On March 27, an extraordinary gesture captured the world’s imagination. Pope Francis’s Urbi et Orbi saw an old man, with defective lungs – the perfect victim for COVID-19 – limping in his iconic white, in the majestic, but now haunting beauty of an empty desolate St Peter’s Square.
The constant rain seemed like a distant, more ominous echo of the story from Mark’s Gospel (4:35-41). A mighty storm threatened to sink the fisherman’s boat: was it also threatening the ‘Barque of Peter’ as – just like then – Jesus sleeps peacefully?
In a space so grand that even its giant obelisk was dwarfed, the tension in the empty square was taut to breaking point: will this boat, the city of Rome, the world at large, the Church ‘Catholic’ survive this pandemic? The address to the ‘city and world’ turned us, spectators from across the globe, to the terrified disciples of two thousand years ago: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
In this drama of epic proportions, Pope Francis imparted his ‘apostolic’ blessing. The power of the gesture was not so much in what was seen – a courageous elder in white who could hold the whole world transfixed and offer solace – but in what was not seen: Peter as true witness of the master, himself evocatively represented in the miraculous crucifix of San Marcello al Corso.
Together with all the saints, foremost the apostle Paul, Peter offered himself again for crucifixion, so through their blood mixed with that of the master, Church, city and world would remember and receive life again.
Peter, the rock on whom the Church is built, represents us – the world whom Christ saved; the people ‒ weak, vulnerable, doubting, betraying, sinful ‒ who try to continue his saving work. But Peter is also the perfect witness of a determined trust, an unfailing hope, a penetrating faith – “You are the Messiah” (Mk 8:29) – and an unceasing love for the master from which flows his unbreakable promise to always care for the sheep (Jn 21: 15-19).
The ‘Barque of Peter’ will not sink. Not because of man’s might. The beauty of St Peter’s Square and its majestic temple – the extraordinary work of human hands – trembled, as grace swept the emptiness, filling with power, all the city and world. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Did I not send the comforter, the defender against all evil, to be with you till the end of time? (Jn 14:16)
The rain was a sign of living water, penetrating the tombs in the city of martyrs, so its witnesses could rise again in one gesture of triumph, in one decisive outpouring of hope.
Witness is the Church’s lifeblood; and that life, lavished with his blood, is today in the solidarity, mutual care and self-emptying love we offer each other as concrete acts of ‘tending lambs’.
The boat resists the storm: not in our desire to receive reassurance, but in our unceasing effort to give our life for one another (Jn 10:11)… trusting that he has given his life for us, winning the whole world, for himself as his promised bride, once and for all.
This article appeared first on Nadia’s blog in timesofmalta.com on April 5th.
