Who would have thought that Cardinal Ratzinger, the guardian of the purity of Catholic doctrine, would become the kind of Pope he is as Benedict XVI? Before becoming Pope, his job was to challenge Catholic theologians for teaching their questionable opinions as if they were as credible as the authentic teaching of our 2000 year old Church. Yet now, as Pope, he has become the one to deal forthrightly and persistently with the scandals that have rocked the Church in America so as to bring some healing to the victims and encouragement to the rest of us who have also been so traumatized.
Who would have through that “God’s Rottweiler” would become the pastoral, caring, effective shepherd of the worldwide communion of Catholics? Who would have thought that the pre-eminent example of the institutional Church would say something like this: Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love.
Pope Benedict is an extraordinary example of remaining young even at 81 years of age and being able to adapt to his new circumstances. In the same way, as we saw in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the early Church had to adapt to their new circumstances. As long as the band of apostles and their few followers remained ethnically the same, they could handle everything; but as the numbers increased the early church began to take in immigrants, Hellenists, who came from outside the country. Then came the inevitable tensions, just as we experience in our own day. So, the early church did what Pope Benedict has done: they adapted to their new reality. They addressed the inequality of what the homegrown members were experiencing compared to the lesser quality of service that the immigrants were facing. And from that willingness to adapt, they invoked the help of the Lord and created new structures to address the problem.
By becoming able to adapt to new circumstances, “the Word of God continued to spread and the number of disciples . . . increased greatly.”
What enabled the pope to adapt to the new circumstances of his position in the church is the very same thing that enabled the early church to adapt to their new circumstances: faith! As we heard in the Gospel, Jesus told us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”
What I am hearing is the sense of crisis that is falling upon many a household due to financial stress. We have had a disturbing increase in school families who are calling for more time to make their tuition payments. I am hearing from people in the work place that people are more tense, less respectful, easily angered, and well, fearful. Milk and bread are skyrocketing in cost here at home; and the poor of their world are increasingly unable to purchase food. We’re all in this together. Everyone, it seems, is making less and paying more.
We are entering a new reality: fewer resources and more expenses. It seems that every day in the paper we see some new hike in tuition or in the price of this or that and the loss of jobs here and there.
Are we going to adapt? Or are we going to complain, become angry and make matters worse? No! Instead, let’s adapt! Let us ask the Lord to show us how we are to respond to our new reality. If it really comes down to tighter and tighter circumstances, will we really be able to adapt? Will we know the difference between what is really necessary, and what is superfluous?
Will we be more devoted to the things that drive our materialism and thus feel guilty needlessly for not being able to provide the luxuries of life to which they have become accustomed? We need to affirm our faith that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” and trust that He will show us how to respond. Lord, give us direction, and help us all adapt.
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