Be Like Pope Leo

One of the sayings that I became part of our culture in the 90s was “Be Like Mike”. This was a reference to Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players of all time. But it wasn’t basketball that was the only reason for the song or statement. It became the Gatorade commercial in 1991. It was created by Ernie Pitzel, an advertising executive, who also attached the image of Mike to the aspirations of young kids playing basketball. He was a hero. Being hard working and practicing daily to make your better the best that you could be was a goal. It stuck. Being like Mike became associated with someone who put everything into his athletic endeavors. Coaches and parents would tell their children to be like Mike as he was all in.

Given the recent publicity that Pope Leo has gotten from comments about him made by Trump and Vance, his responses and proclamations about peace, treating people as holy vessels and making your faith completely inform your actions seems to me to want others to “Be Like Pope Leo”. His life and message have become a model of what we should be as human beings as he has been thrust on the international stage.

There is a similarity between the Gatorade commercial, Be Like Mike, and the words of one of my favorite poets and writers, Rainier Maria Rilke. There is a line from Rilke’s earlier books, Book of Hours, which was written when he was a young man that has a line, yes, a commercial even, that “When I go toward you, it is with my whole life.” My interpretation of this line and that of others is that he was his faith and his faith was him. He was all in!

In essence, Trump and Vance, attempted to compartmentalize Pope Leo dividing him as a person with certain political statements and certain but different moral ethical thoughts. It would be like telling Michael Jordan to take a few days off from practice or you can shoot the basketball in a game, but you can’t dunk it. Think about what that would look like. You would conclude that it was not Michael Jordan practicing or playing that game. He was all in and that inspirational phrase for Gatorade would have no meaning to the young people that he inspired. Yes, I know that off the court he had troubles later on in life.

To me that phrase by Rilke, “When I go toward you, it is with my whole life.” is what we aspire to as human beings in general and counselors and therapists helping others in particular. The more that we can bring our whole life to people and welcome that from them becomes the path to sacred encounters. It requires us to be as transparent as possible and as welcoming of all that makes us the  wholepersons in our family, friends, or those in need of our help.

One of the gifted therapists of our time was Sheldon Kopp who put it this way as a variation of the words of Rilke to go forward with our whole life. Kopp said what produces positive change in another is like a poker game. The person coming to us for help holds his cards close to his chest peeking at that hand occasionally to check and see what he will keep and what he will discard. The therapist, however, puts his or her hand of cards down face up so the person across from her can see her whole hand. I believe this is what Pope Leo does routinely, and Trump and Vance just don’t know what to do or how to defend themselves or WIN.

The German word for the whole hand is finding the Gestalt. Bring your whole world to meet as much as possible the whole world of another.

It is also a cultural issue. We in the West tend to want to win at all costs and we are seeing this in Trump’s art of the deal trying to bully Iran into submission. That is all that he knows!

In the East people tend to try to move closer to the other person’s demands without regard for winning or losing. Rilke and Pope Leo also seem to be kindred spirits in matters of faith when Rilke wrote: “Love your questions now perhaps even without knowing it, you will along some distant day into your answers.”

Just as questions and answers cannot be separated neither can faith and action.

The Letter to James 2:20 – “Faith without works is dead.”

“Be Like Pope Leo!”