Medicine For The Soul

I am Marben Bland, pastor of the Greater Bethel AME Church in Athens, Georgia with a Living The Word Moment. 

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, has died at age 88. 

In high school the future pope demonstrated a scientific aptitude, his mother hoped he would become a doctor. He worked in a chemistry lab and earned pocket money as a doorman at tango bars. 

In November 1955, just after graduating from high school, he told his parents of his plans for the priesthood. Deeply unhappy by his decision his mother accused her son  of misleading her to which he replied, “I didn’t lie to you, Mom, “I’m going to study the medicine of the soul.”

The Pope’s  guiding scripture was Matthew 9:9-13, where Jesus dines with sinners and proclaims, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Like Jesus, Pope Francis believed the church is a field hospital, and we are all in need of healing.

As both a priest and Pope, Francis offered this soul-medicine to a church in crisis—amid abuse scandals, waning attendance, and deep division. Yet he chose the way of Jesus, a path rooted in mercy.

Today, as we mourn his death, we to can be a healer, we too can give medicine to the soul.  We can be like Jesus, seeing  the overlooked, embrace the outcast, and extend the mercy that saves. Someone in your life needs your compassion. Like Francis let’s bring the medicine of the soul.

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