The Lord Is With Us

As the dust settles following Pope Leo’s election, it’s worth savoring, for just a moment more, the scenes that marked the Conclave. The crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square. The sincere and fervent prayers of the cardinal electors. The joy that erupted from the Square as Cardinal Mamberti announced, “Habemus Papam!” And the way that same joy seemed to echo through the whole Church, all around the world.

One should notice how very unusual all of that was. The erupting, joy-filled response is not the way most election results tend to be received – where you have one camp celebrating, and one regretfully mourning or grumbling over their candidate getting slighted. So why, when it came to the pope’s election, was everyone so happy? It’s especially unusual considering most people had little to no idea who Cardinal Prevost was, and those who did may or may not have signed onto his particular way of doing things.

But the man chosen didn’t matter, so much: folks weren’t rejoicing over the fact that God had made this particular person Pope, that “their guy” had come through, in the end. They were rejoicing because “Habemus Papam” is yet another sign that the Lord is with us. It’s yet another sign that the Church is founded on divine realities as well as human ones – a sign that God himself is making good on his promise to provide a shepherd for us, and to count himself responsible for what the Church needs. If we were in doubt, we need not be: the Lord continues to live among us, to invest even more deeply than we do in the life of his Church, to protect her and give her what she needs to bring us safely home to him.

Soon enough, the news cycle will be absorbed in all the ups and downs of Pope Leo’s pontificate, perhaps tempering, with the usual politicking and commentating, some of the encompassing joy that has marked these past several days. Until then, it’s worth holding onto and taking to heart what our joy has really meant, for all of us. It’s been a profound sign: the Lord is with us.