Pope Francis sure reminds me of Jesus

I am not Catholic, but I do consider myself a co-traveler with them. And I have been watching this week's Papal visit with a lot of interest. As I have said on my FB timeline, I admire what Pope Francis is trying to get across to us all, and I agree with just about everything he has said while in our country. So I won't dwell anymore on that. But let me add something else: What I find most awesome about this particular pontiff is his Jesus-like manner and qualities.

As I watched him today visiting the students at a parochial school in an impoverished area of East Harlem, it brought a tear to my eye. This could have been Jesus Himself ("Suffer little children to come unto me"), I thought to myself. It was an indescribable scene.  To witness the smiles and hugs and heartfelt words, in English and Spanish, that he shared with these wide-eyed kids as they eagerly showed him their classrooms and the special projects they had obviously worked on for months to get ready for this once-in-a-lifetime experience was blessed beyond words.

And these children we are told are nearly all immigrants (60% Hispanic, 20% African-American), most from impoverished or broken homes, and some even without parents at all, having migrated here by themselves in last year's wave of refugees from Latin American.

Those who know Pope Francis say he is rather like a parish priest who just incidentally happens to also be Pope...and he was completely in his element in that school. He loves that kind of thing, being hand-in-hand with regular townspeople, especially the least amongst us, and especially the children, and would have stayed with those kids all day if he could have. And I do believe it.

As I watched the innocent laughter in the eyes of those children, I think I was seeing for the first time the real face of the world's migrants, refugees and immigrants up close. And as I looked into the face of the Pope, I think I almost saw Jesus. Certainly, I cannot recall ever before seeing a Christian who came so close to being what I always pictured the savior to have been like.

My prayer is that others besides just myself watched this event, saw a bit of Jesus in that classroom as well, and came away as I did with a new perspective on the world and what we need to do to make it better for all who live in it.