Wonderful Complication?

For the first time in the history of papal documents, Pope Francis combines blunt words and subtle humor. Reflecting on the painful effects on our personal comforts of being with the poor, he writes,

“Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated and we experience intensely what it is to be a people, to be part of a people” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 270).

This reminds me of the time when 10 Carmelite nuns were kidnapped from their house in Marawi City and kept in captivity for a week in the hinterlands of Lanao del Sur. This happened in July 1986. The kidnapping was headline in the national papers. I was able to get their release after personally seeking the help of a Muslim friend, provincial governor Ali Dimaporo.

When I met Cardinal Sin later in Manila, he said to me, “Your people are being kidnapped. Why don’t you get out of there.” My answer sounded like the subtle humor of Pope Francis. I said something like, “Yes, kidnapping complicates our life in Marawi. But we enjoy wonderfully the complication!”

Complication here is another word for the cross, an essential element of Christian life. The cross is the opposite of “personal and communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune…”