Resigning as pope could well be Benedict XVI's greatest legacy. It is also his supreme witnessing. He had it all, as it were, and could have stayed on until death. But he gave it up so someone else could takeover to fulfill the mission.
Indeed, it is the mission that counts the most -- proclaiming the Gospel to all the ends of the earth. The call, through God's Word, to enter into an intimate relationship with God.
Media, particularly western media, have pounded on the grave scandals and challenges that have saddled our Church like clerical abuse, reforming the Roman Curia, secularism, and dwindling number of Catholics in Europe.
But for us in Asia, especially the Philippines, beyond these maladies are the pressing need to meet the increasing demands for closer pastoral care and guidance. Our faith is very much alive, and although wounded by egregious sin, we carry on.
Truly, to become pope is not about power, pomp and ceremony. It is primordially taking up the Cross and following Jesus in full faith and confidence in his Spirit.
True enough, the conclave to elect a new pope has given us Francis, a man of many gifts and a living example of Christian discipleship. And this we get a glimpse of right in his very first homily during the thanksgiving mass he celebrated with the cardinal electors.
He said, thus: "We can walk as much as we want, we can build many things, but if we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord. When we are not walking, we stop moving. When we are not building on the stones, what happens? The same thing that happens to children on the beach when they build sandcastles: everything is swept away, there is no solidity."
Pope Francis continued to underscore that "(w)hen we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: 'Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil.' When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness."
And reflecting his Jesuit background as a "companion of Christ," he reminded the cardinals and all of us that "(w)hen we journey without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord, we are worldly: we may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the Lord."
"My wish is that all of us, after these days of grace, will have the courage, yes, the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Lord’s Cross; to build the Church on the Lord’s blood which was poured out on the Cross; and to profess the one glory: Christ crucified. And in this way, the Church will go forward."