It is always fun to be part of major historical events, positive ones at least. When Pope Benedict was elected in 2005, I had the privilege of being in St. Peter’s square when he came out onto the balcony for the first time. All the cell phones crashed because everyone was trying to use them at the same time.
On Thursday we were blessed with a new pope, Leo XIV and from the US too, which is something to be proud of. What does this mean for our Church? Could he make drastic changes? No. Church teaching does not change easily. The basic teachings of our faith do not change, but we are all the time getting a deeper understanding of our faith.
Many people thought that Pope Francis changed Church teaching, but in fact he did not. He often gave opinions which unnerved people, but opinions are not the same as Church teaching. He also went into a lot of gray areas, which people didn’t like, but that was also what Jesus did and was heavily criticized for by the religious authorities.
In St. John’s Gospel (16:12-13), Jesus said to the Apostles, ‘There is so much more I want to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.’ God continues to reveal himself to us and to help us grow in understanding, not just as a Church, but individually too. The more we are, the more the Lord will teach us, because He wants to teach us, just like a parent wanting to pass on their knowledge to their children.
In one of the encounters that Jesus had with the Apostles, He asks them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ It is Peter who says, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’ Jesus realizes that the Father in heaven has revealed this to Peter. He didn’t come to this conclusion by himself and Jesus knew Peter was the one to lead his Church. Then Jesus goes on to say:
‘You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven.”
St. John’s Gospel says something similar, ‘The light shines in the darkness, the darkness has not overcome it.’ (John 1:5). God’s Church is indestructible, because it is from God. It will often take a beating because of the human side of it, but it cannot be stopped because it is from God.
In St. Luke’s Gospel Jesus says, ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you, rejects me.’ (Lk 10:16)
The order of grace
There is an order to God’s creation. It works a certain way. If we listen to and are obedient to what God teaches us, commands us, it works. If we recognize our boundaries as human beings and don’t try and play God, creation works as it should and humanity blossoms. If we decide we know better and step out of that order, we are on our own and the order begins to break down, which is what we see happening around us right now.
· I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me. But we worship, money, knowledge, science, as gods and treat the Lord God as an optional extra. God is not an optional extra. We are.
· Remember to keep the sabbath holy. Many people don’t think it’s necessary to give time to worship God at all. It’s my world and I’ll do what I want.
· You shall not kill: but now we are deciding who lives and who dies: abortion, euthanasia.
· God created them male and female. Now we are deciding what is male and female.
When I was ordained a priest, I knelt before the bishop and he asked me: ‘Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?’ As long as I do my best to remain obedient to my bishop, I remain in the order of God’s grace, the order which God has established. If I step out of that order and begin to do my own thing as a priest, I am on my own.
The word obedience means ‘to listen intently.’ So when we are obedient to God, it means we listen carefully to what God is saying to us and with good reason, because that is what will help us the most, both as individuals and as a society.
I suppose none of us like to be told that we have to be obedient to anyone. We feel that we should be able to do whatever we want. We can do whatever we want, but that is not what will lead us to the greatest happiness and fulfillment. What will bring us to the greatest inner freedom, is being obedient to God. The order that God shows us, works.
I always find it inspiring to see how many people really wanting to do the right thing and live the right way before God, because many people do.
Infallibility
What about infallibility. Isn’t the pope infallible in everything he says? No. The teaching of infallibility is not what people think and in fact has only been used twice in history, both times in declaring teachings on Our Lady: The Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven.
What it means is that when the pope, in union with all the bishops of the world declare an official teaching of our faith, it cannot be in error since they all agree on it and believe it is from God. Also, that would be a teaching that has been believed for centuries and is now made an official teaching or dogma, for that reason.
Name change
Finally, why do popes choose different names? A pope doesn’t have to take a different name, but most popes have. In the bible, the change of a name is usually an indication of a new mission. Abram became Abraham. Simon became Peter, Saul became Paul. A change of name also indicates the direction the pope hopes to take the papacy. Pope Leo XIII was very focused on social justice and wrote various encyclicals to deal with situations of injustice, better conditions for workers, etc. So Pope Leo XIII would seem to indicate that he hopes to follow in the same direction.
Even though popes are human and make mistakes like everyone else, it is ultimately God who is leading the Church, which is why it is unstoppable.
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.
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