Some of the most attractive things about Pope Francis are his humility, his confidence and his other-centeredness. He was elected Pope at a time when the church was becoming restorationist, when it was circling the wagons against a “secular, plural and relativist” world. It was preoccupied with institutional survival. We were, as Pope Francis said, “self-referential” but not humble and confident.
But how can you be both humble and confident. Most people understand humility as thinking little of themselves, being mindful of their weaknesses, having plenty to be humble about and little to be confident of.
CS Lewis has a much more energizing and positive view of humility. He believes that the humble person is not the self-effacing negative person who is always telling you that he or she is “nobody”, but the “cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him”. The truly humble person is refreshingly other-centred. In Mere Christianity,he reminds us, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” Humility is essentially a relational and other-centred virtue. Elsewhere he says to be humble is to be proud of the good you have done but to be no prouder than you would be if someone else had done it. The real test of humility is whether we can rejoice in our brother and sister’s successes and not our preoccupation with our own virtue or lack thereof.
Pope Francis is aware of the negative side of his own and the church’s life. He has described himself as “a sinner upon whom the Lord has turned his gaze”. He has known the need for forgiveness and mercy and this frees him to be a redeemed and confident man because only those who have received mercy can show mercy. The experience of mercy is the source of his spirituality, his vision, his mission and his effectiveness. It enables him to be a tender and merciful pastor. It gives him the confidence to proclaim a positive and inspiring vision rather than a critique of the world.
He acknowledges secularisation but is not frightened of it. He prefers “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. Evangelii Gaudium (EG #49) He wants us to get close to people, to learn how to converse, to warm people’s hearts, to be missionary and play our part in society. We are to be confident “missionary disciples” not “querulous and disillusioned pessimists, sourpusses” (EG #85), or “defeated generals” (EG #96).
Humble confidence also frees him in his exercise of power. He does not feel that he must control everything. He wants to promote “sound decentralization”. He encourages local Bishops (EG #16) and Episcopal Conferences (EG #32) and during the last Synod of Bishops he gave an important speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Synod of Bishops (October 17th, 2016) in which he explained his vision for a synodal church. “It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn. The faithful people, the college of bishops, the Bishop of Rome: all listening to each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit…”
Only a truly humble man can be that confident. He models the virtues which in EG #288 he attributes to Mary. “In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong who need not treat others poorly to feel important themselves.”
Hopefully he will lead us to become a renewed, humble, yet confident Church.
Fr Noel Connolly SSC is a member of the Columban Mission Institute in North Sydney and a lecturer in Missiology at both the Broken Bay Institute and the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
Related Links
- Pope Francis - Apostolic Exhortation: Evangelii Gaudium
