Be More Pope!
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 11:1 )
Many of you will know that I recently had the privilege of travelling to the Vatican to meet the Pope. A group of around 25 pastors of Protestant churches from across Europe got to sit in a circle for over two hours with Pope Francis as he did an extended Q&A session with us. Questions ranged from what did he think of Maradonna’s ‘hand of God’ goal (as an Argentinian football fan he thought it was a thing of beauty!) all the way through to when did he first meet Christ (as a young man when he went into a church and a priest heard his confession).
If you’d like to hear more about the experience then you can watch the Kerith online message where I spoke about it below.
Meeting the Pope has deeply impacted me. Before I went I wasn’t sure what to expect but the visit has moved me in a number of ways, two of which I’d like to share here.
The biggest impact has come from reflecting on his character and the way he interacted with us. The time he gave us, his obvious love for people, his humility, his sense of humour, his kindness, his gratitude, his honesty, his wisdom, his awareness of his sin, his lack of any sense of entitlement and his patience were remarkable to observe, especially given all the pressures that must be on his shoulders and the number of people who must be clamouring for his time. Over the years I have met a number of ‘famous’ Christian leaders but none of them have had the positive impact the Pope had on me. I genuinely aspire for the rest of my days to be more Pope!
Secondly I was inspired by his heart for unity, for us to be the answer to Jesus prayer in John 17 that we might be one as he and the Father are one. The Pope said that he likes to think of unity in terms harmony - that it is unrealistic to think that we will ever agree on everything but that we can aim for harmony where we speak well of one another, care for one another and where it makes sense seek to work with one another. I’m still thinking about quite what that looks like, but for now I feel convicted to think more about the planks in my own eye than the specks of dust in the eyes of others.
Years ago Julian Adams gave me a prophetic word that I would find myself sitting in rooms with important people wondering ‘how did I ever end up here’. I certainly felt that meeting the Pope! I realise that it was an enormous, God given, privilege which I want to live in the good of for the rest of my days. I hope that through this blog you feel that you have got at least a taste of what it was like too.
Simon
ps - If you’d like some more I recommend watching the film ‘The Two Popes’ which is currently on Netflix - Pope Francis in real life is uncannily like the person he is portrayed to be in that film.