what I wish the pope had said

 Just a few days ago, the pope sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes. While I disagree with quite a bit of what he said (we could talk about his definition of "conservative" or his views on immigration into the United States here, but that would make for a long post), there was one question and response that really got to me:

Q: "When you look at the world what gives you hope?" 

The pope was given the perfect opportunity with this question. It's one he should have jumped on, an opportunity spoken of in scripture: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15) Norah O'Donnell tossed him a question that he should have hit out of the park! His answer?

A: "Everything. You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things. You see heroic mothers, heroic men, men who have hopes and dreams, women who look to the future. That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead. And people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good."

How disappointing and heartbreaking that, when asked what gives him hope, the pope pointed to mankind. This world has nothing to offer in the way of hope. It doesn't matter what dreams we have, or what heroic acts we carry out. It doesn't matter if we persevere through hard times. It doesn't matter that we want to survive or that we look to the future.

Without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have no hope. As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: 

"¹⁷ if the Anointed has not been raised from the dead,
then your faith is worth less than yesterday’s garbage,
you are all doomed in your sins,
¹⁸ and all the dearly departed who trusted in His liberation
are left decaying in the ground.
¹⁹ If what we have hoped for in the Anointed doesn’t take us beyond this life,
then we are world-class fools, deserving everyone’s pity.
²⁰ But the Anointed One was raised from death’s slumber
and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death.
²¹ For since death entered this world by a man,
it took another man to make the resurrection of the dead our new reality.
²² Look at it this way: through Adam all of us die,
but through the Anointed One all of us can live again."
(1 Corinthians 15:17-22)

I wish the pope had taken the opportunity he was given as a chance to point a broken, hurting world toward the only One who can give them hope. Yes, there are beautiful things in the world--but none of those beautiful things can offer hope to the hopeless.

The heart of man is not fundamentally good. The only good inside any of us is a reflection of God, not something in or of ourselves. The only way we can have a heart that is good is if we have a heart that has been made new by Him.