October 7: The Pope and the MRT

Another (late) start to the working week, another MRT breakdown in Metro Manila. It is difficult, given these almost daily outrages, to regard the city as a privileged place for prayer and spirituality.

But Pope Francis reminds us of an old truth.

“It is curious that God’s revelation tells us that the fullness of humanity and of history is realized in a city. We need to look at our cities with a contemplative gaze, a gaze of faith which sees God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares.”

In the same way that Pope John XXIII, now a saint, saw the city of Rome as “a real human beehive from which emerges an uninterrupted buzz of confused voices in search of harmony, a hubbub in which they easily become mixed and lost,” Pope Francis understands the urban dynamic.

“In cities, as opposed to the countryside, the religious dimension of life is expressed by different lifestyles, daily rhythms linked to places and people. In their daily lives people must often struggle for survival and this struggle contains within it a profound understanding of life which often includes a deep religious sense.”

Another way to understand the daily struggle to survive the MRT ordeal, then: It prevents, or interrupts, the “contemplative gaze.”