Pope Francis’ encyclical a call for dialogue and compassion

This also appeared in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a “Faith Perspectives” commentary. If you’re a subscriber (or want to answer a few questions) you can view the Post online version here.

This past October, Pope Francis signed his third encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,” on the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, his inspiration and namesake. In this message, he spoke to the entire world  — not just Catholics — reinforcing the ideas and teachings of Jesus about how imperative it is to care for one another. In that sense, this encyclical is nothing new, but it perhaps could not have come at a better time. 

In a country and world plagued by individualism, partisanship and violence, Francis invites us into dialogue. He invites us to embrace the message of the Gospel and a love that transcends physical and ideological geography and distance. He invites us to be open and accepting of others and especially those who seem most distant. For those who know and accept the teachings of Jesus, Francis’ words represent a commonsense application of Gospel values. 

And yet, this call to love without borders in a polarized world is anything but common, even within the universal church. His message is a radical invitation to love as we have been loved by God. Such talk can often be heard in the general but not the specific. We love and care for the poor, of course, but we all too easily discard and dismiss them — the stranger, the immigrant, the “other.” There are “shadows over a closed world,” to quote the encyclical, and yet there is also hope. 

There is hope in the parable of the Good Samaritan the Pope uses to illustrate and underline his letter. In this story, a man is beaten, robbed and left for dead at the side of a road. After being ignored by some leading citizens, the man is saved by a foreigner who finds the compassion required when it would have been easier to just look the other way. The point? Jesus teaches that “our neighbors” are not only those with whom we agree or politically align ourselves. Our neighbors are not just those who live in our neighborhoods and on our side of the artificial divides we have erected. Our neighbor, as Jesus taught so succinctly, is whoever is in need.  

For true compassion does not care where the person in need comes from or what he or she believes. It does not stoop to judge before stooping to help. It just reaches down and picks up. It pays out of its own pocket without pausing to count the cost. 

“Fratelli Tutti” asks us to begin to envision a world where every person is deemed worthy and valuable, where each can live in dignity because they are seen as integral and valuable parts of the whole. The encyclical asks us to think and act as one community, battling the structural causes of inequality and poverty, caring for the most vulnerable among us. It asks us to be fundamentally open to each other and especially to those on the margins of society. It invites us into the realization that we will be saved together or not at all. 

Sitting at the crux of all this is a call to genuine dialogue and friendship, the kind that approaches, speaks, listens, sees, comes to know and finds common ground with the other. At that meeting point, we might come to know that both sides benefit from the exchange. We might learn in this encounter that no one is expendable. We might learn to integrate our differences instead of standing on them and not allowing the other to pass. We might learn that aggression and monologues get us nowhere. 

Instead, in dialogue we learn to create paths forward toward peace and healing. Inspired not only by Francis of Assisi but also by Martin Luther King Jr. of America, Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Mahatma Gandhi of India, Pope Francis’ hope for his encyclical is that it becomes a “splendid secret that shows us how to dream and turn our life into a wonderful adventure.”

In a concluding ecumenical prayer, the Pope prays that we all may be seen as, “important and necessary, different faces of the one humanity that God so loves.” That’s a good dream for 2021.