Clamor meus: April 2005

On interrupted meditation

Someone asked of a list that I belong to, what was read to the Pope that morning at the Third hour. Apparently someone had great need to retrace those steps.

If it was Saturday morning, and I just don't know, and did not want to investigate. Then the reading would have been from Romans 5:10-11:

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

In all of the hubub since the death of the Pope, I expect that many of us have been distracted from the Easter Season. John Paul II died on the Saturday within the Octave of Easter and Benedict XVI received the Pallium and Fishers Ring on the Fifth Sunday of Easter.

Somehow all of this is part of the Paschal Mystery, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.

Perhaps, throughout the remaining Easter season, we might be able to turn away from the Spectacle, and return our thoughts to the reconciliation wrought for us.

Habemus Papam

After four ballots the crowds in St. Peter's Square glimpsed inconclusive hued greyish smoke emerge from the stove pipe in the Sistine Chapel. The confusion was clarified a few moments later when the bell began to ring! Jorge Arturo Augustin Cardinal Medina Esteves came out onto the Balcony greeted the crowd, very kindly in four languages, and then declaimed:

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum;
habemus Papam:

Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum Josephum
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Ratzinger
qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedictum XVI

Luckilly it was all over in just a few minutes. Benedict appeared on the balcony. Greeted the crowds. Imparted his blessing, on the City and on the World. Waved. And went back inside for a light lunch with the Prince Bishops of the Church.

One way or another he is God's gift to the Church. As a man and a pastor he will have his successes and his failures, all of them his and ours. Eventually, he will be loved.

For now, we should pray for him and hope for the best!

On Black Smoke

A kindly person came up to me on the street today, as I walking to lunch, and stopped to announce that there was black smoke today, and that there would be no more news today as the Cardinals had gone to bed.

So, there was black smoke today, rising above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City. I understand that there was some misunderstanding at the beginning, but whitish puffs darkened quickly, and revealed, nothing.

The first round of ballots resulted in a plurality too wide for an election. Journalists and commentators were hot to suggest that this ballot reveals the candidates, strong and weak.

Maybe. But maybe, just maybe my friend's announcement was correct. Perhaps the Cardinals of the Holy Catholic Church, exhausted by the responsibility and spectacle of their office, burned up the artifacts of their trial run and turned in to sleep on it!

Somehow, I'm not worried about the outcome. I've lived during the reigns of five successors of St. Peter. Each one of them a surprise, each one a gift. None of them were perfect. All of them were loved, by someone.

The new boy will have his strengths and weaknesses; his successes and his failures. He will be loved for it.

Let the Cardinals take their time. Its all in God's hands.

Veni Sancti Spiritus!