During the papal visit, I couldn't help but recall a verse about people waiting for Peter along the streets so that his shadow might fall on them in the hope of being healed.
Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. (Acts 5:12 -15)
As we went around interviewing people, many of those we asked about prayer petitions they would ask of the Holy Father replied that they hoped for health and healing either for themselves or family members.
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On the flight to Rome from Manila, the Pope entertained questions from journalists. Kara David asked this question.
Kara David (GMA Network): Good day Holy Father. Sorry, I will speak in English. Thank you very much for visiting our country and for giving so much hope to the Filipinos. We would like you to come back to our country. My question is: the Filipinos have learned a lot from listening to your messages. Is there something the Holy Father has learned from the Filipinos, from your encounter with us?
PF: The gestures! The gestures moved me. They are not protocol gestures, they are good gestures, felt gestures, gestures of the heart. Some almost make one weep. There’s everything there: faith, love, the family, delusion, the future. That gesture of the fathers who think of their children so that the Pope will bless them. Not one gestures, there were fathers, there were many who thought of their children when we passed by on the road, a gesture which in other places one does not see, as if they say this is my treasure, this is my future, this is my love, for this one it’s worth working, for this one it’s worth suffering. A gesture that is original but born from the heart.
A second gesture that struck me very much is an enthusiasm that is not feigned, a joy, a happiness (allegria), a capacity to celebrate. Even under the rain, one of the masters of ceremonies told me that he was edified because who were serving never lost the smile (on their face. It’s the joy, not feigned joy. It wasn’t a painted (false) smile. No, no! It was a smile that just came, and behind that smile there is a normal life, there are pains, problems.
Then there were the gestures of the mothers who brought their sick children. Indeed mothers in general bring them there, but usually mothers do not lift the children up so much, only up to here. The dads do, one sees them. Here dad! Then many disabled children, with disabilities that make some impression; they did not hide the children, they brought them to the Pope so that he would bless them. This is my child, s/he is mine. All mothers know this, they do this. But it’s the way they did this that struck me. The gesture of motherhood, of fatherhood, of enthusiasm, of joy.
There’s a word that’s difficult for us to understand because it has been vulgarized too much, used too badly, too badly understood, but it’s a word that has substance: resignation. A people who knows how to suffer, and is capable of rising up.
Yesterday, I was edified at the talk I had with the father of Kristel, the young woman volunteer who died in Tacloban. He said she died in service, he was seeking words to confirm himself to this situation, to accept it. A people that knows how to suffer, that’s what I saw and how I interpreted the gestures.
[The full transcript of the interview can be found here.]
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When Pope John Paul II came here for World Youth Day in 1995, I did not participate. My reasoning then was that I did not have to see the Pope. We have the Eucharist and that is more important.
Now that I have participated in this papal visit, it does not lessen my appreciation for the Eucharist. I still wonder if we have our priorities straight in terms of how we revere the Eucharist and our reaction to the Pope, especially with the video of people passing the sacred host during the mega-mass at Luneta.
However, having witnessed the lengths people go to and being one of the people to stand for hours waiting for a momentary glimpse of Pope Francis, I do see the importance of participating in these events. There is a sense of community, a sharing in the experience with strangers who are no longer truly strangers because they are your siblings in Christ who are as excited (or more excited) as you are in seeing the head of the universal Church. In a way, your own enthusiasm joins that of the collective and increases... as if our passion for Christ is contagious and we pass it on and catch it from others.
New friendships are borne from having gone together to the event to cover it as part of Catholic social media. The camaraderie between team members at the start of our working together and after the event is markedly different... again, it is seeing each other as siblings in Christ.
Having gone to this event is one of those things that can start a conversation. You were there too? And then details of each one's experiences can be reminisced and shared. Connections are made, renewed and strengthened. That to me is a wonderful Francis effect.
