"His whole face lights up when he smiles"

Cheryl Edmunds

I was raised in a Catholic household. My parents and grandparents didn’t talk about their faith, but we went to Mass and catechism every week. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I met other Catholics my own age and started to think about my own relationship with God. I am very involved in my faith, I try to make it the center of my life, and I know it’s my faith that brings me the most joy. My first impression of the new pope was that he must be very kind because his whole face lights up when he smiles. My first memory of Pope Francis is of him refusing to keep traditions that were not in keeping with the simplicity of his life. He didn’t wear red shoes or ride in fancy cars. Even in small decisions, he didn’t sacrifice his own convictions to appease everyone around him. He delivers messages in airplanes and via Twitter, he poses for selfies and uses language that lay people would understand without simplifying his message. He helps us to think outside of ourselves and have empathy for others creating a positive effect on the youth of the world. Both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict humbly serve God and the world in their own unique ways. Having many different holy people in the world with different gifts is a blessing to the church. Many people comment on how Pope Francis is exceptionally humble and loving because he is a pope for the poor, but it is also take a lot of humility to be the first pope to resign in centuries. I don’t think it’s helpful to compare popes, instead we should try to understand their teachings and learn from their example.

Pope Francis believes in the simple life. He lives in a small apartment, refusing to wear the normal papal garb, and not letting the opinions of others sway his humble convictions. He once said in a weekday homily “the style of the good God is not to produce a spectacle: God acts in humility, in silence, in the little things” and “He calls us, too, to have: humility.” He has seen that God is humble and is calling us to follow in his footsteps to also live in humility. Even the name Francis evokes images of modest living. Pope Francis took his name from St. Francis of Assisi, who was inspired by scripture to preach the gospel without shoes or possessions living a life of poverty and service to God. To the pope living a humble life is not conducive to the normal living conditions the papal apartments would have given him. So he sticks to his convictions, sometimes to the detriment of his public opinion within certain groups, and leads the world, through example, to a more humble place.