Thinking About the Pope...

I remember sitting in one of my bible classes at ACU when the professor posed "the Gandhi question." I think that most Christians would know what that refers to--the question of whether a man like Gandhi, who lived such a good life but who rejected the Christian faith, is saved. The debate surrounding Gandhi, however, isn't what I'm interested about today. The reason I remembered that class period today was because one of the students (who certainly didn't think Gandhi was on his way to heaven) made the statement that Mother Teresa and John Paul II were clearly not going to heaven. They weren't Christians; they were Catholics. Needless to say, I was horrified (as I was a lot of times that day). If Mother Teresa and John Paul II weren't Christians, I can't think of anybody who is.

I'm not Catholic, but I'm not anti-Catholic as so many of the other protestants are. I have a few doctrinal problems with Catholicism, but not many more than I have with the churches I've attended. I like to think of myself as a member of the (little "c") catholic church that recognizes no separation between Catholics and Protestants. We're all united. We've all been raised together in Christ.

Tonight, I'm praying for all Catholics. For all of those who loved John Paul II. He was a good man. I really only got to see him at the end of his days, though I've heard and read about the things he did during his earlier days. I wish I could have seen him more in those earlier days. I did see him as he was dying though. And I think he did it well. If you've seen the picture of him trying to speak at the last Easter service of his life, trying to offer one last blessing to the people he loved, you know that he died loving people as passionately as he ever had. He was a good pope. I'm praying that the next pope is as good.