For the corrupt, channeling Pope Francis
Pope Francis’ first death anniversary on April 21 brought back memories of his visit 11 years ago in January 2015. As he had promised and despite strong rains and winds that got pilots worried, he proceeded to Tacloban City, among the devastated places in Eastern Visayas, where more than 6,000 people died when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) struck in October 2013. The sight of him in a cheap yellow raincoat and reaching out to the rain-drenched crowd, also clad in yellow, was unforgettable.
Just as unforgettable were his words during his encounter with young people from all over the country, which could very well be for corrupt adults. “If you have time,” Pope Francis said, “go see the picture that Caravaggio painted of this scene.”
By “this scene,” he meant Jesus calling the tax collector Matthew to come and follow Him. This surprise invitation, as narrated in the Bible (Matthew 9:9), caused a stir among the self-righteous because Jesus was consorting and eating with the so-called scum of society. And in the case of Matthew, Jesus even called him to join His team, His ragtag band of apostles.
I am now thinking of the never-ending investigations on corruption involving persons in authority, government officials in cahoots with private individuals, and the explosive revelations and surprises being spilled out at the House of Representatives at this very moment while I am writing.
Pope Francis painted his own scene to stress a point: that God springs surprises and we must allow ourselves to be surprised. “The important thing is to let yourselves be loved by Him,” he said in his native Spanish. “Real love is opening yourselves to the love that wants to come to you, which causes surprise in you. God is a God of surprises.” I imagined God calling in gentle and sometimes dramatic ways—calling us by name, calling us to mission, but first, to conversion.
The Baroque-era oil painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 to 1610) that the Pope was referring to is “The Calling of St. Matthew” (a huge 322 x 340 centimeters). Jesus is shown bursting into a dimly lit backroom where several men are seated. Jesus stretches out his hand toward someone who looks befuddled, as if asking, “Who, me?”
In the painting, Peter (it must be him), ever the protestor, stands in the way and, like the Pharisees, might be asking, “Jeez, why him?” In the words of Pope Francis: “This one? He’s no good. And he keeps money to himself. But the surprise of being loved overcomes Matthew, and he follows Jesus.”
Yes, you, too, elected officials who have robbed us blind. May you see and follow.
This Caravaggio masterpiece hangs in the church of the congregation of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.
Caravaggio was not himself a straight-and-narrow-path guy, but he painted many with religious themes. In that Bible scene that Caravaggio painted, Jesus chides his critics: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ I did not come to call the righteous but the sinners.” The theme of Pope Francis’ four-day visit to the Philippines was “mercy and compassion.” I have his book “The Name of God is Mercy.”
“That day,” Pope Francis narrated, “when Matthew left his home, said goodbye to his wife, he never thought he was going to come back without money, and was concerned about how to have such a big feast to prepare … for him who had loved him first, who had surprised Matthew with something very special, more important than all the money that he had.”
But because “He loved us first, He awaits us with a surprise.” As God surprised Matthew, so would God’s surprises “shake the ground from under your feet and make you unsure. But they move us forward in the right direction. Real love leads you to spend yourself … even at the risk of having your hands empty.”
He then segued into St. Francis, his namesake, who “died with empty hands, empty pockets, but with a very full heart.”
In his address to government officials and the diplomatic corps in Malacañang, he said: “More than ever, [it is] necessary that political leaders be outstanding in honesty, integrity, and commitment to the common good … The great biblical tradition … bids us to break the bonds of injustice and oppression, which give rise to glaring and, indeed, scandalous social inequities. Reforming the social structures which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires conversion of mind and heart.” Christians should “live lives of honesty, integrity, and concern for the common good,” he added.
While airborne over the African continent during his papal visit to four countries, Pope Leo XIV spoke to journalists and paid homage to his predecessor. “We can still hear his exhortations resounding, expressed in vivid words that made the Good News understandable: mercy, peace, fraternity, the smell of the sheep, [the church as] a field hospital and many others…”
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