It’s got to be hard to be humble when you’re the Pope. You
were only just elected to lead 1.2 billion people. No big deal, right? You’re
only on every form of news and social media all over the world.
Yesterday was all about stories of Pope Francis riding the
bus instead of the papal car, or showing pictures of him washing AIDs victims
feet on social media. Today, things seemed to take a quick turn as people
started digging into the past of Cardinal Bergoglio, looking for some dirt to
show the world, and debating about which Church problems he had to fix first –
sex abuse scandals, or Catholicism’s close-mindedness over issues like abortion
and gay marriage.
When people are praising you for your humility, it’s hard to
stay humble. When they are accusing you or your faith, it’s even harder to stay
humble, and not whip out the list of accomplishments and good things the Church
has done over the years to explain or contrast the bad actions,
misunderstandings, or negativity in the media.
My marketing/public relations background (the field I worked
in and studied before I realized God has other plans for my life) has always
made me struggle with this. Why doesn’t the church hire some snazzy, expensive
marketing firm to pitch to the world how many good things members of the
Catholic Church do every day, how many people we feed, serve, educate, heal, house, and support? Why don’t we get
some good branding going, with some catchy slogans that explain our faith in
simple ways, push the goodwill factor and advertise more what we’re doing to
fix the problems we do have?
If we were all about positive marketing strategies and
showing off, sharing our Catholic faith would be so much easier. But, that’s
not what our faith is all about. We are not a corporation trying to increase
sales, or even a non-profit trying to promote a cause. We are Catholic, and our
mission is to save souls by proclaiming and living out the Gospel. We are
taught to be humble, to serve in the spirit of compassion and humility, to pray
in secret, to put money in the collection basket with our right hand quietly so
our left hand doesn’t know what we’re doing. Most Catholics follow a quieter
style of evangelism, focused more on living as a great example.
None of the stories in the Bible end with “… and Jesus asked
his disciples if they thought people agreed with his message and would post
good things about him on Facebook.” Instead, Jesus called his followers to live
in a radical way, spreading the Truth even when they were persecuted.
Let’s be real – even if the Church did invest resources and
spend more time worrying about their public image, it probably wouldn’t make a
significant dent in the number of people that don’t understand, or just
dislike, the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has done some pretty amazing and
holy things in his life, and two days after his election, the media is already
searching for ways to make him look bad, or remind the Church of how awful
Catholics are.
Despite all of this, I think what we need is a good dose of
Pope Francis’ humility and reminder to get back to the basics of our faith.
Being humble Catholics that do the best they can to live out the faith may not
be as direct of a message as sending a press release or calling a press conference,
but it’s certainly more memorable and more in line with the message we’re
trying to send the world. In a swarm of
online news stories and social media posts, we need to do something different
to be recognized. Jesus changed the world when he started with 12 apostles that
lived by example and stood by their beliefs through persecution (I bet his
Twitter account would have looked pretty lame at the beginning of his ministry
with only 12 followers and some radical teachings). Imagine what a Church of
1.2 billion could do if we all returned to those same basic, humble beginnings
of our faith, and remembered that we are Catholic because our Church is rooted
in the Truth, a Gospel of love, and filled with holy people that truly care
about our souls.
That’s why I’m so excited to see, and be a part of, what
Pope Francis’ leadership will do with our Church. The more I read about him,
what he’s done in his ministry, and his vision for the future, the more I love
him and want to know more about how we can all grow in our faith. In a world
that focuses on public image and making people like you, we have to be the most
counter-cultural of all and live in humility. News anchors sharing poll info
about how many people dislike Church teachings won’t change the Church, and
Catholic newspapers sharing happy stories won’t change hearts and save souls. But
doing what we can to humbly show others the love behind Church teachings and
the beauty in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will change hearts. That
will show the world what’s most important in life, and that’s the first thing
we can learn from our new Holy Father.
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