by Father Robert Lauder

Third in a series

A NUMBER OF my friends have mentioned to me that Pope Francis reminds them of Pope John XXIII. Parts of his now-famous interview that was published in September in several Jesuit magazines also caused me to think of John XXIII. That may be due to Pope Francis’ sense of humor or his joy-filled attitude. Or it may be that when he said that we have to find God in the world, I thought immediately of the Second Vatican Council and some of the wonderful documents that emerged from that gathering.

Reading and re-reading Pope Francis’ interview brought back memories of the excitement and enthusiasm that was stirred up almost daily among my friends and I during the council. Statements by Pope Francis during the interview not only urge us to be committed to Christ but also remind us that there should be no turning away from the insights of the council.

Channels of Grace

With Pope Francis encouraging us, we should be hopeful that we can make a difference in the world. Of course, there is evil in the contemporary world, but there is also a great deal of good. The Holy Spirit breathes in the contemporary world, and animated by that Spirit, the Church – that means all of us – can be channels of God’s grace.

Asked by the interviewer what the Second Vatican Council accomplished, Pope Francis said the following:

“Vatican II produced a renewal movement that simply comes from the same Gospel. Its fruits are enormous. Just recall the liturgy. The work of liturgical reform has been a service to the people as a re-reading of the Gospel from a concrete historical situation. Yes, there are hermeneutics of continuity and discontinuity, but one thing is clear: the dynamic of reading the Gospel, actualizing its message for today – which was typical of Vatican II – is absolutely irreversible. …

“In fact, there is a temptation to seek God … in the past or in a possible future. God is certainly in the past because we can see the footprints. And God is also in the future as a promise. But the ‘concrete’ God, so to speak, is today. For this reason, complaining never helps us find God. The complaints of today about how ‘barbaric’ the world is – these complaints sometimes end up giving birth within the church to desires to establish order in the sense of pure conservatism, as a defense. No: God is to be encountered in the world of today.

“God manifests himself in historical revelation, in history. Time initiates processes, and space crystallizes them. God is in history, in the processes.”

I became interested in and involved in a small way in liturgical reform while I was a student in the major seminary. Twice I attended the national meeting of the Liturgical Conference, and these two meetings were among the most profound experiences I have had in my life.

Sacraments in the Vernacular

I believed that if the sacraments were celebrated in the vernacular there would be enormous changes in how Catholics understood the sacraments, celebrated the sacraments and allowed the sacraments to influence their lives. I believed the sacraments would form and shape us, form and shape the way we think and form and shape the way we live.

Looking back on my hopes and dreams, I suspect that in some ways I was naïve, but I think my basic insight was correct. The liturgical reforms already have had a great impact, and I think they will continue to influence deeply the lives of Catholics.

Irreversible Gospel Insights

One of the statements of the pope that I especially like is his comment that the dynamic of reading the Gospel and analyzing its message for today is irreversible. Pope Francis is saying that whether we like everything about the council or dislike some of what has followed in its wake, relating the insights of the Gospel to the world is an insight that should never be rejected or forgotten. The insight is “irreversible.”

Noting that some people who wish to encounter God also want to verify God’s presence by an empirical method, Pope Francis stresses that a person cannot meet God in that way. He said:

“A contemplative attitude is necessary: it is the feeling that you are moving along the good path of understanding and affection toward things and situations. Profound peace, spiritual consolation, love of God and love of all things in God – this is the sign that you are on this right path.”

Though he has only been pope for a short time, already I feel very confident that Pope Francis will lead the Church along the right way. He has had an effect on many already. I hope that he will continue to do so. I believe he will.[hr] Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press