We join in the excitement surrounding Pope Francis’ visit to the United States.

It is the pontiff’s first visit to this country. In addition to saying Mass in Washington and Philadelphia and visiting with cheering throngs of the faithful on this six-day visit, he is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday and speak to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday in New York.

It is an important visit for the nation’s Catholics, a contingent of up to 81 million Americans or roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population, including about 3 million black Catholics. It’s important, too, for non-Catholics, who are among the crowds in Washington.

Each of us can learn a lot by listening to this humble holy man, a Jesuit from Argentina who eschews the lavish lifestyle of some former popes and lives more simply in a suite in the Vatican guesthouse among the priests and bishops who work at the Vatican, rather than in the grand papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.

When he arrived Tuesday at Joint Base Andrews, he slid into the backseat of a small, four-door Fiat, not a long black limousine.

In a speech Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House, he described himself as the son of immigrants — his parents emigrated from Italy to South America — noting that America was built by immigrant families.

Since becoming pope two years ago, his messages to the world have centered on compassion, forgiveness, finding God in all things and sharing the gifts God has bestowed upon us — including nature’s resources — with others. Those messages have included talks about poverty and the poor, the environment and the role of women as sisters, not servants.

For a country that is only 4.5 percent of the world’s population, the United States consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil, one-third of the world’s paper, 23 percent of the coal, 19 percent of the copper and 27 percent of the aluminum, according to a report in Scientific American. “Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world,” the report stated.

While GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie, who is the governor of New Jersey and a Roman Catholic, snidely said that one shouldn’t go to a religious leader for lessons on economics, we suggest that some of the lessons Pope Francis can teach us can help unlock the closed minds and chained hearts in Washington that have ground this nation and our progress to a halt on many fronts.

Perhaps if we listen more to the pope’s universal lessons that are found in all the world’s major religions, we can be better stewards of the earth and care more about humankind.

We await with great anticipation what Pope Francis will say to Congress. Hopefully, it will bring an awakening and renewal of good faith, hope and positive action for the future.