The Sin of Certainty

Way back in January, I went to see the film ’Conclave’. It was a fictitious story about the election of a Pope. Towards the beginning of the film the Dean who helps to co-ordinate the trickiness, delivers a stunning homily to the assembled cardinals. For some of you, it might sound a bit Churchy, but hang in there and read this little gem. What it has to teach us as Christians and indeed people of any faith is sage, honest and essential.

I Quote

“St Paul said, ‘Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.’ To work together, and to grow together, we must be tolerant. No one person or faction seeking to dominate another. And speaking to the Ephesians, who were of course a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, Paul reminds us that God’s gift to the church…is its variety. It is this variety, this diversity of people and views which gives our church its strength. And over the course of many years in the service of our Mother the Church, let me tell you, there is one sin, which I have come to fear above all others. Certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross.

Our faith is a living thing, precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty…and no doubt…there would be no mystery…and therefore no need… for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope who doubts.

And let him grant us a Pope who sins and asks for forgiveness, and who carries on.”