As we approach Good Shepherd Sunday, the Catholic Church welcomes our new spiritual father, successor to Peter, and universal shepherd, Pope Leo XIV.  Though his predecessor, Francis, was the first American pope and one who reached out to and established the church’s significance in the eastern hemisphere like none before him, Leo is the first that is a citizen of both the northern and southern hemispheres of the west, while having traveled extensively in the east.  This is my way of saying that I anticipate him to be a universal shepherd in unique ways, expressed through his motto that speaks to a “oneness in Christ.”  Though we want to claim him for the United States, he is here for all.

Pope John Paul II once commented on the Gospel story of Lazarus, the beggar, and the Rich Man as it relates to modern times.  In doing so, he noted that most of the twentieth century witnessed a large chasm between the eastern and western hemispheres that was mostly philosophical and ideological, exemplified by the Cold War and illustrated by the Berlin Wall.  When the wall came down and the channels of communication reopened between the east and west, it exposed to him an even bigger gap between the northern and southern hemispheres that was less political, in its nature, and more material.  He likened it to Lazarus who, from the gates of the south, looked up hoping to be noticed by the Rich Man living north.  Pope Leo XIV, having dual citizenship in Peru and The United States, understands the value of addressing that chasm and uniting our global society through Jesus Christ and His teachings.  Peruvian saints, from Rose of Lima (the first saint of the Americas) and Martin de Porres, teach us much about care for the poor, those enslaved, immigrants, and those who suffer from racism and social injustices.

Also, a man who is multi-lingual, our new Holy Father will be able to unify the world in ways that weren’t possible in past centuries.  I recall a story that was told about Pope John XXIII who, in the early 1960s, was the first pontiff to meet with a ranking Soviet leader, a member of Nikita Khrushchev’s family; because of the language barrier as they scrambled for a translator, the pope asked the Russian wife to state the names of her children because, as he said, “No one can say the names of children as beautifully as their mother.”  He was savvy to connect in a way that broke the lingual roadblock and to teach us, even today, that mothers are like good shepherds: they know their sheep, the sheep follow them, they call each one by name, they nurture and feed them while leading them down right paths.

This year’s Good Shepherd Sunday happens to also be Mother’s Day.  It reminds me that just as our western or northern mindsets might limit us so does our human understanding hinder our ability to grasp God’s immensity.  Another recent pope, John Paul I who is sometimes called the September Pope (because of his brief pontificate in 1978) or the Smiling Pope (because of his friendly disposition and natural beaming grin), said: “We know that God is father; but even more than that, God is mother.”  He reminded us that we cannot capture or place parameters upon our Almighty Creator.

Similarly, I think, we should not try to place limitations upon the work that the Holy Spirit can do on earth, in the church, and through His earthly vicar, Leo XIV.  Let us pray for this Chicago-born, Villanova-educated, Augustinian-inspired servant of God as the divine yoke has now been placed upon his human shoulders and shepherd’s staff positioned in his hand to walk with us as a good shepherd.