The Legion and Two Popes: Benedict and Francis - March 2013

By Fr. Bede McGregor OP
Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary

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The Legion from the very beginning has always shown a deep understanding of the pivotal significance of the Vicar of Christ on Earth and Successor of St. Peter who is commonly called the Pope. Since our last Concilium meeting Pope Benedict resigned and Pope Francis was elected as the new pope. It is good that the Legion throughout the whole world should reflect and pray about these two important events.

At our last meeting there was a spontaneous and unanimous desire of Concilium to thank Pope Benedict for all he did for the Church as the Successor of St. Peter. This desire sprang so naturally from the heart of the Legion. We wanted to thank Pope Benedict for his writings, his homilies, his encyclicals, his whole teaching ministry that forms a rich and lasting legacy for the whole Church. But equally we want to thank him for his witness of a truly humble and holy life.

If I were to pick out one major characteristic of Benedict XVI it would be to say his life and his teaching were profoundly christocentric. Frank Duff wrote an article entitled: The Legion is pure Christocentrism. This is true because the spirit of the Legion is the spirit of Mary and Mary is absolutely and unconditionally focused on Jesus. To discover Mary is to find Jesus. Her whole mission is to lead every human person without any exception into a relationship with Jesus. Every legionary ultimately seeks to share in this mission of Mary: to bring every human person into contact with Jesus.

Benedict XVI shared in this Marian mission in a remarkable way. He sought to bring the Church and the world to its true centre in Christ. Let me give you just two brief quotations by way of illustration: “Only when God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.” And he writes: “Faith does not just mean accepting a certain number of abstract truths about the mysteries of God, of man, of life and death, of future realities. Faith consists in an intimate relationship with Christ, a relationship based on love of him who loved us first.”

Now the Legion welcomes Pope Francis. I immediately felt the Holy Father must know the Legion. Alfie Lambe together with other legionaries built up the Legion in his Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and Alfie is buried there and the Cause for his beatification was introduced by the bishops there. Of course, there are so many other ties between Argentina and Ireland in general and the Legion in particular.

I want to reflect now for a little on the name Francis chosen by the Holy Father. I hope it augurs well for the Legion that he has the same patron saint as our founder, Frank Duff. There are at least two places in the Handbook where St. Francis is put forward as an example for every legionary. He is put forward as embodying two indispensable qualities that must be found in every legionary. The first one is about personal contact and the dignity of every human person. The second is the spirit of joy. It is worth quoting these two passages and bringing them once more to the centre of our Legion apostolate and total way of life.

The Handbook tells us “St. Francis only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous. To him a man was always a man, and did not disappear in a dense crowd any more than in a desert. He honoured all men; that is he not only loved but respected them all. What gave him his extraordinary personal power was this: that from the Pope to the beggar, from the Sultan of Syria in his pavilion to the ragged robbers crawling out of the wood, there was never a man who looked into those brown burning eyes without being certain that Francis Bernadone was really interested in him, in his own individual inner life from the cradle to the grave; that he himself was valued and taken seriously.” Dear legionaries that is pure Legion spirituality.

The other quotation goes as follows: “Francis’s entire life was attuned to this basic note of joy. With imperturbable calmness and cheerfulness of mind he sang to himself and to God songs of joy in his heart. His ceaseless endeavour was to keep himself interiorly and exteriorly in a joyous mood. In the intimate circle of his brothers he likewise knew how to sound the pure key note of joyfulness and to make it swell to such full harmony that they felt themselves raised to an almost heavenly atmosphere. The same joyful note pervaded the converse of the Saint with his fellow men. Even his sermons despite their burden of penance became hymns of gladness, and his mere appearance was an occasion of festive joy for all classes of people.” I often think that joy is the only infallible sign of the presence of Mary in any individual or group.

Anyhow these are the two qualities I noticed in Pope Francis in his first few days as successor of St. Peter. The Legion should watch him closely and pray for him and Benedict his predecessor.

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