Pope Francis: Master of Imaginative Discernment through Storytelling, Metaphors, and Symbols

Abstract

This paper attempts to deal with an essential dimension of the process of discernment as Francis develops it, namely, the narrative. The paper treats the imaginative discernment exemplified in his use of storytelling, metaphors, and symbols to open a creative forum for discerning sacred truths in our personal lives. To justify the appropriateness of Francis’s use of imagination in discernment, the first part of the paper analyzes Ignatius’s use of the imagination, especially in the Rules for Discernment of Spirits. The second and lengthier part of the paper turns to Pope Francis’s skilled narrative use of metaphors and symbols. He adopts the Ignatian imaginative style with metaphors that appeal to contemporary seekers. The various metaphorical twists that he incorporates into this experience have a privileged place in his spiritual pedagogy of accompanying, discerning, and walking together with people during difficult times. The metaphorical style of Ignatius and Francis allows for a comprehensive understanding of the role that imagination can play in the discernment of spirits. Besides enriching our understanding of discernment, this style can facilitate a Christian spirituality that enhances the search for and discovery of meaning within our contemporary lives.

1. Introduction

“Non coerceri a maximo, contineri tamen a minimo divinum est [Not to be limited by the greatest and yet to be contained in the tiniest—this is the divine]” (Spadaro 2013, p. 12). In Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis introduces this motto engraved on the tomb of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which was later quoted by Friedrich Hölderlin in Hyperion. It functions as a central principle for Francis’s discernment and his Petrine Ministry. He knows how helpful it is to “examine what is within us—our desires, anxieties, fears and questions—and what takes place all around us—‘the signs of the times’—and thus to recognize the paths that lead to complete freedom” (Francis 2018). As he explains, “Often discernment is exercised in small and apparently irrelevant things, since greatness of spirit is manifested in simple everyday realities…while at the same time being concerned for the little things, for each day’s responsibilities and commitments” (Francis 2018). The maxim provides a helpful starting point for the present study of Francis’s imaginative discernment as a process that encourages opening one’s heart to God and others to discern sacred truths in the daily lives of modern seekers in response to the signs of our times. How do we discern among the multiple complex voices of our times and respond with wisdom and fullness? Francis’s mode of discernment provides an approach recognized as profoundly hopeful, transformative, and relevant for ordinary people from all walks of life.

This article investigates Pope Francis’s mode of imaginative discernment from theological and pastoral perspectives and attempts to deal with the essential dimensions of the process of imaginative discernment as Francis develops it, exemplified by his use of storytelling, metaphors, and symbols to open a creative forum for discerning sacred truths in one’s personal life. This article expands on research conducted by Morrison and Regan and published in Religions. In “A Spiritual Theology of Synodality: Towards a Thinking Heart in Catholic Education”, Morrison captures Francis’s hope and vision concerning synodal spirituality in Catholic education (Morrison 2023). Regan, in her article “The Bergoglian Principles: Pope Francis’ Dialectical Approach to Political Theology”, focuses on Francis’s thinking on his dialectical principles that offer a reconciled diversity in pluralistic dialogue (Regan 2019). One aspect not addressed in their work is discernment, especially in its imaginative dimension, which is a key aspect of Pope Francis’s rhetorical style. To fill this gap, this article investigates Francis’s catechesis on discernment from September 2022 to January 2023, focusing on the imaginative discernment of Francis in terms of his storytelling, metaphors, and the symbols he uses to create room for individuals to discern sacred truths on their own discernment. This investigation will advance the scholarly understanding of Francis’s interpretation of the Spiritual Exercises while generating answers to the questions of modern seekers. This article refers mainly to Francis’s catechesis on discernment. By applying the classical methodology of spiritual discernment in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and Bruce Hulme’s three contours of imaginative discernment, this article examines Francis’s understanding of the threefold stages of recognizing, interpreting, and choosing in his writings. To justify the appropriateness of Francis’s use of imagination in discernment, the first part highlights how discernment and imagination are interwoven. The second part explores the three contours of his method of imaginative discernment. The third part turns to his skilled narrative use of metaphors, symbols, and even jokes in his catechesis on discernment. Since Francis adopts the Ignatian imaginative use of metaphors that can appeal to contemporary seekers, the fourth part analyzes Ignatius’s use of imagination. Finally, the fifth part examines Francis’s mode of imaginative discernment itself. The various metaphorical twists he incorporates into this experience have a privileged place in his spiritual pedagogy of discerning and accompanying the people of God amidst the difficult times of our day. The metaphorical styles of Ignatius and Francis lead to a clear understanding of the role that imagination can play in the discernment of spirits, thus fostering a Christian spirituality that enhances the seeking and finding of meaning in our lives in our liquid society.

2. The Reciprocity of Imagination and Discernment

Spiritual discernment tests the spirits (cf. 1Jn 4: 1) and the movements they cause in the soul to seek and find the will of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To perceive and understand the working presence of the Spirit, persons should be tranquil as they pray, converse, and reflect on the path they are walking together. A presupposition for discernment is that one must possess a loving and trusting relationship with God. Mary Frohlich has stressed that authentic discernment is central to one’s intimate relationship with God in the world, that is, interiority (Frohlich 2007, pp. 77–81). Kees Waaijman says, “Discernment is perhaps a process of listening and learning, seeking the golden mean which could establish itself in the midst of the spiritual community” (Waaijman 2013, p. 9). He highlights discernment as the way to God, for whom nothing is impossible.

Discernment is also a way to try to determine what is possible from God’s perspective, and imagination can be helpful for this. Imagination is where the meaning of one’s life is composed, and its value and purpose are recomposed as one approaches a new horizon of understanding the world. Stuart Devenish distinguishes Christian imagination from simple human imagination: “[Christian imagination] resides in the biblically shaped ‘world’ in which Christian believers dwell” (Devenish 2017, p. 29). More fully, Sandra Schneiders explains that the Christian imagination is “the concrete effect on the whole cognitive-affective capacity of the person under the influence of the Spirit of Jesus which enables the person to grasp the paschal wholeness and character of the Jesus event and thus enter into an existential participation in the mystery of Christ” (Schneiders 1982, p. 65). It can spur a person to a discernment that leads one to choose the will of God for action. As Elizabeth Liebert has pointed out, “Imagination is a versatile tool to bring to discernment. You can imagine plausible outcomes, try them on in your imagination, and see how you respond” (Liebert 2008, p. 106). The outcomes are a matter not just of addressing practical needs but of conforming to the will of God.

Before the exercitant makes the Election in the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius has them “Imagine Christ our Lord suspended on the cross before you, and converse with him in a colloquy” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 138). For Ignatius, the crucified Christ is the concrete expression of God’s love that provides a sound criterion for discerning and choosing the will of God. Ignatius invites the exercitant, before making the Election, to contemplate various Gospel episodes to empathize with Christ’s perspective. One imaginatively enters more fully into the transforming mysteries of the Lord’s life, becoming united with him in finding God’s will and bringing the Kingdom of God to reality.

However, imagination can lead discernment astray on one’s spiritual journey of seeking and finding the divine will. It is vulnerable to self-deception and even to depriving oneself of freedom. The Christian imagination needs to be represented in concrete practices that embody God in one’s life. With the aid of the Holy Spirit, imaginative discernment recomposes one’s observation of reality, creatively making present what is absent in the world. Francesca Knox metaphorically identifies its transformative power as “being able to interpret smoke signals of hope rising from what may at first seem like a burnt-out desert” (Knox 2017). Imaginative discernment is thus a privileged place for rejuvenating a discouraged world and opening up new possibilities of hope.

The use of imagination for discernment is related to what has been said of prophetic imagination and moral imagination. Regarding prophetic imagination, Walter Brueggemann has said that its purpose is “to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us” (Brueggemann 2001, p. 3). In particular, it “seeks to penetrate despair so that new futures can be believed in and embraced by us” (Brueggemann 2001, p. 117). Regarding the moral imagination, another theologian, John Paul Lederach, has identified it as the art of inquiring into means of transcending violence and building peace. As he explains,

The moral imagination requires the capacity to imagine ourselves in a web of relationships that embraces complexity without reliance on dualistic polarity; the fundamental belief in and pursuit of the creative act; and the acceptance of the inherent risk of stepping into the mystery of the unknown that lies beyond the far too familiar landscape of violence.

(Lederach 2010, p. 5)

These authors regard prophetic imagination and moral imagination as engaging in affective cognition and evaluating the web of life. One aspect not addressed in their writings is discernment, especially in its imaginative dimension. For Francis, imagination and discernment are interrelated. Imagination is defined in a spiritual sense as the capacity to engage with the world through contemplative prayer. Discernment means recognizing the inner movements of the soul to find the will of God. The present study presupposes Francis’s imaginative discernment as a conscious effort to seek and find God’s will through a contemplative openness that facilitates recognizing the needs of people worldwide and responding to them in a way that creates new possibilities for each person to share solidarity in hope. It operates in the minds and hearts of the faithful who remain before the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ as they enter into creative engagement to transform the world.

3. The Three Contours of Imaginative Discernment: Recognizing, Interpreting, and Choosing

In his thesis exploring the metaphorical significance of Jesus’ walking and talking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13–49, Bruce Hulme found in that Easter scene the three contours of Christian formation: contemplative conversation, imaginative discernment, and courageous embodiment (Hulme 2021). The scene exemplifies the three stages of the faithful’s communal journey in discerning sacred truths in modern life by recognizing, interpreting, and choosing.

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis asserted as a principle for theological reflection that “Realities are more important than ideas” (Francis 2013). This principle recognizes that the salvific history of the work of God demands a dialogue between theory and practice, which encourages transformative action and justice. In exercising discernment in reading the signs of the times, Francis makes use of three verbs: recognizing, interpreting, and choosing.

I do exhort all the communities to an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the times”. We need to distinguish clearly what might be a fruit of the kingdom from what runs counter to God’s plan. This involves not only recognizing and discerning spirits, but also–and this is decisive–choosing movements of the spirit of good and rejecting those of the spirit of evil.

(Francis 2013)

For the purpose of choosing to follow the will of God, Francis recapitulates Ignatius’s process of discerning good and evil spirits. Ignatius puts first recognition of the various motions in the soul. Paying close attention to the inner movements of the soul allows one to examine one’s own heart and mind. He places second the interpretation of the various motions through prayerful reflection. Guidance from the Holy Spirit allows for opening one’s heart to divine wisdom and distinguishing good and bad motions. He concludes with making choices according to the will of God. For Ignatius, decision making leads the decisions being put into practice in concrete reality. Francis’s understanding of these three stages is influenced by the Ignatian method of discernment and developed for the contemporary pastoral context. Francis later developed the threefold stages of recognizing, interpreting, and choosing in his writings, and the Synod Fathers cultivated them for the Synod on Youth (Synod of Bishops 2017, 2018).

In the Easter scene of Luke 24, the notion of recognizing is embodied metaphorically in the image “Jesus walked with them” (Lk 24:15). As a metaphor for contemplation today, his walking with them means taking a deep look at and listening to the hidden face and inner voice of the realities of today and intellectually understanding them. In order to become open to surprise and sensitive to the Spirit, an attitude of humility is required. The idea of interpreting is metaphorically embodied in the statement “Their eyes were opened” (Luke 24:31). This means reflecting on what the Holy Spirit calls the faithful to do. To avoid being trapped in mere conceptual investigations, it is necessary to reflect honestly on what has been recognized in the light of the Word and to seek open possibilities in conversing with the Lord. The act of choosing is evoked metaphorically by the disciples’ action: “They set out at once” (Luke 24:33). This means taking a step towards a courageous response to the world as one embarks on a path of concrete action. The three contours of recognizing, interpreting, and choosing create a space to nurture openness to the guidance of the Holy in imagining new possibilities.

4. Pope Francis’s Use of Imagination in His Catechesis on Discernment

Francis’s method of communication can be summarized as the “heart-to-heart communication” of which he speaks, with regard to preaching, in Evangelii Gaudium:

Dialogue is much more than the communication of a truth. It arises from the enjoyment of speaking and it enriches those who express their love for one another through the medium of words. This is an enrichment which does not consist in objects but in persons who share themselves in dialogue. A preaching which would be purely moralistic or doctrinaire, or one which turns into a lecture on biblical exegesis, detracts from this heart-to-heart communication which takes place in the homily and possesses a quasi-sacramental character: “Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Rom 10:17). In the homily, truth goes hand in hand with beauty and goodness. Far from dealing with abstract truths or cold syllogisms, it communicates the beauty of the images used by the Lord to encourage the practice of good.

(Francis 2013)

In his catechesis on discernment, Francis concretely employs this homiletic method by making his audience participate in the communication process. He presented this catechesis fourteen times from 7 September 2022 to 4 January 2023. He began each session by pointing to St. Ignatius of Loyola as the master of discernment. He then considered several elements of discernment and concluded with the theme of spiritual accompaniment.

Since Francis’s understanding of discernment focuses on making decisions about unexpected situations, he relates it to recognizing “the signals with which the Lord makes himself known” in daily life (Francis 2022b). On the first occasion of his catechesis on discernment, he focused on “Jesus’ speaking of discernment with images taken from the ordinary life”—the farmer, the fisherman, and the merchant—in Mt. 13:44–48 (Francis 2022a). Francis draws the attention of his audience to the person in the Gospel who encounters an unexpected situation when he finds a treasure. On the second occasion of the catechesis, he used little imaginative stories to give examples of discernment when one must make a decision because they are suddenly faced with an expected situation in daily life:

I was quiet at home and “Boom!”— my mother-in-law arrives. And how do you react to your mother-in-law? Is it love or something else inside? And you must discern. I was working well in the office, and a companion comes along to tell me he needs money: how do you react? Seeing what happens when we experience things we were not expecting, and learning to know our heart as it moves.

(Francis 2022b)

On the fourth occasion of his catechesis on discernment, Francis drew upon a variety of metaphors to explain elements of the discernment process, such as “wearing a mask”, “deactivating the autopilot”, and “passwords” (Francis 2022c). “Wearing a mask” means lacking self-knowledge. “Deactivating the autopilot” means stopping and being aware of one’s inner movements. “Passwords” refers to words that touch one’s heart in movements by either evil or good spirits. By using these metaphors, Francis invites his audience to know their genuine selves by examining their inner lives. Francis incorporates metaphor into his rhetorical strategy to help his audience understand the spiritual life in a concrete way.

He then proceeded to explain how to understand consolation and desolation. While he defines spiritual consolation as “an experience of interior joy, that lets us see God’s presence in all things. It strengthens faith and hope, and even the ability to do good” (Francis 2022f), he introduces Ignatius’s understanding of spiritual desolation as the “darkness of soul, disturbance in it, movement to things low and earthly, the unquiet of different agitations and temptations, moving to want of confidence, without hope, without love, when one finds oneself all lazy, tepid, sad and as if separated from his Creator and Lord” (Francis 2022e). On the one hand, he distinguishes between true consolation and false consolation by using metaphors about what is original and what is an imitation (Francis 2022f). The former is like a drop on a sponge, which is soft and intimate; the latter, being noisier and flashier, is like straw fires. On the other hand, by using metaphors of “a traffic light”, “nerves for the body”, an “obstacle”, and “a new path”, he explains spiritual desolation as a privileged opportunity to change one’s attitude towards God (Francis 2022e). With these metaphors, he invites his listeners into an imagined new realm to connect with the inner movements of the Spirit.

On the sixth occasion of his catechesis, Francis focused on storytelling: “Discernment is the narrative reading of the good moments and the dark moments” (Francis 2022d). Narrative provides a contextual approach to life events that allows one to seek and find God’s active presence in one’s heart. The examination of one’s consciousness in daily life provides a concrete place to read one’s heart, to respect its complexities, and to reconstruct one’s life. Through this process, one can re-enter oneself and know one’s life story, including its harmful aspects. As an ingredient for discernment, Francis explains, “Reading one’s own history also means recognizing the presence of these toxic elements, but to then broaden our narrative, learning to notice other things, making it richer, more respectful of complexity, succeeding also in grasping the discreet ways in which God acts in our life” (Francis 2022d).

However, reading the story of one’s life experience does not isolate one in introspection; rather, it opens one to share one’s story with others. The recounting of one’s life cannot be a monologue; it is something to be communicated with others. Francis says, “It is one of the most beautiful and intimate forms of communication, recounting one’s own life. It allows us to discover hitherto unknown things” (Francis 2022d). The reading and recounting of one’s life facilitate awareness of the hidden treasure that has come from God. In his final catechesis, Francis develops this idea further, introducing the theme of spiritual accompaniment. Spiritual discernment is “the Lord’s way of approaching” that “walks alongside him or her, encouraging them to interpret what is stirring in their heart” (Francis 2023). Discernment needs to be accompanied so that the movements of different spirits can be perceived and understood, deceitful thoughts unmasked, and a sense of the beloved cultivated.

Francis holds up the Virgin Mary as a great teacher of spiritual discernment. Pointing with his finger like an old woman telling a story, he says that Mary “always points to Jesus. Do whatever Jesus tells you: that is what Our Lady is like. Mary knows that the Lord speaks to the heart of each person, and asks for these words to be translated into actions and choices” (Francis 2023). Throughout his catechesis, Francis presents imaginative discernment as a mode of heart-to-heart communication, using images and stories to help modern seekers discern in their daily lives.

5. Discernment and Imagination in Ignatius’s Works

Antonio Spadaro has pointed out that Francis reveals, as the driving force of his pontificate, the fact that “Discernment in the Lord guides me in my way of governing” (Spadaro 2013, p. 14). Francis has explained that Ignatian discernment is important for his Petrine Ministry. Just as Ignatius discerned to “know the Lord and follow him more closely”, so too, it has been noted that Francis discerns “in the presence of the Lord, looking at the signs, listening to the things that happen, the feeling of the people, especially the poor” (Spadaro 2013, pp. 12, 14). We briefly investigate the Ignatian use of the imagination in discernment as the origin of Francis’s threefold contours of imaginative discernment: first, gazing as contemplative engagement; second, storytelling, metaphors, and symbols as the means of interpreting what one sees; third, making choices with the aid of the imagination.

As an example of the first stage of imaginative discernment, Ignatius presents the Contemplation on the Incarnation in the Spiritual Exercises as a privileged place for the exercitant to imagine the communal discernment process of the Three Persons of the Trinity. In the Second Week of the Exercises, Ignatius proposes imagining the place of a Gospel incident as the mental location for prayer: “When a contemplation or meditation is about something that can be gazed on, for example, a contemplation of Christ our Lord, who is visible, the composition consists of seeing in imagination the physical place where that which I want to contemplate is taking place” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 136). In the first contemplation, that on the Incarnation, for example, he invites the exercitant to see imaginatively “the great extent of the circuit of the world, with peoples so many and so diverse” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 148). He guides the exercitant to see, listen to, and reflect on how the Three Divine Persons gaze at the world, discuss with one another, and participate in deciding to bring about the Incarnation. Such imaginative participation in the conversation of the Triune God constitutes a privileged perspective from which to cultivate discernment. At the end of the prayer, Ignatius aids the exercitant to speak from the heart to the Blessed Mother, her Son, and the Father in one’s imagination.

In the dynamics of this contemplation, one enriches one’s spiritual disposition as one deepens one’s gaze through the inner eye of imaginative discernment. One imagines the merciful eye of the Trinity as they gaze on the broken world, discern what to do, and decide upon the action of the Incarnation. This contemplative engagement is guided by the grace that is sought. “Here it will be to ask for an interior knowledge of our Lord, who became human for me, that I may love him more intensely and follow him more closely” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 148). To inspire one solely to seek and to fully conform to God’s will, this imaginative contemplation draws upon the perspective of the Trinity. Ignatius’s pedagogical strategy is to cultivate the inner eye of merciful love that the Triune God shows in their conversation.

On the other hand, one shapes one’s discernment in line with the sensus Christi, the discerning heart of Christ who was incarnate, lived, died, and rose again. Ignatius invites the exercitant not to think about the Incarnation but to gaze imaginatively and interiorly at the Second Person in his human form. This does not just mean one’s intellectual perception of the Incarnation but also points to the possibility of being disposed to conform one’s own heart to Christ’s heart. According to the Ignatian pedagogy of the imaginative discernment of the Spiritual Exercises, a personal relationship with Jesus in imaginative prayer helps one to know, love, and follow him as he sees and listens to us.

In the second stage of imaginative discernment, as described in Ignatius’s writings, the saint presents discernment through storytelling, metaphors, and symbols. In the Autobiography, he tells the story of his inner journey of discernment during his convalescence. He narrates how he listened to his heart, reflected on the things of God, distinguished the diversity of the spirits, and “began to marvel at the difference and to reflect upon it, realizing from experience that some thoughts left him sad and others joyful. Little by little he came to recognize the difference between the spirits that were stirring, one from the devil, the other from God” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 71). Ignatius tells his story in the third person, referring to himself as the “pilgrim”. He tells how the “Lord assisted him, by causing these thoughts to be followed by others which arose from the things he read” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 70). Throughout his story, he invites his readers to perceive the movement of spirits to advance their discernment process. That is because he thought his own personal experience might also be helpful to others as was to his soul (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 110). By narrating his experience of the inner movements of the spirits, he encourages readers to listen to their hearts and to find God’s presence in their own life stories.

To help readers become more attentive to the inner movements of the heart, Ignatius, in the Rules for Discernment of Spirits of the Spiritual Exercises, draws upon a variety of similes and metaphors, such as “like a drop of water going into a sponge”, “like a drop of water falling onto a stone”, and “going into the house by an open door” (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 207). These similes and metaphors invite the exercitant to be aware of the various inner movements in their soul, to understand them, and to choose whether to accept them. In his letter to the scholastics at Coimbra, Ignatius used metaphors to guide the students not to be deceived by the bad spirit, which could have been leading them into indiscreet fervor (Ignatius of Loyola 2006, p. 171). He employed a metaphor knowing it to be a rhetorical device capable of effectively persuading them to observe their inner movements. Using the metaphor of an overloaded vessel, for example, he cautioned that those pursuing extreme practices are vulnerable to sinking. He also warned that excessive religious devotion cannot be maintained but only causes one to fall to the bottom of the ladder.

In the third stage of imaginative discernment, we see that Ignatius presents the way of making an election as beginning with imaginative contemplation of how Jesus chooses and practices what he has decided. In the prayer of the Three Ways of Being Humble, Ignatius invites exercitants to desire and choose poverty with Christ the poor, contempt with the oppressed, and being considered a useless fool for Christ (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 160). Through the integrated process of imaginative prayer and discerning election, they can come to see as God sees and to choose as Jesus chooses through the Holy Spirit. The process invites the exercitants to foster a new way of looking at the world from God’s perspective and of responding generously to His call. Similarly, in the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius invites exercitants to make a fundamental decision about their lives by putting themselves, from a third-person narrative perspective, into different imaginative situations such as being on one’s deathbed and arriving at the judgment day (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, pp. 164–65).

Donald Gelpi summarized the imaginative discernment of the Spiritual Exercises as follows: “It plays imaginatively with the possible choices one might make in any given situation with a desire not simply to settle matters for oneself but to choose in the way in which God would have one choose” (Gelpi 2009, p. 346). With the help of imagination, one realizes the spiritual freedom for decision making that leads one to be available in the hands of God.

6. Pope Francis: Master of Imaginative Discernment

Francis roots his discernment in Ignatian imaginative discernment by having us gaze at today’s situation not solely with our eyes but also with our hearts. The gaze of the heart holds the attention on God based on faith by engaging in contemplation that is potentially capable of bringing one to share God’s perspective. Since the gaze of the heart is based on faith, it grants one access to a privileged place to experience the presence of God. As Gelpi has noted, this mode of contemplation amounts to “letting God speak” and “resting under the Father’s loving gaze” (Francis 2021a). As Francis himself has said, gazing with the heart upon Jesus’ eyes “illuminates the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of truth and his compassion for all men” (Francis 2021b). For Francis, Jesus is a master of gazing that makes seeking and finding the will of God possible. Such a loving gaze at reality makes it possible to dream creatively in our pluralistic and conflicted world.

In his homily on the Solemnity of Mary, Francis likewise focused on Mary’s gaze as cultivating a sense of fraternal solidarity:

The gaze that frees us from being orphans; the gaze that reminds us that we are brothers and sisters, that I belong to you, that you belong to me, that we are of the same flesh. The gaze that teaches us that we have to learn how to care for life in the same way and with the same tenderness that she did: by sowing hope, by sowing a sense of belonging and of fraternity.

(Francis 2017)

This mother’s gaze sees others as neighbors bearing the mark of God’s people. It invites us, as God’s people, to recognize the cry of our sisters and brothers and to choose solidarity with them. On the whole, gazing from the heart upon Mary, Jesus, and the Father brings us closer to them and opens us to recognize more readily the true reality.

Secondly, Francis roots his discernment in Ignatian imaginative discernment by making use of storytelling, similes, metaphors, and symbols as lenses of the imagination for interpreting the realities that one contemplates. He has dared to speak of the global COVID-19 pandemic as “a propitious time to find the courage for a new imagination of the possible, with the realism that only the Gospel can offer us” (Francis 2020c). When preaching before an empty Saint Peter’s Square on 27 March 2020, he evoked a sense of darkness and fear of the chaos and confusion of COVID-19 by using the story of Jesus stilling the storm in Mark 4:35–41 (Francis 2020b). Francis did so to preach courage. How could he speak of courage in such a difficult situation, when there seemed little reason for hope? How could he transform the anxiety of that dire situation into trust? He did so by using imaginative discernment.

As is common in homiletic practice, Francis used the boat in the storm as a metaphor, but he did so with a creative twist to invite discernment and courageous solidarity: “The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our tempest, invites us to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering” (Francis 2020b). The storm is not simply a figure signifying danger in the face of “an unexpected” but a transformative image for constructing “the blessed common belonging”. The boat is not just a place of “being caught off guard by a storm” but a transformative image of “being called to row together” (Francis 2020b). As Spadaro has said, “It is very interesting how the metaphor is taken up and emptied from the inside, and resolved in its opposite” (Spadaro 2020).

In his interpretation of this Gospel story, Francis emphasizes that only Jesus can help us to seek and find hope in the midst of a tempest (Francis 2020b). “In the midst of the tempest”, he says, “the Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith” (Francis 2020b). He sees even the pandemic as a “contagion of hope” in which the message of Jesus becomes transmitted from heart to heart (Francis 2020d). For Francis, however, this is not a mere rhetorical expression; he uses this metaphor to reawaken real hope and concrete solidarity. As Spadaro put it, the pandemic manifested a “pandemic of the spirit and of social relations” (Spadaro 2020). As Austen Ivereigh has said, it is an “opportunity for conversion” (Ivereigh 2020). Francis makes use of metaphorical language to invite the faithful to see the broken world with renewed eyes, form fraternal solidarity with the help of the Holy Spirit, dream of new possibilities, and choose to seek them practically.

Thirdly, Francis roots his discernment in Ignatian imaginative discernment as he uses it to rekindle hope. His discernment offers new possibilities for hope in the midst of dire difficulties. Francis believes that hope “speaks to us of a thirst, an aspiration, a longing for a life of fulfillment, a desire to achieve great things…It can open us up to grand ideals that make life more beautiful and worthwhile” (Francis 2020a). He has thus chosen as the motto of the 2025 Jubilee “Pilgrims of Hope” (Bordoni 2023). “In a time of crisis”, for Francis, “human beings are as pilgrims in search of hope in much the same way as the disciples of Jesus” (Orobator 2021, p. 15). Just as Jesus chose to show himself to his disciples as a model of compassion and hope against despair, so can the faithful today risk decisions of hope. For Francis, imaginative discernment is a matter of the people of God choosing to enkindle renewed hope. In Fratelli Tutti, he distinguishes what can be just “a cool, comfortable, and globalized indifference” from a dynamic “sense of belonging to a single human family” while courageously imagining “the dream of working together for justice and peace” to build a better world (Francis 2020a). Francis focuses on restoring hope by choosing solidarity as an antidote for the “deep disillusionment concealed behind a deceptive illusion”, that of “failing to realize that we are all in the same boat” (Francis 2020a).

Francis says that solidarity is expressed in standing close to others in service:

It is good for us to appeal to the solidarity born of the consciousness that we are responsible for the fragility of others as we strive to build a common future. Solidarity finds concrete expression in service, which…always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, suffers that closeness and tries to help them.

(Francis 2020a)

When drawing attention to the marginalized, Francis speaks of “existential peripheries”, a metaphor that has a deeper meaning than geographical borders. “In Francis’s imagination”, says Massimo Faggioli, “the border is more a limen (threshold) than a limes (rigid frontier) … it’s a border that relates and connects the other more than it excludes” (Faggioli 2020, p. 3). Francis’s usage of the periphery as a metaphor relates to the mystical as well as to ecclesial, political, and economic systems. “The existential peripheries”, for Francis, are “the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religions, of intellectual currents, and of all forms of misery” (Vatican Radio 2013). He sees reality from the perspective of existential peripheries and points toward a new, alternative worldview. As he once told Spadaro, “It is a hermeneutical question: reality is understood only if it is looked at from the periphery…Being at the periphery helps to see and to understand better, to analyze reality more correctly, to shun centralism and ideological approaches” (Spadaro 2014). Here, his concern is to understand the marginalized and to build solidarity. He repeatedly said, “This is really very important to me: the need to become acquainted with reality by experience, to spend time walking on the periphery in order really to become acquainted with the reality and life-experiences of people” (Spadaro 2014). As a metaphor highlighting fraternal solidarity, the image of the periphery is consistent with that of the Church as a field hospital serving the “bruised, hurting and dirty” (Francis 2013). Both metaphors use imaginative discernment to serve as a call to action. Through them, Francis invites the faithful to see the face of the poor, discern the signs of the times, and take action for the vulnerable. For Francis, metaphor can be defined as a rhetorical device that helps his audience cultivate a spiritual sense, leading one to pray imaginatively, to discern the will of God, and to fulfill the Church’s mission. So, Francis’s use of metaphors elucidates the ambiguity of spiritual concepts and enkindles a sense of service for the marginalized.

7. Conclusions

Paul Crowley captured the significance of Christian theology in witnessing to hope when he said, “The task of the theologian, then, will be to express the hope of Christian faith in the midst of what is bound to be a season of crucifixion, and to enter into the throes of solidarity with the suffering as a starting point for a theological understanding of faith” (Crowley 2017, p. 5). In the same vein, Francesco Asti has said that Christian spirituality can cure the sense of emptiness, indicate the ways of the Holy Spirit, and make people know the signs of the times (Asti 2019, p. 408). Imaginative discernment can help us value new possibilities of wisdom so as to cultivate a Christian theology in a way that can serve persons suffering in today’s complex society. The value of this discernment is not limited to mystical experiences in one’s personal spiritual life; such discernment makes it possible to transform one’s life and to respond to the world’s challenges in our daily lives. Francis suggested the daily prayer of examination of one’s consciousness as a discerning reflection throughout life. It is “the good habit of calmly rereading what happened during our day, learning to note in our evaluation and choices what we give most importance to, what we are looking for and why, and what we eventually find.” (Francis 2022c). However, this is not a precise manual for the acquisition of skill but a gift: “Above all, discernment is a gift from God, which must always be asked for, without ever presuming to be expert and self-sufficient” (Francis 2023). For Francis, discernment is not a spiritual tool kit but a disciplined art to orient spiritual formation and education toward that on which the Holy Spirit invites us to focus, following the three contours of recognizing, interpreting, and choosing.

Francis invites us, in our recognizing, to gaze at the realities of today’s world from the perspective of the sensus Christi to see the world’s complexity more deeply. In our interpreting, he has us adjust our religious sensitivity to the movements of the Holy Spirit by distinguishing between spiritual consolation and desolation so that we can perceive God’s working presence in our daily lives. In our choosing, Francis envisions new possibilities, inviting us to hopeful action in solidarity with all our sisters and brothers.

Francis’s imaginative discernment makes it possible to see, judge, and act in a way that enkindles new hope in the face of despair. During the pandemic, he used it to transform the common negative metaphor of the storm into a positive image of resilience, courage, and hope. His root metaphor of the periphery enlivens the threefold movement of discernment: recognizing, interpreting, and choosing. Based on Ignatian spirituality, Francis’s imaginative discernment promotes compassion, attentive interpretation, and concrete action. Such imaginative discernment allows us to contemplate the complexities of contemporary life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to model our engagement with the world on how Jesus gazes on, feels with, and acts for the people of God. It invites us to learn a new pathway for the holistic formation of Christian spirituality.