{"id":2530,"date":"2018-01-10T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T05:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:45","slug":"jan-10-pope-francis-in-manila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/01\/10\/jan-10-pope-francis-in-manila\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 10 – Pope Francis in Manila"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, January 10 \u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 today\u2019s post is not a poem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday and today, many people in Detroit have gathered to remember a wonderful man, who happens to be a Jesuit priest of many years (b. 1926), Jim O\u2019Reilly, sj. \u00a0For decades, Jim lived and worked close to poor people in the heart of Detroit, he was smart, durable, effective, and much admired. \u00a0 I drove the c. 50 miles from our campus to the Jesuit retirement center where he died, with three O\u2019Reilly-like people, who work at the Pope Francis Homeless Center, also in the heart of Detroit. \u00a0 We told stories as we drove, \u00a0but we did not only listen to stories about O\u2019Reilly, my three companions told stories about homeless women and men for whom the Pope Francis Center was a home. \u00a0Their stories \u00a0carry the wounds of a brutal homeless street world. \u00a0But they fit naturally in our car last night, so alive with O\u2019Reilly\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

For today\u2019s post, I\u00a0looked for language that could connect O\u2019Reilly with Pope Francis for whom the Center has been named. \u00a0I found these \u00a0few paragraphs about the actual Pope Francis speaking to the larger world about weeping, in particular\u00a0about the gospel moments when Jesus wept. \u00a0Are these 3 paragraphs about O\u2019Reilly, \u00a0about my three companions in the car last night, about Pope Francis for whom their homeless center is named, or about the homeless women and men about whom they spoke? \u00a0 All the above. In our city, though, it was O\u2019Reilly who gathered us last night. \u00a0We miss him.<\/p>\n

Have a blest work day in a work week.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0Pope Francis about weeping in the world <\/strong>(from a column by Tom Reese, sj)<\/p>\n

“The pope first applauded the girl for expressing herself so courageously.\u00a0He told the crowd\u00a0of young people at Manila\u2019s University of Santo Tomas to pay attention because she \u201casked the only question that does not have an answer.\u201d The pope did not respond with a theological lecture on the mystery of evil. Rather, he affirmed her tears, saying, \u201cOnly when we are able to weep about the things that you lived can we understand something and answer something.\u201d He acknowledged that \u201cthe great question for all is: Why do children suffer? Why do children suffer?\u201d But he finds an answer not in the head, but in the heart. \u201cOnly when the heart is able to ask the question and weep can we understand something.\u201d For Francis, the world needs to respond by helping the victims of disasters with aid and money. He notes that Christ cured the sick and fed the hungry, and so should we. But, he adds, \u201cit was only when Christ wept and was able to weep that he understood our dramas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who suffer need not only help but tears. \u201cToday\u2019s world needs to weep,\u201d he said. \u201cThe marginalized weep, those left aside weep, the scorned weep \u2026 but those of us who lead a life more or less without needs, don\u2019t know how to weep. Certain realities of life are only seen with eyes cleansed by tears.\u201d He then invited the young audience to ask themselves, \u201cHave I learned to weep? Have I learned to weep when I see a hungry child, a drugged child on the street, a homeless child, an abandoned child, an abused child, a child used as a slave by society?\u201d Or do we only weep when we want something for ourselves? \u201cWhy do children suffer?\u201d Francis asked. \u201cThe great answer we can all give is to learn to weep.\u201d He pointed to the example of Jesus in the Gospels. \u201cHe wept for his dead friend; he wept in his heart for that family that had lost their daughter; he wept in his heart when he saw that mother, a poor widow, taking her son to be buried; he was moved and wept in his heart when he saw the multitudes like sheep without a shepherd. If you don\u2019t learn how to weep, you\u2019re not a good Christian!\u201d<\/p>\n

In conclusion, he says, \u201cWhen we are asked, \u2018Why do children suffer?\u2019 \u2018Why does this or that happen, this tragic thing in life?\u2019 May our answer either be silence or a word born of tears. Be courageous; don\u2019t be afraid to cry.\u201d The mystery of evil is beyond my comprehension. The answers that I have heard I find unsatisfactory. I don\u2019t find any words in the Bible that explain it. I have concluded that since it is beyond our comprehension, Jesus came not to explain suffering but to weep with us and to suffer with us. I prefer to see the cross not so much as reparation for our sins, but as God\u2019s way of joining us in our suffering. Instead of preaching from the sidelines, he gets down in the dirt and suffers with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1926-2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, January 10 \u00a0\u2014 today\u2019s post is not a poem Yesterday and today, many people in Detroit have gathered to remember a wonderful man, who happens to be a Jesuit priest of many years (b. 1926), Jim O\u2019Reilly, sj. \u00a0For … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2532,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}