I am a Hindu by birth, an agnostic by experience, a humanist by choice and I am proud to say that I am in love with the leader of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis embodies everything that goodness, Godliness, but most of all, humankind, were meant to be. His resounding message of mercy, open-mindedness and hope makes me want to be a believer again. If the Holy Father can preach and practice unparalleled humility, non-judgmental love and tender compassion for all, we laymen most definitely need to do a bit of soul-searching -- here and now.
The Pope's clarion call for benevolence invokes the very core of the human spirit. In order to get to this inner space we have to look past the intricacies that constitute life. Life's struggles are real, but when we peel away the complex layers, the only thing that matters is compassion which inspires everything else that makes life worthwhile and worth living. This is a refreshingly virtuous cycle. And this is what makes miracles happen.
The world that we live in is an intricate conglomerate of lives and therefore, since its inception, it has built up layers upon layers of complexities. Yet the truth is that at its very core we are all members of that one family that began its arduous struggle for existence some 200,000 years ago. In the midst of leading our complex lives, we, the highly evolved, egotistical beings, get caught up in maya (Sanskrit: illusion). We get so incredibly absorbed in everything make-belief that we cannot begin to envision that there is only one world and that we are all denizens of that one world while passing through it for just a short while. Our vision becomes blurry for our views are jaded. We even begin to see boundaries that are non-existent, dividing countries and separating hearts. We forget that political maps are man-made and artificial barriers can easily be knocked down. But most of all we lose sight of the fact that we don't need to engage in costly wars with those who are different than us; all we need to do is to participate in mighty dialogues with ourselves. Humanity is what joins us no matter what language we speak, what faith we celebrate, what skin color we were born with or what beliefs we picked up along the way.
Let's, at least, attempt to peel away the layers that stand in the way of reaching the very core where differences do not exist and disparities do not matter. Why care about who is different, who is gay, who had an abortion, who got a divorce or who married whom? Why not just care? He sure as hell does.