On Wednesday, I took myself to the movies and saw Pope Francis: A Man of His Word. I knew it only had one more showing at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and yet I was dragging my feet about going. I told myself the week before that I was absolutely going to get there before it left the theater. But every day there were a half dozen reasons why it couldn’t be that day. It wasn’t going alone that bothered me. In the nine years that I have been widowed, I have learned if I want to do something….go do it!
So to insure that I got there, I went on line and bought my ticket. Now that I had spent $$, I was much more likely to get there. And so I went.
To my surprise and delight, the opening scene is about St. Francis. The movie hadn’t run more than 10 minutes when I was rummaging in my handbag for paper and pen. I wanted to write down everything the Pope was saying.
I have loved Pope Francis from the day we saw the white smoke. After seeing this movie, I love him more. He is the definition of humility……and kindness…..and compassion. But he is not afraid to tell it like it is.
The first thing I wrote down on a scrap of paper I found in my pocketbook was the Pope’s question: “Who is the poorest of the poorest of the poor?” Mother Earth! Because we rob her continually and don’t give back. Sounds like a Franciscan opportunity to me!
The next note I have is “The Church is suffering from Spiritual Dementia”. Wow. He pulls no punches there. I take the message as the Church has forgotten where it came from. Go back to the grassroots of the church and look around. Yes, there were troubles and persecutions, but the Apostles didn’t worry about where they would sleep at night or where their next meal would come from. Carrying God’s love out to the people was all they could or needed to carry.
Then my notes went to “We are a culture of waste. We look at the Earth upside down. We are not the Earth’s master but its caretaker”. Culture of waste, you can say that again. Every part of our lives has become disposable. Food, products, people…. even ourselves. How much do you value yourself? Enough to slow down? Another quote from the movie is “We run with the accelerator all the way down which ends up affecting our mental health, physical health and spiritual health.” I need to take some time to meditate on this one!
I know there were many more jewels to be had from this movie and I wasn’t keeping up with my note taking. I want to see the movie again to hear what I missed the first time and to have what I did hear be reaffirmed.
The movie ended beautifully with another scene of St. Francis. When I walked out of the theater, there was a woman standing on the sidewalk waiting for her husband to pick her up. She saw my Tau cross and asked if I had just seen the Pope Francis movie. When I said yes, we looked at each other and just sighed. We talked for several minutes and I found out her father had been a Secular Franciscan. When her husband pulled up, my new friend, Peggy, and I spontaneously hugged each other. It was a blessed moment. Two days later, I’m still feeling blessed.
The movie isn’t being shown in many of the main stream theaters, but if you Google the title, Pope Francis, A Man of His Word, all the places which are showing it will come up. Do yourself a huge favor and go see it. You are worth it!
