you can sense that there is tension in this business operation. Most often, the leadership can be too demanding and non-communicative and leaves the employees adrift. You may not be able to write down the tension on a piece of paper but your body indicates that you had better tread softly while you are on the job.
Now, Pope Francis, is setting the Church and all of Christianity on a course of renewal. There are many people who are very upset that he does not come down hard and strong, clear on what is right and wrong. They are very vocal and shrill in their lamentations.
Pope Francis is pushing the Church to be a church of mercy and healing. He wants us to have dirt on our shoes because we have been out on the streets ministering to the poor and the marginalized. To use a very Biblical image, he wants all the people involved in leadership to “smell like the sheep!”
He is challenging the Church not to only have the truth, but to be the truth!
This means that in our actions and service to the people we are actually doing and making real the very mercy of Jesus Christ. He has never down played the importance of speaking the truth, but he challenges us to make it real in our day to day lives. This means that everyone who identifies with the Church is meant to make the love and mercy of Jesus Christ real in their dealings with their fellow employees, their own family members and the new comers to our country.
We are being challenged to move from a Church with a strong institutional presence to the community of faith that is at the service of the poor and the marginalized of this world. A Church of service will look different from the dominant church building with a clear mandate to practice Christian virtues in the society. A church of service seeks to be a ‘field hospital’ in a wounded society.
In Canada, we are soon to be welcoming many, many Ukraine refugees. The challenge is right in front of us. How will we be of assistance to these people trying to rebuild their lives after being so brutally tossed forth from the security of their own ( Ukraine ) society?
Every day (but it is not fodder for the media) we are confronted by more and more families who are suffering because one of their members has overdosed on bad street drugs. How do we walk with and support these families who have suffered such a senseless loss?
We will not live long enough to see the full effects of the renewal that Pope Francis has launched but he is pointing Christianity in the right direction. How well will be respond to the challenge?
No comments:
Post a Comment