A New Day

Just as The View was getting really lame, the show was preempted and suddenly we were at the Vatican watching smoke of an indeterminate color spew out of an itty bitty chimney in the Sistine Chapel. Everyone was excited and irked, waiting for the bells to toll out and let us know there was a new Holy Father. I couldn't leave the television set. I grabbed my rosary. Then the smoke was white, and even the news reporters were excited. The crowd in Saint Peter's Square was jubilant. And then the bells began to rang. They rang and rang and the Square began to fill. I started sending jubilant e-mails. I called my mother, and then I got off the phone and waited for the new pope to come out.
When his name was announced, since none of this was English, it took a while to know who it was. I was on my knees, crossing myself actually, full of joy at who it would be.
And then God taught a valuable lesson.
For who should the new pope be but one of my least favorite cardinals. There was Joe Ratzinger, as the new Holy Father.
I shot off of my knees immediately and almost fainted. It was just too much. Benedict the XVI is Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.
I have had a day now to digest what many people never do. The lesson of what true love and respect are. I don't think I've ever sided with this man, in fact, I've always felt dead against him. And I won't pretend that I had any love for the last pope while he was alive. But seeing the newly created Benedict the XVI I was filled with nothing short of a great love. He is the first pope I have ever seen created, and I love this man.
The truth is, and conservatives and liberals will both have to understand this: God is not a conservative or a liberal. God has a strange and wonderful way of doing things without taking polls and it really is for us to sit and see what happens. I have a strange, strange feeling that this coming papacy will prove to be a beautiful thing.