"Only love conquers weariness" UPDATED

Pope Francis's annual Christimas address to Roman Curia- the people he often sees as being in dire need of repentance- is always worth reading. As Gerard O'Connell, my favorite Vatican correspondent notes: the speech was "was challenging but not as hard-hitting as in previous years, except when he warned against 'the ever-present temptation to rigidity.'" Do yourself a favor and listen to O'Connell's weekly podcast, Inside the Vatican.

I must admit, to hear Sodano praised grates on me; glad the Holy Father is a gracious man. Pope Francis, in his address, looks forward to him being replaced at the end of his praise- a pretty Latin way of dealing with these things. Update: Cardinal Sodano resigned as Dean of the College of Cardinals the same day the Holy Father gave his Christmas address to Roman Curia. Sodano is one the last highly problematic figures who occupied high places during the pontificate of John Paul II.

In this year's address, Pope Francis focused on both the inevitable reality of and the need for change. Time moves on. We can either move with it or simply choose to occupy space. He succinctly points out how both Scripture and Tradition are all about change and adaptation. One take-away from this is that the Deposit of Faith does not contain as many things as some like to imagine it does, like all of the second and third order issues on which so many become too focused and grow rigid.

It is by changing and adapting that we come to an ever deeper understanding of Divine Revelation. Of course, no event in the history of the world is more revelatory than the Incarnation of the Son of God. To discuss change, Pope Francis turned to St. John Henry Newman, particularly his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, which, while dated, still transmits the dynamism that is the beating heart of Christian Tradition:

For Newman change was conversion, in other words, interior transformation. Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage. The history of the Bible is a journey, marked by constantly new beginnings. So it was with Abraham. So it was too with those Galileans who two thousand years ago set out to follow Jesus: "When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him" (Lk 5:11). From that time forward, the history of God’s people – the history of the Church – has always been marked by new beginnings, displacements and changes. This journey, of course, is not just geographical, but above all symbolic: it is a summons to discover the movement of the heart, which, paradoxically, has to set out in order to remain, to change in order to be faithful

Pope Francis blessing members of the Roman Curia at the end of his Christmas address (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

All of this has particular importance for our time, because what we are experiencing is not simply an epoch of changes, but an epochal change. We find ourselves living at a time when change is no longer linear, but epochal. It entails decisions that rapidly transform our ways of living, of relating to one another, of communicating and thinking, of how different generations relate to one another and how we understand and experience faith and science. Often we approach change as if were a matter of simply putting on new clothes, but remaining exactly as we were before. I think of the enigmatic expression found in a famous Italian novel: "If we want everything to stay the same, then everything has to change" (The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa)

After discussing change in the context of Tradition, Pope Francis went on to discuss the primacy and priority of evangelization, noting that it is the Church's raison d'être.

Papa Bergoglio explained how his reform of the Curia, which is yet to be promulgated, gives priority to evangelization. He points out:

Christendom no longer exists! Today we are no longer the only ones who create culture, nor are we in the forefront or those most listened to. We need a change in our pastoral mindset, which does not mean moving towards a relativistic pastoral care. We are no longer living in a Christian world, because faith – especially in Europe, but also in a large part of the West – is no longer an evident presupposition of social life; indeed, faith is often rejected, derided, marginalized and ridiculed

The Holy Father returned to the theme of change toward the end of his speech, saying,

A rigidity born of the fear of change, which ends up erecting fences and obstacles on the terrain of the common good, turning it into a minefield of incomprehension and hatred. Let us always remember that behind every form of rigidity lies some kind of imbalance. Rigidity and imbalance feed one another in a vicious circle. And today this temptation to rigidity has become very real

Here, I believe, he is addressing those who oppose him, both inside and outside the Curia.

I love the fact that he quoted from the last interview given by the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who, like Francis, was a Jesuit: "The Church is two hundred years behind the times. Why is she not shaken up? Are we afraid? Fear, instead of courage? Yet faith is the Church’s foundation. Faith, confidence, courage… Only love conquers weariness."

Speaking of weariness, there is an image the Holy Father invokes in this speech, albiet quite subtly: the People of God, which is a people on pilgrimage. To refuse change, authentic reform and renewal, is nothing less than plopping down on the path and refusing to move. Such an attitude prevents one from entering into the Sabbath rest God has in store for his People.

I thank the Holy Father for his wonderful reflection. I think we need to be challenged and not merely comforted, that is, lulled into a sentimentally-induced nap at Christmastime. The Incarnation and joyfully awaited return of Christ should provoke us, spur us to action preparing the way of the Lord, making straight his path.