Reactions to the New Pope

"'I’m super happy,‘ said Thomas Weber, 22, of Hettange, France. ΄I didn’t care who it was, because he is guided by the Holy Spirit.‘" (source: MSNBC) Too Catholic? Darn right it is! No less true for that. We don't trust in the papacy because of the Pope. We trust the papacy because it was instituted by Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit. What's so strange about that? Certainly no stranger than trusting the writers of the Bible, not to mention the scribes who copied the copies that we base our modern versions on today. Not to mention the translators from Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek for our English-speaking world. Not to mention our priests, pastors, theologians and writers whose interpretations and explanations of Scripture we trust. And need I mention our own human hearts and minds as the readers and witnesses of Scripture? Can things still go wrong? Of course they can, since man has ever had a free will and the capability to rebel against his own conscience and the Holy Spirit that speaks to that conscience. In the end, however, the Holy Spirit is more powerful than our weakness. Thanks be to God, and to the promised Advocate, Helper, the Paraclete, the soul of the Church. Oh, and it's Wednesday. Perfect time to meditate on the third of the Glorious Mysteries of the holy rosary, the Descent of the Holy Spirit.