Pope John Paul, the Good and the Great
Karol Wojytla, the man who would be known to history as John Paul II, was a true man, his character forged in the fire of suffering, elevated and perfect by the grace of God, to which he corresponded magnanimously from his youth. Even his obvious intellectual and spiritual stature had its roots in his sheer physical capacity to work, taught to him, as he later admitted, pounding rocks in his youth under the Nazi regime in the stone quarry. Even in the two decades after what we quaintly call ‘retirement age’ – he was elected Pope on this day in 1978 when he was two years shy of 60, young for a pontiff, but still – people one third his age had trouble keeping up with him.
No brief reflection may do justice to the greatness of the man, and the debt we owe him. Any one of his encyclicals, even many of his letters and addresses, would be enough to earn him a place in history. Yet he wrote and taught on nearly every subject, from the natural to the supernatural, the scientific and the spiritual, and all with a mastery and an (apparent) ease – he had a writing desk set up before the Blessed Sacrament in his private chapel – producing over his life a veritable treasure trove of clarity, profundity, and truth, all the fruit of genius, diligence and that whole mystery of sanctity.
He must have been aware that he was a gifted man, but his humble smile, his obvious joy and simplicity, signify that he was well aware that his many charisms were just that – gifts from God, accepted in humility. He had a task to do, in fact, many tasks – he was one with the ‘ten talents’ – and he fulfilled them well – ten talents more – a good servant just doing what he had been asked to do. Like Saint Peter, to whom he alludes in his inaugural sermon quoted in today’s Office of Readings, he may well have preferred to avoid Rome and the ‘crucifixion’ this would entail, but Christ asks what He will.
As the new Pope went on to say:
Our time calls us, urges us, obliges us, to gaze on the Lord and to immerse ourselves in humble and devout meditation on the mystery of the supreme power of Christ himself… The absolute, and yet sweet and gentle, power of the Lord responds to the whole depths of the human person, to his loftiest aspirations of intellect, will and heart. It does not speak the language of force, but expresses itself in charity and truth.
The new Successor of Peter in the See of Rome today makes a fervent, humble and trusting prayer: Christ, make me become and remain the servant of your unique power, the servant of your sweet power, the servant of your power that knows no dusk. Make me a servant: indeed, the servant of your servants.
That last phrase, of course, an allusion to another great pontiff, Saint Gregory, who described the Vicar of Christ as the servus servorum Dei. Yes, there were controversial aspects – some say his over-reach on ecumenical and inter-religious matters; others, his not recognizing the apparent duplicity of some of those around him, doing great harm; the liturgical issues connected with the World Youth days.
But all was done ad maiorem Dei gloriam, prompted by this servant’s great and expansive heart, his love of the flock, especially the youth, whom he saw as the future of the Church when things would be so halcyonic.
At the end of all he had done, Christ welcomed home his ‘good and faithful’ servant, where the former Pope continues to watch over the Church, a barque tossed now perhaps more than ever by the vicissitudes and sins of this world. We may wonder what he thinks of what is currently going on in Rome and elsewhere; what saves him from despair, if we may speak of such in heaven, is that the former Pope now sees the ‘bigger picture’, all things moving towards their final and eschatological perfection, in which we too may trust and hope.
Pope Saint John Paul II, ora pro nobis et pro Ecclesia!
Carney’s Amoral Majority
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Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
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A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
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Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→