The Pope and The Least of These
In 1983 I saw a photograph that deeply moved me.
Two men sitting in a stark cell.
One man wearing sneakers, jeans and a blue sweatshirt.
The other man dressed all in white, belying his angelic presence
Pope John Paul visited the man who had earlier attempted to assassinate him
He held the hand that had previously held a gun aimed at him.
Stunning, moving, heart-breaking.
The power of love and forgiveness.
And now 30 years later, I come across another picture that draws out similar feelings of pathos.
It again includes a pope and a man also exiled by society.
Pope Francis is embracing a severely disfigured man suffering from neurofibromatosis.
This ailment leaves the patient covered in large disfiguring tumors.
The result is a grotesque distortion of normal human facial features.
Most of us would avert our gaze away from such a man, and then perhaps steal furtive glances to satisfy our curiosity.
Instead the Pope see, moves, embraces and blesses.
See the man.
He is one of the invisible people our society seeks to keep submerged and hidden from polite society.
Those of us trying to develop grace-full vision need to see those that others ignore or suppress.
The pope saw him.
He moved towards him.
Viewing the man is not enough.
The pope moves TOWARDS him.
Do we have the courage to move towards those that society avoids?
The addicted, the mentally ill, the socially awkward.
Can we move into the orbit of the societal rejects?
Embrace.
Do we have this other worldly capacity to love - to see, move and then embrace.
To bring into our embrace those whom are hungering for touch, love and embrace?
To offer the love and comfort we take for granted most days, to those who receive affection so so rarely.
Bless.
Can we be conduits of the life infusing power of God to speak a blessing into the life of the other?
Blessing means transmitting grace, love and life onto another.
Empowering them to face whatever challenge is before them.
We bless our food because it gives us life.
Let us bless those from whom life and hope dissipates with clock like regularity.
See.
Move.
Embrace.
Bless.
Start to follow this rhythm.
Because….
none of us is ever guaranteed immunity from that downward sojourn where we find ourselves alongside our tumor covered friend,
amidst the exiled,
desperate for that life giving embrace.
Two men sitting in a stark cell.
One man wearing sneakers, jeans and a blue sweatshirt.
The other man dressed all in white, belying his angelic presence
Pope John Paul visited the man who had earlier attempted to assassinate him
He held the hand that had previously held a gun aimed at him.
Stunning, moving, heart-breaking.
The power of love and forgiveness.
And now 30 years later, I come across another picture that draws out similar feelings of pathos.
It again includes a pope and a man also exiled by society.
Pope Francis is embracing a severely disfigured man suffering from neurofibromatosis.
This ailment leaves the patient covered in large disfiguring tumors.
The result is a grotesque distortion of normal human facial features.
Most of us would avert our gaze away from such a man, and then perhaps steal furtive glances to satisfy our curiosity.
Instead the Pope see, moves, embraces and blesses.
See the man.
He is one of the invisible people our society seeks to keep submerged and hidden from polite society.
Those of us trying to develop grace-full vision need to see those that others ignore or suppress.
The pope saw him.
He moved towards him.
Viewing the man is not enough.
The pope moves TOWARDS him.
Do we have the courage to move towards those that society avoids?
The addicted, the mentally ill, the socially awkward.
Can we move into the orbit of the societal rejects?
Embrace.
Do we have this other worldly capacity to love - to see, move and then embrace.
To bring into our embrace those whom are hungering for touch, love and embrace?
To offer the love and comfort we take for granted most days, to those who receive affection so so rarely.
Bless.
Can we be conduits of the life infusing power of God to speak a blessing into the life of the other?
Blessing means transmitting grace, love and life onto another.
Empowering them to face whatever challenge is before them.
We bless our food because it gives us life.
Let us bless those from whom life and hope dissipates with clock like regularity.
See.
Move.
Embrace.
Bless.
Start to follow this rhythm.
Because….
none of us is ever guaranteed immunity from that downward sojourn where we find ourselves alongside our tumor covered friend,
amidst the exiled,
desperate for that life giving embrace.
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