About 30,000 of us came to St. Peter’s Square on the First Sunday of Lent, 2013, for the noon Angelus. For about 15 minutes, Pope Benedict XVI addressed us, led us in prayer, blessing us in Latin and greeted us in English, French, German, Polish, Spanish and Italian. The noon was bright, sunny, crisp. I took this photo with my Canadian BlackBerry.

The photo, of course, is a parable. Beginning at the left, there is the ancient Egyptian obelisk near which St. Peter was crucified in the year 64 A.D., head downwards at his own request, claiming to be unworthy to die like his Lord Marking the centre of St. Peter’s Square (really an oval), the obelisk gives silent yet eloquent testimony to the martyrdom of the first Pope.

To the right of the obelisk, you see the peaked roof of the Sistine Chapel. During the Conclave, everyone will be focused on the temporary chimney installed there to convey the smoke which, if black, means an inconclusive vote, and finally when white proclaims habemus Papam!

Continuing to the right, immediately above the head of the fellow closest to me, is the mosaic of the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus blessed by Blessed John Paul II on 8 December 1981. It is entitled Mater Ecclesiae, “Mother of the Church” because, the then Pope explained, “the Mother of God has always been united with the Church and has been particularly close during difficult moments in its history.” Moreover, Mater Ecclesiae is also the name of the monastery, in the Vatican garden, to which Rome’s Bishop emeritus will retire to a life of prayer for the Church.

And finally, the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, the second to last window with the banner hanging down, there is Pope Benedict XVI leading us in the Angelus. On his election in 2005, he said he wished to be “a simple humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord”. But now in 2013, lacking the strength “to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel”, he will renounce the papacy and clearly exercise that humility in an astonishing way at the service of the Church.

What most struck me, during the Pope’s brief reflection on the readings of the First Sunday of Lent, he said: "In the decisive moments of life – but, if we see clearly, in every moment – we are faced with a choice: personal individual interest, or the true Good, that which really is good?” He put us the question in Italian with a striking rhyme between the two key words: do we want to follow l'io o Dio – my ego or God? Hmmmmm…

Besides the many people – some pilgrims from elsewhere to see the Pope, others Romans gathered to see their Bishop – the photo is much marked by scaffolding. Some of it was there when I reached Rome at the beginning of ’10. Now it is coming down, for the work is done. Bernini’s columns have been beautifully renewed. Other sections are going up. The work of renewal is just beginning.

And so for me, the parable of the photo teaches as follows: the Church, from the Obelisk carved long before the Christian era, through Jesus and Mary and an impulsive Galilean fisherman the first Pope, to the people of God gathered to thank their Shepherd and bid him a blessed retirement: is it not all a great work ever in progress?

The Church, as we are reminded in Latin, is semper reformanda: there has been renewal, and renewal is just beginning, and renewal will always be needed. But like all works in progress, not easy to interpret: Too much? In which direction? Too slow? Too … what?

What sets the past week apart from many other weeks in the life of the Church, however, is the totally unexpected impulse for renewal given by the Holy Father. Let us think, in this context, of what the he said in his 2009 social encyclical Caritas in veritate about the global economic meltdown:

The current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future. In this spirit, with confidence rather than resignation, it is appropriate to address the difficulties of the present time (§ 21).

Next Sunday 24.02 will be Pope Benedict’s last Angelus, next Wednesday 27.02, his last Audience. We are already praying for his successor: a good priest, a holy Bishop, a caring pastor, a good shepherd, a skilled pontifex, a builder of bridges for the common good.