By Stacey Brandt ‘11

I just arrived home after a whirlwind 46-hour pilgrimage to Philadelphia to see, hear, and celebrate Mass with Pope Francis and about a million other Catholics. We were prepared for crowds, long lines, and lots of waiting (which there certainly was), but the frustration of inconvenience was surprisingly absent among the crowds.

As one of my students put it, “It didn’t seem like a million people. It was just people.” That is what the universal Church is like; not strangers, not crowds, just people—the body of Christ. Pope Francis, in his words and actions this week, has renewed the call for us to truly open our hearts to God and to his people.

I teach a course on Catholic Social Teaching, and one of the concepts I need to convey is that when we work for justice in the world, we are building up the Kingdom of God on earth. I always struggle to explain this adequately. The Kingdom is what we reach for, and we know in our hearts that it will be fulfilled, but how? We can’t do it alone, and sometimes our obstacles seem insurmountable.

The joy of this trip to Philadelphia is that we all caught a little glimpse of what could be. I witnessed love in the crowds as everyone shared food, water, space to sit and stand, an encouraging word, a look of solidarity. We shared hugs and handshakes, smiles, and tears. We shared expectations, dreams, and struggles. To wrap it all up, we shared the Eucharist.

In that sweet Sacrament of Love, it all makes sense. Christ, poured out for the whole world, makes us whole. At the Last Supper, he prayed “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21). When we give ourselves, fully and selflessly as he gave himself, we are that love. We are working to build the Kingdom.

My heart has been moved in recent weeks to pray this prayer, a line from a praise and worship song: “Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours.” It has been a recurring request in my prayers for years whenever I’ve needed a push outside of myself to see the world as he sees it. His heart is broken by division, war, hatred, poverty, and fear. His heart is broken by gossip, grudges, and prejudices. His heart is broken by selfishness.

Even though we have not eradicated these in our world, the hearts of millions in the United States were moved this week by the presence and powerful message of love from our Holy Father. I believe that God’s heart was truly made glad by the love, solidarity, and desire among his people to open our hearts and to mend what is broken in our lives, our families, and our world.

As my students would say, “the struggle is real,” but we know that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19: 26). We can build the Kingdom. We can end divisions. We can be God’s love to the world. That is the power of the Eucharist, the Body of Christ.

This experience has transformed my prayer into one of joy, echoing Beethoven’s famous chorus, “Hallelujah unto God’s almighty Son…praise the Lord in holy songs of joy!”

Thank you, Pope Francis, for your visit. Thank you, Philadelphia, for your warm welcome. Thank you, God, for your Church. Thank you all for your love. Let us take that love and follow Pope Francis’ call to be “factories of hope” for the world.