Who Is Pope Francis?

Who is Pope Francis; in his person, in his Office, in his teaching magisterium, and in his authority?

The first reading of today’s Mass for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross gives a perfectly clear picture. The Seat of Peter is the fulfillment of the Seat of Moses. God works in tandem with the Pope in the same way that God worked in tandem with Moses. When the people complained against Moses, they were also complaining against God. Just as today, those who complain against the Pope are complaining against God.

A plaque of winged serpents with a death bite descended on the people of the Old Testament who complained against God and Moses and only when the people confessed and repented of their sin against God and Moses did God provide a healing for the people.

We need healing today. Pope Francis occupies the Seat of Peter with the same ‘working in tandem with God’ arrangement as Moses. When we confess and repent that we have sinned against the Pope and God, God will provide healing for us.

With their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.”
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Numbers 21:4b-9