These three words marked the first homily of Pope Francis. In reality he was addressing the Cardinals, but not simply in their responsibility as leaders and pastors but also and mainly as disciples of Jesus. I am saying“mainly” because what he said applies to all disciples ofChrist.

 A disciple gets his/her inspiration from his/her Teacher. As disciples we should be getting our inspiration from or Teacher and Master Jesus Christ, and He will show us his cross. The reason is put nicely by Pope Francis: “When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.” 

When we’re walking the life’s journey we should be walking always in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord and we try to live this journey with the same blamelessness that God asks from Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless.” (Gen 17:1) If we decide to stop in our journey of faith, them there is something wrong about us.

Along this journey of faith we are to build God’s house, the Church. As disciples of Christ we are called to be “living stones”,  stones that are anointed by the Holy Spirit. We were all anointed by the same Holy Spirit in our Baptism and then in our Confirmation. As stones we cannot stay lying around as if we’re without any purpose, but we are to be the stones that build the Church, the Bride of Christ. Now since every construction made of stone has its cornerstone, our cornerstone has to be Christ and only Christ. Without him we collapse.

Why are we journeying in faith and building Christ’s Bride, the Church? Is it for our gain or glory? The disciples of Christ know that before their Master ascended into heaven he gave them a mission: “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfillment of the Father's promise about which I have spoken to you: John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit within a few days… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout  Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1: 4,5,8)  Our journeying in faith and our building the church should lead us to our witnessing for Jesus. Unless, with our lives, we confess that Jesus is our Lord and only Saviour, we are wasting our time. 

If I do not keep walking in faith, I stall, I will shut down. If I do not build on the solid rock that is Jesus, I will only be building sand  castles and everything will be swept away. If I will not profess Jesus Christ, I will be professing to worldliness of the devil.

Our profession of Jesus has to include in it the Cross of Christ. Also Saint Peter professed Christ as the Son of the living God, but when Christ spoke about his sufferings, Peter didn’t like it and Jesus reproached him sternly. Practically Saint Peter was saying to Jesus: “You know, Lord, I am ready to follow you on another way, on a one which does not include the Cross.”

How can we be disciples of Christ and at the same time eliminate the Cross of Christ? Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians: “The  Jews ask for miracles and the Greeks for a higher knowledge, while we proclaim a crucified Messiah. For the Jews, what a great scandal! And for the Greeks, what nonsense! But he is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for those called by God among both Jews and Greeks.”(1Cor 1:22-24) 
 
Pope Francis ended his homily with these words: “I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage - the courage - to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward.”

In these days we have been rejoicing that we have a new Pope, that he is the first Latin-American Pope, that he is the first Jesuit Pope, that he is the first to take the name of Francis… This is fine. But have we asked ourselves what is God saying to his Church through all these nov only the hierarchy but also each one of us, because every baptized is part of the church. So we have to regard what God is saying to his Church not only as if He was speaking to the hierarchy but also to each and  everyone of us.

In giving us Pope Francis, I feel that God is saying to us: “I want to make something new. I want to reform the church as a body and  individually and I want you to make me the centre of your existence.”

In Pope Francis there are many new things. He is the first Jesuit to be elected Pope, He is the first coming from a religious order in more than 150 years (last one was Gregory XVI, 1831-1846). Though not the first non-European was St. Gregory III a Syrian (731-741). 

It seems that God is telling us to let him make something new out of his church and each one of us. It seems that he wants us to let go of the many things that made us feel secure in our Catholic customs and traditions, and let him purify our beliefs. It is not the faith that must change, but the  votes in favour of Pope Cardinal Bergoglio reached the two-thirds, Cardinal Hummes who was next to him, turned around, hugged him, kissed him and told him: “Remember the poor!” That phrase struck a chord. He will choose Francis in honour of the Saint of Assisi, who is symbol of peace, austerity and service to the poor. And these are the qualities in which the churchneeds to be renewed. Pope Francis himself, speaking to the journalists said: "I would like a church which is poor and working for the poor."

 Many of us criticize the church for the riches that it might have and we say that she should think of the poor more. Let me ask you a question: You yourself, are you poor? Do you have a spirit of poverty? Because also you are the church and one cannot expect that the church will have a spirit of poverty without having the same spirit himself or herself. The church is not some corporation and we are the employees. The church is us and all of us need to be renewed. Each one of us needs to be an instrument of peace. Each one of us needs to have the spirit of poverty because our Lord and master was poor himself. Each one of us needs
to be a person of service on the example of Jesus Christ who impoverished himself so that we might enriched through his  poverty.

These are nice things to say and to wish for, BUT we cannot be such persons unless Christ is the centre of our existence. He is the ONE who matters most; He is the One who can make a difference in our lives. Pope Francis himself said that it is Christ who is at the heart of the Church. What does this mean? It means that he has to be the only motivating force in our lives. Any other motivating force, will take us astray.

We have a Pope! He’s an Argentinean who was chosen to be the Bishop of Rome and therefore the Supreme Pontiff of the  Catholic Church who chose for himself the name of Francis. Pope Francis, when he  was still Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio did not top the papabili list and yet the Cardinals chose him within 24 hours.

His first appearance at the main balcony of St. Peter’s and his first speech say a lot about him. Perhaps we expected to see a Pope waving with his both hands spread wide and yet we have seen a man who almost seemed timid and waved slightly with one hand. More than timid I think he was overwhelmed with what has come over him… it had not sunk in yet. His first greeting was not the usual “Sia lodato Gesù Cristo” “Praised be Jesus Christ” but, “My bothers and sisters… good evening!” This man who, according to Pope Francis himself, has been brought from the ends of the earth to be the Bishop of Rome, has immediately connected with his people. He is a learned and wise man but at the same time he knows how to connect with people and how he can win them over. 
 
The name that he chose for himself, that of Francis, reveals a lot about him and his way of leading. He has taken upon himself not one of the names of the other great popes, but came up with a new one. It exudes simplicity, humility, charity and poverty, the characteristics of his now patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi. Perhaps, as Francis of Assisi was called to rebuild St. Damiano’s Church, the new Pope feels that he is called to reform and strengthen the Catholic Church and give it a new image.

This does not mean that he will sacrifice the teachings of the Catholic Church to make it look attractive to what the world wants. This will not be reform and strengthening but betrayal. What I believe that he will do is that he will help all believers to build this new image, an image of simplicity, humility, poverty and charity while at the same time he will challenge us to live a more authentic Christian life based on the values of Jesus and his Gospel.

He told the people of Rome and with them all believers, that the church’s journey has to be a journey of brotherhood in love, a journey of mutual trust, a journey where we sustain one another with prayer and a great sense of brotherhood. Thus we can be better equipped to evangelize one another.

Will you join in this journey?

What  is the difference in value of a crisp $20 and a crumpled dirty $20? None at all! It is the same in the sight of God when He looks at us sinners. In the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes that we have all sinned (Rom 3:23) whether our sins are known by others or not. Henri Nouwen says it differently: "We are all handicapped; some are more visibly handicapped than others."

The two  sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son were both sinners (Luke 15: 11-32). The younger one was a public sinner while the elder, presumably the good boy, was a sinner just the same with a difference. The younger boy realized the depths of degradation that he had reached because of his sinful life and repentant returned to his father’s house whereas the elder, full of anger, resentment and self-righteousness, distanced himself from his father’s house and his brother.

We are all sinners, whether we are the younger child with our sins more visible or the elder with our sins hidden. We all need to repent and return to the Father’s house. If we are the younger child we need to change our lifestyle and be responsible and obedient. If we are the elder we need to turn back from our anger and resentment and learn to share more and to accept others
more, no matter who they are or what they did.

In reality, the elder son was the one who chose to suffer more because he preferred to keep carrying alone the burden of his sins. He preferred to exclude himself from the family’s celebrations and denied himself the joy of the fruit of his own labour – he didn’t even taste the fatted calf that he had helped to raise. All this because he stuck to his own ideas of fairness and justice and failed to see that his father’s ideas and also those of God are much more different than ours. And thank God for that!