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REMEMBERING POPE JOHN PAUL II

It has been said that this Pope has been seen personally by more people than any other person in the history of the world. The technological power of the world-wide media is such that even if we have not known him personally, almost everyone has seen images of him on television, or has heard his voice on the radio, or has read his writings and pronouncements in newspapers and magazines. As these technologies bring us closer together they also make us feel as if we knew the Holy Father, and, too, they compound our sadness at his passing.

After all, we have seen this man pick up and hug countless small children to their delight. We have seen him admonish generals and presidents who did not make peace their first priority. We have seen him bless infants as their parents watched with joy and amazement. He has been a part of our lives.

John Paul used his papacy as a great moral megaphone to the world and offered a strong voice on behalf of the poor and the dispossessed. He invited totalitarian regimes to open themselves to freedom and democracy. He invited the rich to give to the poor. He invited the poor to give to the rich. He invited teenagers to live lives of personal morality. He invited every human being to recognize the intrinsic value of every other human being. He spoke out against war, capital punishment, abortion and violence, and he was emphatic in his opposition to violence borne of religious differences.

He invited everyone to be reconciled, one to another, and when another man shot him in an attempt to take his life, he visited that man in prison where he forgave him, spoke compassionately to him and prayed with him.

Are not these the marks of the holy?

The closest I ever came to John Paul II was two years ago, almost to this very day. I was on sabbatical in Italy, and I planned to spend four days in Rome. A friend of mine who knew I wanted to visit the Vatican made a contribution to the Vatican Museums in my name, which made me a “Patron of the Vatican.”  He said that this would entitle me to a special seat at an audience with the Holy Father.

I was very excited by the possibility of actually meeting the pope, and I made my way early to the Vatican, dressed in my best suit, to meet the Holy Father. And as I arrived, I noticed preparations being made in St. Peter’s Square for a large crowd. I soon realized that I would, indeed, have an audience with the pope, but that I would also be joined by some 10,000 other pilgrims! I was ushered to a folding chair in the warm spring sun, as far from where the pontiff was to sit as I am now from the doors of this cathedral.

But it didn’t really matter. It really didn’t! I felt as if I was witnessing something indescribable as the square filled with people from all over the world: students, children, the elderly, the handicapped, priests, nuns, monks and quite a few others who had simply been drawn to the spectacle.

I watched this small, frail man appear to gain strength from the shouts of students in the crowd. At first, I was reminded of an athletic contest. Young people representing schools and countries waved flags and wore shirts representing their affiliation with one group or another. They yelled out the pope’s name, and John Paul seemed to energize the entire gathered throng by his presence.

His voice welcomed them all, sounding jubilant, triumphant even. And yet, when he prayed in a voice low and slow, everything became quiet and hushed in the midst of that great square in the midst of that great city.

He offered blessings in a variety of languages and no one – no one – who was present in that square could doubt that there was something extraordinary about the way in which God was able to use this one extraordinary man.

Pope John Paul II did not know about the Holocaust through what other people told him or by what he had read. He knew about the Holocaust because his friends and neighbors were its victims. Growing up in Poland, John Paul knew the price of enmity between religions, and so it was this pope who offered an astounding apology on behalf of the Christian faith for failing to stem anti-Semitism. He offered an apology for forced conversions to the Christian faith, for the violence and exploitation of the Crusades and for a whole host of other evils, “done and left undone.” 

Are not these the marks of the holy?

It is not for me to eulogize this man. That task, thankfully, will be left to others far better equipped for the task. But Pope John Paul II himself once said, “Life is something beautiful when you give it to others.”  It seems to me that he not only wrote it, he did it. And I can think of no better epitaph than that.

Amen.