← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
How the Holy Spirit Guides the Election of the Pope
00:06:42
How does the Holy Spirit guide the Church when a new pope is chosen? Fr. Mike explains the unique relationship between divine guidance and human decision-making in the papal election. Though the process can be slow, complicated, and even filled with disagreement, the Holy Spirit is still powerfully at work—just as He is in our everyday lives. To learn more about Pope Leo XIV, pre-order your copy of, "When the White Smoke Clears": https://ascensionpress.com/products/when-the-white-smoke-clears-a-guide-to-the-early-days-of-pope-leo-xiv?_kx=03d8RdkdWYsj7Js0fI-L2sXIJR08xnuhKbFd2znlNmDo1V-4EAF588_SwY55rxnO.TcpZhH
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
I think there's something at first glance about the election of a new Pope that's like, oh, it's just, ah, little, little bit of a letdown. Or it seems like it should be more of a mystical kind of experience. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents. Here is a man who's been elected to be the Pope, the Holy Father of the Catholic Church, who is from, I mean, born in at least, and raised, I think, for a lot of part of his life in Chicago. When you have his brothers being interviewed and they're like, oh, is it Rob? Rob? And oh my gosh, it's Rob. You're like, wait, Rob. Because I think for us here in America, maybe, maybe most places in the world, you think of. You think the person who gets elected to be Pope has a lot of mystique behind it. You don't think of them as having siblings who are normal. You don't think of them as being normal. You don't think of them as going to the Cubs game and cheering on their hometown team. You don't think of that kind of thing. Not only that, but when it comes to the election process, I have a good friend who said this. She said, I thought the process would be a lot like, holier in the sense of like. I thought it would be kind of like almost like this idea of you go into the Conclave, right? You go into the Sicilian Chapel and you. The idea, like, you kind of consult the oracle. You just kind of like, pray for the Holy Spirit to guide the discussion. And she said, it seems to me that they have like, you know, someone talks and they kind of can argue back and forth and they can. They can say who would be a good person. And you even have people like maybe jockeying for position to, you know, get elections or to get votes to get elected. He would seem more holy. I guess you'd say it like that. And yet when you go back to the Bible, what you see is, oh, here is the Holy Spirit working through ordinary people. Here's Holy Spirit working through things and means and events that we never would have anticipated. For example, in Acts of the Apostles, chapter one, what do you have? You have. Here's Judas, who is now dead. And so the apostles come together and say, we need to select someone to take his place. Because here's the office of apostle. We need to select someone to take his place in the office of apostle. How they figure out between Joseph, Barsabbas and Matthias, like, how did they figure out who is going to be the new 12th apostle. And the answer if, if you read the Acts of the Apostles, is they cast lots. If it seems like going into a conclave and having, you know, discussions and, and kind of like, you know, debating back and forth and, and people like, you know, kind of put themselves or someone they know. As for casting lots, like rolling dice essentially, for who the. The next person to succeed Judas is going to be, it doesn't seem very holy, right? It doesn't seem very inspired. But here are the apostles who said, that's how we're going to do it. These are people who walked with Jesus, they studied under Jesus, they were taught by Jesus, they were formed by Jesus. We don't know. So let's roll some dice. Let's cast some lots, and we'll see who's going to be the next person. In Acts chapter 15, there's this big, big debate. The big debate is, if you are not Jewish, but you come to Jesus, do you first have to get circumcised before you get baptized? It says they came together, right? The apostles, the elders, and it says there was no little dissension among them about the answer to this question. What does that sound like? That sounds like there was a lot of dissension. What's that sound like? It sounds like it was a messy process. It sounds like that the whole thing was kind of like, okay, we have to figure this out. So we're gonna. We're gonna. Yeah, of course we're gonna pray. We're also going to argue. We're also going to have disagreement. We're also going to go back and forth. And it might not. If you were a fly on the wall, it might not seem very mystical, it might not seem very holy. And yet at the end of the whole process, what do they say? They say it seems right to the Holy Spirit and to us. And that's the key. God works through stuff that doesn't seem very mystical. That God works through our daily lives. God works through normal human beings. God works through our arguments. God can even work through our failures. We know this. And so why wouldn't that be the case when it comes to the election of the next pope? That God works through the failures of individuals. God works through disagreements. God works through. Again, he works through our brokenness. Just pause on this for one second, because I think that this is not just about the process of electing a pope, but this is about how we expect God to show up in our lives. I think too often we expect that when God shows up in Our lives. It seems holy, it seems mystical. It feels different. As opposed to no, God works in the ordinary in an extraordinary way. That God works with what we've given him and he can make something incredible. If God can take bread and wine and transform them into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. If God can use ordinary water poured over someone's head, or immersing them in that water and saying, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And that makes them into an adopted child of God. If God can take all of these ordinary. Just stuff is. And sometimes it feels amazing. Sometimes it's like, wow, I encountered the Lord there. But oftentimes it's okay. This is God. God is working through these ordinary things to give us extraordinary life. In the same way, we recognize that just like the apostles in Acts Chapter one cast lots. I don't know, God can work through this. In Acts chapter 15, we had an argument, had to fight. And God can work through this. And God's Holy Spirit continues to work in all of these ways. Think about this in your life and in my life. God uses our good decisions for his glory. And God even can use our bad decisions surrendered to him for his glory as well. You know, I think it's important to note what Pope Benedict XVI had said. I think he said this before he became pope. He said, we have to keep in mind it is not the Holy Spirit that chooses the next pope. The cardinals do that, right? That Holy Spirit doesn't choose the next pope. The cardinals elect the next pope. But the Holy Spirit is present, and the Holy Spirit will work with whoever they choose to keep the Church intact. I think something similar is true for our lives. We recognize that God is willing to work in our circumstances, in our decisions and our choices. He works with us. And we are not perfect. We're not always holy. But if we surrender all of it to him, he will not just be in all of it, he will work with all of it. I'm glad. I'm glad that that's how it works. And I'm glad that God continues to work through ordinary human beings, in ordinary decisions, in broken human beings and broken decisions to continue to guide and to continue to guard his church. Anyways, for all of us here at Century Prayer List, my name is Father Mike. God bless.