“Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him.”
St. Pope John Paul II
St. Pope John Paul II
There are certain people who enter our lives, sometimes without ever meeting us, and leave a permanent mark upon our souls. For me, one of those people was Pope St. John Paul II whose feast day we celebrate today. When he died in 2005, he had been the pope for most of my adult life. Throughout his remarkable pontificate, I came to admire him not simply because of what he accomplished, but because of who he was. He was a brilliant intellectual, a man of extraordinary courage, and perhaps most remarkably, a bishop who possessed an almost instinctive ability to connect with ordinary people. What made him so extraordinary was that these qualities are seldom found in the same person and seemed to flow from his profound love for Jesus Christ.
Karol Wojtyła was a philosopher, theologian, outdoorsman, university professor, and bishop of the church. He possessed one of the finest intellectual minds ever to occupy the Chair of Peter. Yet his intellectual brilliance never separated him from the people he was called to serve. On the contrary his understanding of philosophy and theology convinced him that every human person possesses a dignity rooted in the image and likeness of God.
Consider his historic pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979. For decades, the Polish people had lived under a communist government determined to marginalize religious faith and subordinate the individual to the state. When John Paul II returned to his homeland as pope, millions gathered, some walking hundreds of miles to the place where he was to speak. He brought no army, proposed no political revolution, and called for no violent uprising. Instead, he reminded his fellow countrymen of something the communist authorities could never give them and could never legitimately take away: their God-given dignity. The spiritual courage he inspired contributed to the emergence of the Solidarity movement and, eventually, the collapse of communist rule in Poland.
There is a profound Christian lesson here. The greatest power in the world is not necessarily found in governments, armies, or political institutions. Sometimes it is found in the human heart when that heart discovers the truth about God and itself.
But John Paul II was more than a courageous defender of human dignity. He was also a remarkable evangelist. In 1985, he announced the institution of World Youth Day, which would become one of the most important initiatives of his pontificate. He recognized something that that the church of today seems to forget: young people do not need a watered-down Christianity. They hunger for truth, meaning, love, and a purpose greater than themselves. He challenged these young people to become the saints they were called to be and millions of them responded.
And then there were his travels. During his pontificate, John Paul II made 104 international apostolic journeys (including seven to the US), traveling more miles than any of his predecessors. Why did he travel so extensively? I suspect the answer was rooted in his desire to imitate Jesus Christ. He understood that a shepherd must seek out his sheep, and the Church cannot remain comfortably behind its walls, waiting for the world to come knocking at its door. He heard the command from Christ to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News, and that’s what John Paul II did.
Yet for all his extraordinary accomplishments, I believe the secret to John Paul II's greatness lies in a man who belonged entirely to Jesus Christ. On October 22, 1978, at the inauguration of his pontificate, John Paul II proclaimed these words to the world: "Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ!" This is why he remains one of my spiritual heroes. He demonstrated that authentic Christian faith is neither timid nor confined to the private parts of our lives. He truly believed that faith, when lived courageously, has the power to transform individuals, communities, and even entire nations.
Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may we, like St. John Paul II, have the courage to live our faith boldly and bring the love of Christ to a world that desperately needs it.
St. Pope John Paul II, pray for us!