Công Giáo posted an update in the group
2 days ago
Dio Wheeling-CharlestonHabemus Papam!
A column by Sr. Jessica Bernal, HMSP for FaithInWV
“Habemus Papam!” These were the words that filled with joy and relief my hopeful heart. The first American pope, religious, and a missionary; conditions that have both broadened his horizons and prepared him for this new calling!
Our Lord has made to him to lead all people of different backgrounds, states of life, and cultures to the green pastured of our Lord’s presence.
In a special way, I see in our Holy Father a great hope for the church of America. America finds herself wounded and hurt in the most inner being of the souls of the people, and our faith is shaking. We find ourselves hungry for the healing love of our Lord, and at the same time, far from true understanding of what this love is and means.
May our Holy Father remember the words of Saint John Paul II who, in a homily before the conclave in which he was elected pope said, “He asked of Simon: ‘Do you love me more than these? The heart of Simon trembled. A human heart must tremble, because in the question there is also a demand. You must love! You must love more than the others do, if the entire flock of sheep is to be entrusted to you, if the charge, ‘Feed my lambs, feed my sheep’ is to reach the scope which it reaches in the calling and mission of Peter.”
Our world has forgotten how to lay down one’s life, how to forget self in order to love the neighbor, how to seek first the kingdom of God. Our world has also lost men who can truly answer this question, and with trembling hearts lead others in the ways of Christ, feeding with the richness of Christ’s body and blood and with his Word the lambs and the sheep. Pope Leo XIV is this hope for America and for the World; to heal with the peace he gives, the peace of the risen Christ who is ‘the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God’ and to instruct each of us in the way of love, the way of life and truth that is Christ Jesus.
Each of us then, looking to our Holy Father, chosen from among his brethren by the inspiration of the Holy Spirt have the obligation to unite in prayer for this new pontificate and to leave behind the murmuring Christ experiences on many occasions on behalf of the people, in order to open our hearts to the healing and renewal Christ is so eager to give. If the supposed followers of Christ have this openness during the discourse of the Bread from Heaven, everyone of them would have experienced the overwhelming joy of Christ’s gift of his very self in the Eucharist, but because they did not, rather than change the teaching, Christ allowed them to walk away from him. It is the duty of our Holy Father to teach and defend the faith, it is also our duty to know how to respond with faith and confidence even to that which we do not fully understand in the moment.
May we be the unity that his Holiness has invited us to, seeking together to, “be a missionary church, a Church that builds bridges and dialogue, always open to receiving, with arms open to everyone to all those who are in need of our charity, our presence, dialogue, love.”
