An A+ Pope

Seeing that only Jesus is the perfect High Priest

04/22/2025

John 20:11-18 Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

In my lifetime I have been blessed to know three very holy popes: John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Francis. So I now consider myself an expert on popes – just kidding. But I do believe people will naturally begin to evaluate and assess – and even criticize – the papacy of Pope Francis. And I feel this can be a good exercise, not only academically but also spiritually. What do I mean?

Well, every priest, bishop, and pope is a representative of Jesus Christ, who is the only true High Priest. By contrast, we are all cheap imitations. Sometimes I ask people a trick question: how many priests are there in the diocese of Little Rock? The correct answer is “one.” Why? Because only Jesus is the perfect Priest and all human priests are flawed imitators. We act “in persona Christi,” to be sure, but we also act very much “in persona humana” with our human frailties and foolishness.

And the High Priesthood of Jesus provides three criteria by which to evaluate the efficacy of every human priest, including popes. That is, in Christ we find not only the priest, but also the prophet, as well as the king. In Jesus, therefore, we have rolled into one the three forms of Old Testament leadership.

Jesus is the full embodiment of priests like Aaron and Melichzedek, prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea, and kings like David and Josiah. In other words, Jesus fulfills the Old Testament by becoming the High Priest, the exemplar of all Christian priests, like Pope Francis.

So, what do these three pastoral metrics – priest, prophet, and king – mean? Well, first of all, a priest is someone who gives his energy and attention to the liturgy, to the sacraments, and the rich tradition of prayer, in a word, Christian worship. Of course, all popes do this to some degree, but some popes prioritize the liturgy, the Church’s worship.

Pope Benedict XVI excelled at this metric. You might remember all the changes he made to the Mass, like when we went from saying, “And also with you” to “And with your spirit” in 2011. I would give Benedict’s papacy an “A+” in the priestly category, but maybe a “B+” in being a prophet and a king. No pope is perfect.

To be a prophet, on the other hand, means not only to teach and preach the whole truth about the gospel, but especially the unpopular truth. We all wince when we hear certain gospel passages, and the prophet is the one who makes sure we don’t gloss over them. He proclaims the hard truth loud and clear, like the last prophet, John the Baptist.

In this category, I would give Pope Francis an “A+” because he never shied away from tough love. We were taught the goal of preaching was “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” And by the way, you and I are in the category of the “comfortable” who need to be afflicted. But I might give Francis a “B+” in terms of being a priest and king. No pope is perfect.

And thirdly, to be a king means to be an inspiring leader. John Maxwell had a short but sage definition of leadership: a leader is someone who has followers. He said, “Anyone who thinks he’s a leader but has no followers is just going for a walk.” And I would give Pope St. John Paul II high marks – an A+ - in the king/leader category. Why?

Well, because people would follow him anywhere. In fact, there is an entire generation of priests, myself included, who consider ourselves “JPII priests”. And yet, I believe John Paul II could have been a little stronger in his priestly role and as a prophet, where he might have been more of a “B+” pope. No pope is perfect.

Now, I don’t mean any of this evaluation of popes as a criticism. We all have gifts and strengths, and we have weaknesses and failures. We should give God thanks for the pope who sits at any given time in the Chair of St. Peter – like Francis did for 12 years – and enjoy his gifts and talents in building up the Church, and pray for his weaknesses and shortcomings.

At the same time we should pray for the next successor of St. Peter, the 267th man to slip his feet into the shoes of the Fisherman. And let’s be a little more sober in our expectations of the next pope. He will be an A+ pope in some ways, but not in all ways. Fortunately, the future of the Church does not depend on the pope, but on Jesus, the only A+ Priest, Prophet, and King.

Praised be Jesus Christ!