By Ben Disney
While Pope Benedict XVI has announced his retirement, the search for the next Pope is underway. Given the world we live in, it comes as no surprise that Las Vegas has established a betting pool setting the odds of various candidates who might be elected Pope. One group reportedly created a bracket much like the March Madness seeding of teams during the annual NCAA basketball tournament. That of course explains why instead of the “Sweet Sixteen” bracket, there is a “Sweet Sistene” category. It makes me laugh.
On a more serious note, Pope Benedict XVI made an interesting and thought provoking statement. In reference to the impending transition, he said, “The new Pope is already among you,” which of course is true. The next Pope is already present; they just don’t know it yet.
It’s a profound truth. We’re elected, drafted, sometimes forced, other times happy to be chosen to a calling we never expected or anticipated. What we need, what we will become is already here; we just don’t know it. Meaning if there is a Pope among us, surely there are saints all around us; even if we don’t know who they are yet. And the last piece of that truth has to do with us. Someday, some moment, we’ll be called on to do something we never anticipated. We’ll assume a role for which we feel completely unprepared and unqualified. Yet we’ll rise to the occasion because - according to God - we are so much more than we know.
“The new Pope is already among you,” which means there’s a lot of us who are about to be revealed as instruments of God’s peace; we just don’t know it yet.
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