There are several threads on this, so I don’t remember where I said this. I’ll repeat it here. When I first heard about the last minute change in plans, I admit that I was a little perplexed and even uncomfortable. Then I remembered what our Holy Father Francis taught us by his example and word. I mean the big Francis, not the pope. This is getting confusing for us. LOL
Anyway, I digress. He taught us that if one felt that something were wrong with a papal act, etc and it was not a sin, then whatever was wrong was in us, not in the Pontiff. His logic was quite true. The Pontiff is not bound by laws. Rather, it is he who binds and unbinds. Francis knew this. The Pontiff is a better Pontiff when he listens to his heart rather than man. Francis lived in an era where the monarchies of Europe had great influence over popes. the best popes were those who did what they felt needed to be done, not what others advised them to do. We Franciscans can never forget this.
When Francis arrived in Rome with 10 other brothers, he took with him the first draft of our holy rule. He did not know that there was a canon which prohibited new rules. Any new order had to adopt one of the existing rules and simply add statutes to accommodate it to its mission. For example, St. Dominic took the Rule of St. Augustine and he wrote constitutions to address those points that Augustine does not address. The same was true for the founders of the Servites.
Pope Innocent III was drawn to Brother Francis of Assisi. Despite the fact that there was a law in place, a law which his predecessor had enacted and which Pope Innocent would impose on St. Dominic a year later, he bypassed the law and approved the Rule of St. Francis.
The cardinals were opposed to this decision. Probably other people as well, especially the wealthy and the very poor. Francis challenged the wealthy by his way of life. But he also rejected what the poor aspired to have. If a vote had been taken, the Franciscan family would not be around today or we would look like Augustinians, Benedictines, Basilians, Carthusians or Carmelites, since these were the religious rules available for adoption.
I remembered this story, our story, the story of the Franciscan family. Because of one pope’s courage to do something completely out of sync with the rules, the largest religious family was born into the Church, a religious family that would save the Church from implosion.
This led me to think about what Francis taught in word and action. I suddenly understood why Francis never second-guessed a pope. He knew that his order existed because a pope broke the rules. It appeared that way. In reality, the one who makes the rule can dispense with it.
This led me to ask myself if the pope were looking at this from another perspective. I though about a room. If you stand on one side watching the action of Holy Thursday, you would see the Apostles’ feet being washed. You would interpret it as an apostolic act. You would be correct.
However, if you stood behind the Apostles and looked in the direction that they were looking, you would see what they saw. They would see Jesus doing diakonia. They saw the eternal Son of God on his knees as a slave before his master washing his feet. The were looking at Isaiah’s suffering servant about to begin his passion.
I thought to myself, that the Holy Father is probably seeing this gesture not from Jesus’ point of view, but from the point of view of the Apostles. In that case, the focus is on Christ, not on the Apostles. One sees Christ’s service or Diakonia.
Tonight, I watched a clip that EWTN put out from the mass. To my amazement,
this is what I saw. The Holy Father is wearing the stole of the deacon as he washes the feet of the inmates.
It is easy to forget that every bishop possesses the fullness of the priesthood or the fullness of Holy Orders. That is, he is deacon, presbyter and bishop. Watching him wearing the deacon’s stole as he washes the feet confirmed my suspicion. If you understand Italian, you will notice that his homily focuses on Christ the servant. It’s done in typical Jesuit pedegogy, which is actually very good for young people and for people like me who are not too bright.
