The Worldly And The Other-WOrldly
We live in a worldly world. This is an obvious truism that most of us take for granted. Everything we know and measure is here and now.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of finance, where I've spent most of my career.
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President Trump sums up this perspective with his "Art of the Deal" perspective. New Trump policies, like tariffs, the conflict in Ukraine, or immigration, are encapsulated in an agreement, a "deal" between two parties. Want to know if they're working? Just ask the President: "I think I have a deal..." Whether it be a peace deal in Ukraine, trade deals with England, or building the Border Wall, it all boils down to the here and now. These are measurable results. The here and now.
However, for many, life comes with a different perspective, a unique way of seeing things. For the 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, all that came into focus yesterday, May 8. The College of Cardinals elected a new Pope, Pope Leo XIV.
This new Pope comes with a particularly local background for those of us who are Catholic in the Philadelphia area. Pope Leo, a Villanova University graduate just down the street, spent many years here. As the father of a Religious, I find his investiture especially significant.
As the temporal leader of an organization nearly three and a half times larger than the population of the United States, the new Pope will deal with many "worldly" issues and concerns.
Pope Leo will be an administrator who must, no doubt, struggle with the unfortunate misdeeds of some under his authority, manage a multi-billion dollar budget, and organize the thousands of Priests, Nuns, and Monks who guide the faithful daily. Imagine the incredible responsibility of being the CEO of one of the largest organizations on earth.
And yet his real mission, his raison d'être, has little to do with this world. His focus must be "other-worldly." For Catholics, we realize that we are merely passing through this world to a place that lies beyond our life, beyond death. We are passing to somewhere that is "other-worldly."
Most of my life has been spent in the all-consuming world of finance, a place where long hours and high pressure exist to make a "deal," a profit. Most who live and work in this virtual world called "Wall Street" are completely unaware that another perspective may exist.
On May 8, many saw the pageantry and ceremony of a new Pope's election, not realizing that behind all of this was the prayerful elevation of a humble man who seeks, not the acclaim of this world, but the glory of the next.
The new Pope's first action was to kneel before God and ask for strength and guidance. An awesome weight had just been placed upon his shoulders. It will be his task to show the world that there is another perspective, a spiritual perception that centers on our Savior.
Viva Cristo, long live Pope Leo XIV.