… that I may not flee for fear of the wolves…”
From Pope Benedict XVI’s homily at the Mass for his Inauguration as Pope.
He was, as you already know, elected five years ago today.
After the meal Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?’ He answered, ‘Yes Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He replied, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep.’ Then he said to him a third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and said, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.
I recently ruminated concerning Benedict….”look at all that this man is going through at 82 years of age.” Popes should be younger in this media age which age is not going away. I’d be a basket case at his age in his situation.
But then we had in the NY harbor area recently a fortyish woman get killed by a train as she was trying to retrieve her purse or phone which had fallen on the subway tracks. She leaves an elderly father who is currently taking care of a wife who has Parkinson’s and another disease and now he takes care of that wife without his much younger daughter helping and now he mourns the daughter and recurringly fights thoughts of how she went into the next life. Everything is relative. All the elderly face the severe of life in one way or the other. The elderly in general are heroes to me including Benedict and they are heroes simply on the level of what Paul Tillich called…”the courage to be”….in the face of onslaughts and whispers of non being from the devil…who never rests.
Hey, Amy? I was looking for your old comment threads on your old blog, and they’ve been pared down to one comment each. Is there anything to do to recover them? Maybe they want you to moderate comments before posting them, because they’ve changed commenting systems over there?
Maureen – I really don’t know. There might be a default that I’m not aware of that’s kicked in or something…
I would add, from Luke 22, this:
“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.”
Just as Christ prays for Peter, so should we for his successors. Being pope must be like having a demonic target put on your back.
I have thought for some time now that Pope Benedict is a saint. As I observe him handle the present crisis, my admiration for him grows. I’ve long known from his books that he combines immense erudition and holiness in a way that makes him much more than just another very learned scholar. I’ve also long known from his books that he courageously stands up for the truth. I now see in his actions the qualities that I discerned in his writing. He is a man of tremendous courage and integrity.
We have a great, great Pope. Appreciate him while we have him.
(The John 21 reading was the Gospel reading at John Paul II’s funeral. It was read in Italian (if I recall correctly, one of the other readings was read in Spanish and one was read in English).)
He is, indeed, a great and holy man and Pope. What is sad is that he needs our prayers not just due to attacks from outside the Church, but also from within. This past Sunday, I had the misfortune of reading the weekly letter that a priest (who serves as a pastor on a promiment university campus) included in the parish bulletin: “Recently, media reports have questioned whether Pope Benedict himself may have not responded quickly and decisively in these matters–when he led a Vatican office before his election as Pope, and when he was Archbishop of Munich, Germany. We must be careful about judging prematurely, but this accusation is troubling.” So a priest takes it upon himself to pass along (and by implication legitimate) the now-discredited claims of tendentious journalists? To college students? Yes, the Pope needs our prayers.
My observation is: how do we get him named a Doctor of the Church?