In the Parking Lot with the Pope

I had what NPR calls a driveway moment - well actually it was a parking lot moment - but that is for pedants. I had not expected to listen to the Pope's speech but caught the beginning whilst driving and then sat and listened to the rest in my car.

Here is my reaction - he is saying what, I think, Christians should be saying. It is easy to superimpose on his speech things we know to be true or assume to be true. It is easy to push away and say that "I get it right most of the time and the problem is someone else...." But that is precisely what he is saying, we need to stop with "the other", we need to stop pushing back from the table and claiming we do not like the common food of humanity, prefering instead to eat in our own high tower rooms.

Before the speech started the commentators were saying that the Pope might have to speak politics to the politicians, that he was entering a political conversation. My reaction was that the basic conversations about who we are together have been hijacked and politicised. Religion might not have a place in politics but politics has no business hijacking the common good and using it for personal or political gain.

It will get picked apart and analysed. Those at polar opposites will hear an extolling of their own virtue, or if they do not, will write off a religious leader as lacking in understanding, or as a dreamer, or crazy person.

When we are Christians we look like Christ. He spoke more harshly than Pope Francis (who is a consumate politician by the way) but also said, "To those who have ears, let them hear." If it isn't about you and your need to embrace the other, then you were not listening.