It is not easy to define a prophet. Perhaps because, as the popular saying goes, "no one is a prophet in his own land". Or because the gift of prophecy is erroneously associated with the ability to predict the future, this being a task more proper to fortune tellers or pythonisos.
In the Old Testament the prophet is the one who knows how to interpret, in the light of God, the present time and who encourages Israel - a "stiff-necked" people - to rectify its conduct in order to return to the covenant. I thought that the adjective fits well with Jorge Maria Bergoglio for several reasons.
The first in many respects
Francis has not been a conventional pope, if at this point in the history of the papacy it is possible to speak of conventionalisms. He has made his debut in many respects: a pontiff coming from the "new world", the first to be called "il poverello di Assisi", the one who has lived alongside his predecessor for almost ten years.
In spite of following a line of doctrinal continuity with respect to the Popes before him, at one point (in form, not in content) he has distanced himself. Throughout the last decades, amid the ideological storms of modernity and post-modernity, Christians looked to Rome and the successors of Peter were the ones who gave security and indicated the north. Francis - if he will forgive me - has not done that.
And he didn't do it because he didn't want to. There was an intention behind it. His style was never to offer "off-the-shelf" solutions, comforting words or consoling encouragement. He did not give a pat on the back, but rather a paternal touch - a push, if you will - to continue walking fearlessly and joyfully along these paths that, apparently, are less and less "God's" every day.
He understood that Christians today are travelers in a complex world, for which there are no instruction manuals or roadmaps. We have only the power of the Gospel, which renews itself in every age with unsuspected vigor, adapting itself to different languages and mentalities, as has been the case since it was first preached more than twenty centuries ago.
The gift of dialogue with everyone
Predicting the future is not easy, but accurately reading the present can be even more difficult. Reality hits, sometimes hard, and don't ask me to be far-sighted when the problem is right under our noses. A problem that can be as pressing as a flock that has no job, no roof or bread to feed its children.
Even so, there are people who are able to get the diagnosis right and propose a remedy that is not at all obvious to others. That is why his clairvoyance is not always well received. The years as provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina and as bishop of Buenos Aires were good training for Jorge Mario Bergoglio to exercise this vision, and he did so without falling into extremism on one side or the other.
Francis was blessed with the gift of dialogue, he knew how to listen and ask the right questions, but he did not deceive us: he did not have the answers. They had to be sought in friendly conversation with our peers, and not just a select few, but with "everyone". In that sense he was a great pedagogue and a teacher of mercy.
Admiration and bewilderment
Prophets usually arouse two feelings among those around them: admiration and bewilderment. They are not incompatible and can occur in equal parts. Bewilderment, if the words or behavior do not fit with one's own mental filters or schemes, sometimes leads to bitter opposition.
I have lived in Rome throughout Francis' pontificate. I accompanied him that rainy afternoon of March 13, 2013, as he peered for the first time into the loggia of the Vatican Basilica. That's when the surprises and bewilderment began. A Pope who greeted inexpressively, but who made us all pray.
Days later, he himself would explain that when a situation overcame him, his countenance became serious. Although he would soon bury that seriousness behind a smiling and friendly gesture, without renouncing his porteño sense of humor. In a unique symbiosis, he is the Pope who has preached at the same time about tenderness and about hell.
And the bewilderment continued: to leave the Apostolic Palace for Casa Santa Marta, to continue wearing his black shoes and his pectoral cross, the phone calls to old and new friends, or to go out on the street to finish off the errands that the conclave had left pending.
From then on, surprises have been the constant tonic of the pontificate: the choice of the name Francis, the call for a poor church and for the poor, the Mass in Lampedusa, the trips to the most forgotten places on the map... if one had to choose an iconic moment of these years, it would undoubtedly be his prayer before the Blessed Sacrament on March 27, 2020, in an empty St. Peter's Square, when the AIDS-19 pandemic was raging in an overwhelmed world.
True to himself
The fate of the prophet is not always easy: his unpopular preaching can lead to punishment, banishment or - even worse - ostracism. But the light received from above is so strong that he has no choice but to be faithful to himself. This fidelity to himself has been a constant throughout Francis' biography, whether in Buenos Aires, Cordoba or Rome. Those of us who were surprised were those who did not know him before crossing the pond. On the other side we were answered, shrugging our shoulders: that's how Bergoglio is!
There are those who have dared to correct this Pope openly. I have always thought that a person who gets up every day at dawn to pray for two hours in front of the Tabernacle, before celebrating Mass, cannot make a mistake. He may act rashly or out of protocol, but he cannot err.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been Piedmontese by origin, Argentinean to the point of pain and - to his regret - Roman. He has accompanied the church as the prophets followed the rest of Israel in exile. He has gone ahead, inviting Christians to leave the vinegar face and open the doors to welcome.
His pulse did not tremble in implementing the reform of the curia that his predecessor had planned, nor in dealing with cases of abuse, the most painful sore in the body of the Church. Nor has he hesitated to apply corrective measures to young institutions that, as has happened so many times before, soon ran the risk of distorting the charism in pursuit of attachment to the career and the norm.
This prophetic vision of which I spoke at the beginning has allowed him to keep a clear mind, an open mind and a young spirit until the end. After his departure, Peter's boat continues its voyage through the turbulent sea of history. Francis has not indicated to us where the nearest safe harbor is, but he has bequeathed to us as a light the "hope that does not disappoint".
