Letter to Pope Francis

Your Holiness,

I love what you are doing. You are inspiring so many faithful and non-faithful by your actions. Whether it is paying your own bills, calling a person, kissing a baby, or visiting the neglected of our society, you have been a constant witness of Jesus Christ. I always enjoy hearing about these actions. Thank you for this example.

I was considering some things about your papacy and few ideas came to mind.

First, you started your papacy with a bang. You chose the name of saint that reformed the faithful in a time when many were not keeping with the Gospel message. I am still very enthusiastic with this namesake. A mutual friend of ours, GK Chesterton, called Francis “a fool; he would become more and more of a fool; he would be the court fool of the King of Paradise.” This court jester is exactly what this world needs. This world of ours is too serious and heavy. Whether it is the sickle of tyrants or the pride of relativism that sinks the soul into despair, it is joy and laughter that are wonderful antidotes that lift up the lowly. The human soul wants to fly but this means we need to take ourselves lightly and break the chains of sin. When I see your contagious smile, you remind me that if you can smile with all your responsibilities and crosses, then I can smile in the midst of my much smaller sacrifices.

Second, you are inspiring a revolution of hand walkers. This spiritual revolution to love our neighbor continues to enthrall so many. Your message of the light of faith in today’s cesspool of death and despair is about as contradictory as walking on your hands. You invite us to enter the cave that you have exited so that we can have “a profound spiritual revolution” like Chesterton remarks on St. Francis. In order to see the world through Christ’s eyes we will need to leave this cave. We need to come out like St. Frank and look “at the world as differently from other men as if he had come out of that dark hole walking on his hands.” Whether it be a cave or confessional, this is the only way to see the world. You are walking on your hands and you have millions of faithful that are trying to keep up. Our hands are not used to this work, please continue to show us how.

Finally, you teach us to depend on Christ. By your walking on your hands, you show us that the world is hanging as if upon nothing. Chesterton again shows us that it is both St. Francis and St. Peter that see the world upside down. This world likes to depend and place it’s faith on human achievement. However, by your jestering, you are showing us that the world is in our Father’s hands and that we should be grateful for God not dropping us.

Please know that I love you and continue to pray for you.

A stumbling and clumsy fool,

JQ Tomanek