Saturday started with a trip to the University of Santo Tomas, the oldest and at the same time the pontifical university in the country. A visiting pope will definitely drop by a pontifical university. And the people once again did not disappoint. As early as the day before, many were already waiting for Pope Francis. By the time he arrived, the crowd had swelled to the thousands. The university and España were flooded, not by water but with a sea of humanity.
Several speakers were assigned to speak and pose questions to the Pope. But I would think the most significant and moving for the Holy Father was the story and question posed by Glyzelle Iris Palomar, 12. Her story is not uncommon, and neither was her question. A street child saved from ruin, but wanting to know why such bad things as abandonment, drug addiction, prostitution and all forms of abuse are allowed by God to happen to children. She wept while asking the question.
I appreciated what the Pope did. The question really has no answer. But instead of trying to conjure up a standard out-of-the-box answer, he simply embraced Glyzelle and let her cry her heart out. After the rest of the speakers were done, the Pope once again discarded his prepared English speech and decided to speak from the heart. In Spanish, he pointed out that "Certain realities in life we only see through eyes that are cleansed with tears. I invite each one here to ask yourselves, have I learned how to weep, to cry?"
Crying is proof that we understand. True enough, one cries when the stimulus is just overflowing and can no longer be contained. I know people who cry at the slightest of instances, like a sad or even happy movie. I also know people who do not cry at all, even with the loss of a loved one. Who would you rather be? It is true that there is a cleansing of sorts that comes with crying. The term "letting it all out" is not without truth.
The Pope also touched on other issues, such as information overload, a sign of the times indeed. What to do with all that information? Do not become museums, the Pope says, or mere repositories of information, but know what to do with them. Let's face it, a lot of the information out there is useless or even misleading. Which is why he then reverts to the Gospel in determining as to how to make all the information bear fruit. Again, words of wisdom from the heart. Reality, he says, is superior to ideas. If there is one quote that I would remember in the Pope's five-day visit, it would be this one. Beautiful.
To be concluded