Today we rejoice with our Catholic brothers and sisters because God has appointed a new Pope to replace the beloved Pope Francis. Pope Leo XIV, born and raised in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost has been elected to sit in the chair of Peter the apostle, as the 267th Pope. Our faith is bult upon facts, not fables. Just like Jesus, Peter existed in history; he was one of the disciples of Jesus. But unlike Jesus whose tomb was empty, Peter’s tomb was not. His bones are still there, underneath the main altar of St. Peter Basilica in Vatican City. Emperor Nero only killed the body of Peter, he could not kill the spirit of Peter, who remains alive and well to this very day.
When I think of Rome, I cannot help but be amazed by the work of God. Who would have thought that the government that executed Jesus ended up becoming the bastion of Christendom? Who would have thought that the kingdom that, under Nero, persecuted and killed Christians, including Peter and Paul, became the protector of Christianity? No one would have thought that, but God did. As He called Paul to be an emissary of the Gospel, He called Rome to be the steward of His body—the Church. The amazing work of God!
The amazing work of God begins with the amazing work He does to the men and women He calls. Compared to Pope Leo XIV who was known to be a brilliant student, Peter was a fisherman. The only so-called formal education he received was perhaps the three years he sat at the tutelage of Jesus. Like all the disciples of Jesus, Peter was chosen not because of what he could bring to Jesus, but because of what Jesus could bring to Peter. Jesus knew He could transform this fisherman to be a fisher of men. Peter had a teachable quality and to Jesus, that’s enough. He knew that He could do amazing work in this simple man and that He could entrust him with “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” God’s amazing work begins and ends with us.
Pastor Paul