Like Christmas, Easter can readily be drawn on as a standard to measure the large world events of the day. The story of Jesus' last week in Jerusalem gives full weight to the deepest human themes: life and death, love and hatred, constancy and betrayal, courage and cowardice, hope and despair, freedom and tyranny. The variations on these are played on our personal lives and on the affairs of nation and world.
This year Easter coincides with the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis' election. Anniversaries are also times for assessment and measurement. Francis' anniversary has led many to comment on the successes and failures of his papacy. Easter is a doubly appropriate time to reflect on whether the commentators have weighed in correctly.
Popes' power is largely symbolic. In the Catholic understanding he has the same place in the continuing church as St Peter had in the early church, with a commission to strengthen his fellow bishops in their discipleship. He must work through them and persuade them in order to change, just as they must persuade local Catholics if they are to be effective. To do that the pope needs above all to reflect in his relationships and demeanour the life of Jesus, and so the qualities that should characterise the Catholic Church
In my judgment Francis has been effective in commending through his behaviour and relationships a simple church, fraternal rather than paternal in its relationships, local as well as universal, compassionate, focused on mission to the world more than on maintenance, passionate in its wonder at the dignity of each human life and resolute in its defence in the face of brutality, inequality and carelessness, and above all joyful and trusting rather than burdened by the gift of faith.
Questions remain, particularly about his response to the sexual abuse of children and its cover up and also to the exclusion of women from positions of leadership.
That is one person's judgment which we could debate forever if we abandoned ourselves to it. A more penetrating question, though, is what we make of Francis' perceived successes and particularly of his failures. We all tend to minimise the successes of people we do not like and to deny the failures of those we do. Underestimating popes' failures does not matter much. But for Catholics to deny failure in popes is a dangerous temptation. It risks making popes puppets of our own expectations of perfection.
That