Day 23: What's the Rush?

There's a great scene in what is probably my father's favorite movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," in which Buddy Hacket and Mickey Rooney are in a cab trying to catch Sid Cesar whose in the cab ahead of them.  They tell the cabbie to step on it. The cabbie asks, "What's the rush?" to which Buddy Hacket hilariously responds as only he could, "We're not in a rush.  We just want to get there in a hurry!"

Last Sunday, a gentleman approached me after Mass concerned that the College of Cardinals did not have any urgency to start a conclave and elect a new pope.  I asked if he wanted them to do it fast or to take their time and do it right.  Everyone in Rome right now is in a holding pattern and making up news because, quite frankly, there is no news.  There's only two bits of concrete news that we are going to get before Easter: the date the conclave starts and the identity of the new Pope when he emerges on the loggia of St. Peter's to greet the world.  Everything in between is pure speculation and distraction which is what prompted yesterday's Holy Hour by the Cardinals so extraordinary.  They are very aware of the great responsibility that they have and what they are about to do.  They are in no rush.  They wanted to entrust the Church to the Eucharistic Lord.  They are just now opening their hearts to the Holy Spirit and slowly shutting themselves out from the noise of the world to hear the promptings of the Spirit more clearly.  That is why our prayers must be with them and for them so that they choose a worth successor to St. Peter and say the following prayer often until we meet our new pope:

Prayer for the Election of a New Pope

O God, eternal shepherd,

who govern your flock with unfailing care,

grant in your boundless fatherly love

a pastor for your Church

who will please you by his holiness

and to us show watchful care.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.