TIME magazine\u2019s pronouncement of Pope Francis as \u201cPerson of the Year<\/a>,\u201d coming as it does after yesterday\u2019s memorial service for Nelson Mandela, has sparked some thoughts on the making of these two great persons.\u00a0 What unites them? A surprising number of things, maybe, but one quality in particular stands out.<\/p>\nHumility, in a willingness to be treated as any other prisoner on Robbins Island, despite one\u2019s political credentials, is the same disposition that motivates the most powerful figure in contemporary Christianity to eschew the traditional papal mode of transport\u2014a shiny, spanking new Mercedes Benz\u2014in favor of a 1984 Renault 4 economy car with over 186,000 miles to its name. Humility that accepts a sentence of life imprisonment with an almost cheerful resolve, including the capacity to forgive and befriend one\u2019s captors. Humility that foreswears temptations to hold on to power\u2014and instead gives that power away. Humility that goes out into the streets where the poor are, finding there the wealth of God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n
Such humility doesn\u2019t just grow on trees: I don\u2019t see it often in today\u2019s public figures or in the recesses of my own heart. But such humility seems in keeping with the pattern of One who, thinking equality with the Father not to be grasped, took on human flesh, humbling Himself on a cross (Philippians 2).<\/p>\n
There may be plenty of other similarities between Nelson Mandela and Pope Francis; but this one, humility, seems to live up to its name: it is, I suspect, the single, most important defining mark of human greatness\u2014and the easiest to overlook. But, what do you think? Are there other commonalities that unite these two men in greatness?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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TIME magazine\u2019s pronouncement of Pope Francis as \u201cPerson of the Year,\u201d coming as it does after yesterday\u2019s memorial service for Nelson Mandela, has sparked some thoughts on the making of these two great persons.\u00a0 What unites them? A surprising number of things, maybe, but one quality in particular stands out. Humility, in a willingness to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,180],"tags":[1990,1799,1638,1991],"class_list":["post-4682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-and-culture","category-christianity-in-politics","tag-mandelas-memorial-service","tag-nelson-mandela","tag-pope-francis","tag-times-person-of-the-year"],"yoast_head":"\n
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