As we write these reflections we try to enter the mind and heart of Mother Franziska to learn how she would be and act in our world today. This came to a dramatic head on the 11th of last month. There has been a sea change in the Church since the last Franziska Notes were written. When she went to visit the Holy Father to present her newly founded Congregation she experienced such a sense of the holy that she preserved the veil that he touched when he gave his blessing.
Today, her fellow countryman, Pope Benedict XVI has in a way changed the papacy again in a new way. With great courage and humility he resigned in recognition that he was what in German is called the Stellvertreter Christi. He was neither Christ nor St. Peter, but called by the Holy Spirit and the Church to stand for awhile in their stead. He was universally applauded for recognizing that the Church would go on without him as he faced the diminishing powers brought on by age. What generosity to give up so much honor and public recognition so that stronger hands could row the barque of Peter.
Very human ideas and qualities are being openly discussed among the Cardinal electors and the world media. We are all only human beings. Jesus founded His church on an often bumbling fisherman. The message to us is that the Holy Spirit can achieve His purposes with any instrument no matter how poor. This must encourage us in our every day lives. We are not too small, too insignificant to achieve God’s will in our own environment. We are not permitted to say, “But what can I do!” as an excuse for inaction. We must stand before our Lord and put a question mark at the end of that phrase. “Lord, what can I do? How can I here and now advance your mission of love in the world?” A little child, asked what kind of person would be a good pope, replied, “He must love God a lot!” That is the answer for each of us as it was for Mother Franziska and the thousands of Sisters she inspired.
