The opening article, “The failure of the Cross”, in The Tablet of April 19, 2025, includes a photograph of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Above the article is an outline of its content, which reads, “During a period of humiliating exile, the Jesuit priest who was later to become Pope Francis discovered that in order to enter deeply into the mystery of the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus, we must accept that our only hope is in God.” The photograph, taken in a Buenos Aires subway, is of a man who looks disappointed and sad.
It is hard to believe that this same man became Pope Francis, someone rarely seen without a brilliant smile lighting up his face. Yet this was the journey that Fr Jorge needed to take. As he wrote in an article originally printed as “El fracas de Jesús” (“The failure of Jesus”), “The historical failure of Jesus and the frustrations of so many expectations (“We had hoped …” Luke 24.21) are for Christian faith the way par excellence by which God reveals himself in Christ and brings about salvation.” (The article was among those found in Reflexiones en Esperanza by Jorge Mario Bergoglio and translated by Austen Ivereigh.)
This article reminded me of a book that impressed me as a seminarian, called A Theology of Failure by John Navone SJ. Since they were both Jesuits, this book influenced Pope Francis in his reflections upon a dimension of Jesuit spirituality that draws upon the spirituality of suffering. As Pope Francis said in his first public interview after becoming pope, “In pastoral ministry we must accompany people, and we must heal their wounds.” In other words, one must feel the pain before one can begin to help people rediscover joy in their lives.
This brings me back to Francis’s exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”). In the introduction, there is a memorable sentence, which reads, “an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!” (the exclamation mark is his own).
And yet, the photograph of Fr Jorge from his years of “humiliating exile” is like one of someone coming back from a funeral! He knew what it was like to be stripped of his title and authority and sent to a distant parish to reflect on his future as a Jesuit and a priest. I suppose he had to learn how to smile again. He had to encounter Jesus once more in his life. He had to rediscover “the joy of the Gospel”. Along this journey, he also reclaimed the true face of mission.
Many a Columban, as a cross-cultural missionary, has known disappointment and sadness. As I further explore the wisdom found in Evangelii Gaudium, I will draw upon the insights of Pope Francis, who saw the need for the church to undergo radical change to meet the enormous challenges we face today. The challenge is to enter into the pain and brokenness of our world. But to do so, we need to encounter Jesus, who, by filling our hearts and minds with the joy of the Gospel, enables us to meet this challenge with the confidence of faith-inspired missionaries.
Columban Fr Tom Rouse is the Regional Councillor for New Zealand.
Mission Intention - Pope Leo XVI
July - For evangelisation in the city: Let us pray that in large cities often marked by anonymity and loneliness we find new ways to proclaim the Gospel, discovering creative paths to build community.
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