For those that don’t know me, I am not Catholic. I have MANY Catholic acquaintances and friends that range from people who say they are Catholic because their parents were to people that are devoted staunch Catholics. I also spent several years having very fun theological debates with the latter types, but everyone knows that you don’t joke around with politics or religion, so I’d only do so with people that knew me well and we shared a mutual respect for our points of disagreement. There are some beliefs we share, but there are many that we are very opposite on. To be clear, I believe salvation is through faith in Christ alone. It is nothing that we can earn on our own. Ephesians 2:8-9. I also believe that we have direct access to God through Christ and that we don’t need any other mediator to access God (1 Timothy 2:5).
After a while of waiting, the Pope finally emerged and I had a flurry of thoughts. “Is this what it was like to see the Beatles or Elvis arrive to a concert? Is this what it was like for the Jews when Caiaphas made an appearance? Is this what it was like when Christ was going through the crowds healing people?” The official stance of the Catholic church is that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ (Christ’s representative on earth). THAT explains everything I saw in my mind. The reaction from the crowd was intense. Crying, fainting and shouts of “Thank You Holy Father” filled the air while the crowd surged forward to get a closer look or to be touched. For the Catholics in the crowd, this was as close to God on earth as you can get. The Pope actually did go down the line to touch the children. At one point, the bishop that was with the Pope started frantically waving for Isaiah since he saw that there was a baby in the crowd. Isaiah was already unhappy with the noise, but you should have seen him scream when someone took him from my arms and handed him to the bishop. The Pope kissed him on the head and they handed back a snotty nosed and screaming Isaiah back to me. Here’s the quick video I was able to take of it:
It was a really interesting experience on several levels. From seeing a high profile world leader up close, to seeing the security it takes to protect him, to seeing the reaction of the crowd. It was something I won’t likely forget. I also took some pictures and here is (you guessed it) an Animoto video:
Honestly, I would have had reservations about going if we hadn’t already received good news about Eli’s scans. My fear would be that somehow the Pope would get credit for Eli’s progress instead of the credit rightfully going to God and being a result of so many of you that have been fervently and faithfully praying for him. Soli Deo Gloria.
Thank you for continuing to pray that radiation goes well and does the job it is supposed to do, that the CT results will be good (still don’t have them today), that Eli’s counts won’t drop too low due to radiation, and that his HAMA test will be negative so he can continue the 3F8 treatments. Good night!
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