A powerful image of Pope Francis has been making the social media rounds. Indeed, there are several photos of him embracing and kissing a man who suffers from horrible disfiguration due to neurofibromatosis. These images move us as we recognize that Francis is doing what many people would not do. We tend to avoid the Other — the one who is different from us in ways that make us uncomfortable. Maybe it is the smell of the homeless man who approaches us on the street, along with our fear that he will ask us for money. Maybe it is the dementia of the woman suffering from Alzheimer’s that frustrates the flow of our communication and makes us wonder whether the conversation even matters, if she’s not going to remember it. In this picture, the Pope embraces one whose appearance frightens us and we are confronted with the question: “Would I be able to do that? To truly see this man as my brother and freely offer him love?
One of the striking things about Pope Francis is that this kind of scene is not unusual with him. Many times over the months, we have seen him reaching out to touch, to embrace, to let someone know that he really sees them. Often it is someone who has been pushed to the margins, whether a disfigured man, a child, or a lonely senior adult.
As a Franciscan, I love seeing a pastor of the Church who really grasps the significance of the Incarnation. A Catholic News Service blog (which includes several photos of the kind I’ve mentioned) quotes the Pope as saying, “God meddles in our miseries, he approaches our wounds and heals them with his hands; it was to have hands he became man.”
While many people (myself included) have thus far seen Francis’s papacy as primarily a matter of style and focus, rather than portending a major shift in the doctrine and discipline of the Roman Communion, it is a very important change as he turns the world’s attention so decisively to the poor. We would do well not to discount or underestimate what the Spirit may do when the people of God put their energy into caring for those on the margins.
It has always been our hope that San Damiano will be a hands-on kind of community, directly engaged with people who suffer. If we claim the Wounded Christ as our teacher, we must learn to embrace his woundedness as we encounter it in others. Only as we seek and serve Christ in every person are we transformed into his image. We cannot be like Jesus until we learn to see Jesus in all the wonderful, awful, comforting, shocking, reassuring, and disarming places he shows up. Let’s keep our eyes open, so that we can spot Jesus — along with open arms (to embrace him), open hearts (to love him), and opens minds, to allow our thinking to be stretched and renewed by him each time we meet.