Poverty can pave the way to true peace and Jesus

    It didn’t take very long. In well enough time for Easter, our church has received the gift of a new pope. And what a pope he is!
    From the moment his name was announced, Pope Francis became for me a sign of great humility. He left a similar mark on many other Catholics as well, according to what I’ve seen posted on nearly every type of social media during the last couple of weeks.
    Pictures have been posted of his very simple wave outside of the curtain just moments after his election. He prayed for Pope Benedict and even asked us to pray for him before he gave us his first papal blessing. He rode back to the Domus as he came – with the cardinals on the bus.
    The images of humility go on and on: Pope Francis pays the hotel bill and rides in a stock Volkswagen. And now, where does he choose to celebrate one of his major services during Holy Week? The Vatican? A basilica in Rome?  
    Not even close. Instead, Pope Francis conducts the Holy Thursday afternoon service at the Casal del Marmo jail for minors on the outskirts of Rome. He chooses to wash and kiss the feet of prisoners.
    When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio often celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass in a jail, a hospital, a home for the elderly or with poor people. This is nothing new for him. However, this is something new for us.
    Many of the images of the pope we have seen thus far are entirely new. We are seeing things we are not used to. Sure, the pope will have his critics – as popes always do – but we should be learning something valuable from all of this. Our Papa knows we are watching. There are lessons to be learned from him, and maybe the first has something to do with poverty.
Pope Francis and the poor
    In front of more than 6,000 journalists on March 16, the pope explained why he chose the name Francis. He explained that St. Francis of Assisi was a man of poverty who knew a true spirit of peace precisely because he was poor and with the poor. He said, “Oh, how I wish for a church that is poor and for the poor!”
    The pope sees very clearly and is trying to teach us, his spiritual children, that there is an important correlation between poverty and peace. This is not something most of us think of often, nor is it an idea the world around us reinforces.
    Too many of us think true peace means we have it all together. We have everything we need. We will not go without. Our lives are not empty or unclear, but certain and full. And here is Pope Francis, suggesting to us that going without can actually pave the way to happiness and peace.
    In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul expresses this same notion: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means … I have learned the secret of … both having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:11-13).
    The secret to finding true peace is finding it in Christ himself. It is not in having our lives completely together or figured out. Rather, it is knowing who holds our lives together at the seams – and then accepting and living in his love.  
    Christ and his love for us are the only things that ever truly satisfy. Everything else falls short. Going without allows this truth to penetrate our hearts in a way that perhaps nothing else does. When things feel a little emptier, we actually have more room to invite Christ in.
    During Lent, we chose something to give up, to sacrifice, to say we do not need in order to live more fully for Christ. Our Lenten sacrifices were meant to lead us to Christ, who also went without. On Good Friday, we commemorated the death of our beloved Savior who hung upon a cross, stripped of everything except the Father’s love. Jesus had nothing left but trust in that love.
    On the original Good Friday, Mary had nothing left but trust as well. Her son was gone and her heart was empty, yet she possessed an underlying peace because she knew the Father’s love and faithfulness. She knew that God had a plan.
    In the same way, God still has a plan for us today. As Holy Saturday falls upon us, maybe we have many things we are still waiting for. Maybe our lives feel empty, like that tomb. Our new pope would tell us not to be afraid of this. He would tell us to humbly wait there for Jesus to show us that he will rise again in our lives.
    As we celebrate this Easter Sunday, we are invited to take a break from the burden of waiting. The humility it has taken us to go without and invite Christ more fully into our lives reminds us not only that his love is all we need but also that we can always experience that love, regardless of our circumstances.
    This Easter, we should be joyful in knowing that God will never make us wait forever. The tombs of our lives will not remain empty for long. When God provides for us, as he surely will, we will see that he has had a plan all along. Through humility, we will know our waiting has been worth it. Through humble, patient endurance, we will begin to know true peace.
    Rachel Varisco can be reached at rvarisco@clarionherald.org.