Surrounding Pope Francis’s first-ever visit to the United States, Americans are asking: Is this pope doing something new?
On the one hand, faithful Christians know that the pope isn’t a lone outlier in our tradition; all over the world, believers are living among the poor, preaching the gospel, and bringing the love of Christ into dark and forgotten places. Pope Francis is doing so in the spotlight, so for once the world is getting a glimpse of the church at its best, instead of the angry, the shouters, or the judgmental who often make news. Non-Christians can witness an example of the genuine faith many Christians live out in their own lives every day.
The media have swarmed to cover the pope and his appeal. I tuned in as the guests offered their commentary on the Diane Rehm Show earlier this week: “It seems like the Pope has actually read the Gospels!” Pope Francis “actually follows the example of Christ,” and he “actually believes Jesus’ words that the last will be first.” They marveled at the pope’s embodiment of the life of Christ, as if seeing it for the first time.
As I listened, I was reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” For much of my Christian life, I’ve had lofty visions of what this meant: caring for the vulnerable and the poor in a way that is so radical that people clap their hands over their mouths in awe…and then immediately start running after Jesus.
The pope seems to manifest that grand, evangelistic vision. And yet, people aren’t flocking to Jesus. Non-Christians aren’t converting en masse. Despite buzz about a “Francis effect,” the pope has yet to make significant impact on Catholic Church attendance or participation in the United States. In contrast with Jesus’ words in Matthew, the pope’s example has not initiated some worldwide revival.
Or has it?
Trapped by their cynicism, Americans think they know what Christianity is. Christians are judgmental, angry, hypocritical, and narrow-minded. At least that is what many Americans believe, and many Christians agree. As a result, our culture suffers from a collective failure of the imagination. We struggle to conceive of just how good Jesus is because we don’t see it very often.
Our culture, I believe, calls for a specific type of witness to break through the cynicism. The push to win arguments isn’t enough. But love, service, and sacrifice can make an impact. As we follow Jesus’ example closely, and love people just as radically, the Holy Spirit can use us to reignite the imagination of a cynical culture.
However, the worldwide response to the pope is an important reminder. Our impact may not look like much at first. In fact, it might seem like nothing at all. A Spirit-inspired shift in our culture’s imagination may simply come out as a “Huh. That’s different.”
In his work The Defendant, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The function of imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange; not so much to make wonders facts as to make facts wonders.”
The gospel is fact. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ, it is settled. So perhaps our call is not to convince people of its reality, but to instill that reality with a sense of something wonderful. A “Hmmm” or “That’s new” are important first steps in a culture in need of vision. Many have shut the door on Jesus, but Christians like Pope Francis are wedging it back open, ever so slightly.
I admit this goal can feel small. For a God who sent floods and parted seas and raised the dead, this evangelistic vision of “hmmm” seems beneath him. Unless, of course, you take into account the decades-long unfolding of God’s plans in Scripture. Reversing the tide of our culture could take 40 years, or much longer.
Still, we have to start somewhere. In a commencement speech, Stephen Colbert once said this about our culture: “Cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying ‘yes’ begins things.”
As Christians, we hope to live lives of faithful witness and to reflect God’s kingdom on earth. But our goals in ministry might be as simple as getting our neighbors to say yes… or even just hmm.
