Early in my priesthood, I was privileged to be mentored by Monsignor Arthur Matthew Tighe, longtime pastor of Visitation Parish, site of my first assignment in 1987.  Then, like now, there were various discussions and debates among Catholics about how the church should function as a sacramental institution, a hierarchical enterprise, a community of faith for neighborhoods and villages, a social agency caring for societal down casts and outcasts, and a proclaimer of Good News, as well as other aspects of religion.  Parishioners then, like now, had a variety of opinions and theories about where the church should put her emphasis and energy.  Individual and group preferences led to discrepancies in expression at different churches and at different gatherings within parishes.  Monsignor Tighe counseled me to not get caught up in the push and pull of variations but to return to faith’s core tenet by simply loving the people.  If I did that, he said, all else would fall into its rightful place.  Though I often fail in his instruction, “Don, just love the people,” I try to keep living according to his guidance.

It reminds me of Bishop Bob Barron’s commentary on Pope Francis’ leadership.  He infers that the pontiff is not much concerned about progressive and traditional viewpoints that polarize the right and left arms of our society and our church but is concerned with the central message of Christianity which he lays out in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).  He knows that if the Catholic Church stresses its doctrines it will devolve into an intellectual debating society, and if it highlights its moral teachings it will seem fussy and puritanical.  The pope in his bones, breath, and very being knows that the church is so much more than doctrines and morals and sacraments…and “the more” is found in the stunning Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord and, that through Him, love saves humanity from ourselves.  This joy is what should define and direct us.  The other routes—which many of us prefer to take—turn us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists or sourpusses whose lives look like those living a Lent that knows no Easter.

But we are Easter People.  This joy elevates us to rise above arguments about liturgical tastes, doctrinal debates, or liberal-conservative preferences.  If, as Monsignor instructed, we just love the people we will discover that fontal joy.  On the other hand, as Fyodor Dostoevsky once admitted: “I love humanity in general, but can’t stand people in particular,” it is easier to love in the ideal than in the real.  In that case—everyone’s case—we need to embrace the kind of love that Saint Paul presents.  It is patient and kind, not jealous or boastful; it is not proud or self-seeking…it does not delight in evil but rejoices in good…It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.  It is a verb more than a noun, an action more than an idea.  It helps us to tolerate insignificant annoyances and to encourage life-giving behaviors.  It helps us to embrace that same joy of which Pope Francis speaks.

There is no easy way to overcome difficult conversations, exasperating encounters, mean people, or unpleasant situations, but when conversation is possible and others are willing to advance to a better reality, we are given great opportunities to live as Easter People who reflect the joy of our faith through attitudes and acts of love.