Pope Francis displays grace

Catholic leader shifts from church tradition, marrying cohabiting couples

ICON — Pope Francis presided over first papal wedding since 2000. Google Images

ICON — Pope Francis presided over first papal wedding since 2000. Google Images

Grace, by human standards, is a tricky concept.

“If you want to make people mad, preach law,” Dr. Doug Kelly, professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, said. “If you want to make them really, really mad, preach grace.”

Pope Francis was faced with this dilemma when he married 20 couples earlier this month in St. Peter’s Basilica. Historically, the Church — both Catholic and Protestant — has been known to the secular world as a society of rule followers and naysayers.

Naturally, as Francis led the marriage ceremony that betrothed cohabiting couples — one of which already has a grown daughter — the media sounded off in headlines everywhere that the Church was making a statement, transitioning away from its “traditional” and “outdated” theology.

While I disagree with that conclusion, the media’s shocked coverage of this signals a greater problem within the Church: an absence of grace.

The wedding ceremony, the first of its kind since Pope John Paul II presided over a wedding 14 years ago, was not a statement endorsing premarital cohabitation or premarital sex. Rather, it was an extension of grace to people that have made mistakes.

“This is what marriage is all about: man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband become ever more a man,” the pope said at the ceremony. “Here we see the reciprocity of differences.”

Following the media storm that has been brewing over Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll’s barrage of mishaps, this is the kind of news that needs to be shared. This is the kind of grace that should be commonplace within the Christian community.

When Jesus encountered an immoral woman, his reaction was not one of exclusion. Instead, it was celebratory inclusion.

Pharisees, angry with Jesus for his inclusion of sinners and his extension of grace, were confused by his willingness and desire to love. In Luke 7:41-43 (NLT), it is recorded that one such Pharisee was disgusted by the grace Jesus extended to an immoral woman. Jesus answered with a parable.

“A man loaned money to two people — 500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other,” Jesus said to the Pharisee. “But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

“I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt,” the Pharisee said.

I commend the pope for his decision to perform the wedding ceremony. The ceremony showed not a judgmental unwillingness to accept the mistakes of others — no matter the size of the debt — but, instead, a willingness to allow love and grace to eclipse those mistakes.

“The love of Christ, which has blessed and sanctified the union of husband and wife, is able to sustain their love and to renew it when, humanly speaking, it becomes lost, wounded or worn out,” Francis said.

Rather than establish unreachable regulations, this wedding sought to establish a reconciliation of unreachable perfection and the human condition. The extension of grace reminds us of our need for redemption, and this effort of forgiveness propels people toward righteousness, instead of distancing them through judgment.

Grace only becomes a tricky subject when we ascribe infallible merit to our fallible thinking. The Church should not be known as an elite club of naysayers, but a motley crew of grace givers.

GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor

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