Remembering the Great Mercy Pope

The statue of St. John Paul II at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Saint John Paul II called on the whole world to reject the culture of death and embrace the culture of life. He set the Church on the path of the New Evangelization first laid out by Pope St. Paul VI. He gave us a whole Gospel of Life, Evangelium Vitae, which addressed an array of evils and proposed many goods, saying: “The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message."

By Chris Sparks

It was 20 years ago this week that St. John Paul II died, on April 2, 2005.

I remember watching the final days, the vigil in St. Peter’s Square, on our TV in Ohio, with my sister on another chair in our living room. It was the spring of my senior year of high school. That meant when I went to Gonzaga University in the fall, there were showings of movies commemorating St. John Paul II and the Catholic student fellowship group had renamed itself the John Paul II Fellowship. And it meant that I’d begun reading books by Cardinal Ratzinger shortly after his election as Pope Benedict XVI.

I remember the way the world seemed to pause and catch its breath, the way that even non-Catholics knew and cared what was going on. I remember the shock to the system of the pope of my entire life, and of the lives of many of my family, friends, and neighbors actually being sick unto death, actually being on the verge of leaving us. It seemed like the loss of an unnoticed source of stability in a very chaotic, fast moving world (oh, how much more chaotic and fast moving it has since become!).

What a life!
I remember that I hadn’t really known or appreciated who he was and what he meant till I decided to actually pick up the enormous hardcover biography by George Weigel, Witness to Hope, that had sat on my grandmother’s table next to her armchair for years. As I read it, I was astounded at the heroic courage of a Catholic man who’d lost so many of his family in his childhood; who’d grown up in a free Poland, studied for the priesthood during the Nazi occupation, and served as priest, bishop, and cardinal during the Soviet oppression. 

I was amazed at the faith, hope, and love of the man, of the enormous clarity and beauty of the philosophy laid out on the page, the sort of luminous thinking one would generally associate with peaceful times and a prosperous nation. Young Karol Wojtyła was always a person of incredible gifts, which may explain the extraordinary generosity and magnanimity that always seemed to characterize him, the sort of noblesse oblige one would have assumed could only come from the very rich or very high class of the very best, most gentlemanly sort. And yet he was not from a wealthy family or wealthy nation; he was from an ancient culture, a country often suffering as a battlefield for the surrounding powers, a contested land, one that would suffer many, many horrors in his lifetime, but also find itself liberated in no small part due to his life, his ministry, his sanctity.

Darkness and light
Yes, there’s no doubt he was a saint, at least in my mind. The world will always remember the terrible tragedy of the abuse scandal, and remember that it exploded into public view in 2002 in a way that changed the life of the Church. The world may have its doubts about the sanctity of the pope under which that scandal became plain for all to see. 

And yet, sadly, sanctity is no guarantee of infallibility. Sanctity does not mean a man of many gifts is also a man of every gift, that a world historically excellent evangelist, philosopher, mystic of a pope would also be an excellent administrator. 

The sorrow of the victims can’t be erased, can’t be undone. Much that should have been done to protect the vulnerable or prevent abuse was not done till very late. Many predators had much too free a reign for far too long. Much evil occurred on St. John Paul II’s watch. That is true. 

He also stopped much evil. His role in the fall of Communism saved many lives, ended much torture, shone a light that cut through the darkness of lies, the gulags, and the secret conflicts of the Cold War. We may never know the true death toll, or the names of every victim. Indeed, one of the struggles for the Marian Fathers in putting forward their martyrs at the hands of the Soviets for canonization has been discovering where their bodies were buried or destroyed. Too many disappeared into the Soviet state apparatus of suppression, oppression, and destruction.

Apostle of the Gospel of Life
Saint John Paul II called on the whole world to reject the culture of death and embrace the culture of life. He set the Church on the path of the New Evangelization first laid out by Pope St. Paul VI. He gave us a whole Gospel of Life, Evangelium Vitae, which addressed an array of evils and proposed many goods, saying: “The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly received day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity as ‘good news’ to the people of every age and culture.”

He showed us what it means to follow Jesus Christ, and proved the hope that can be found in the Christian life, even in the darkest times and the greatest suffering. His patient, public endurance of Parkinson’s with dignity and Christian heroism was a potent counter to the wisdom of the world.

To do
I could go on. Suffice it to say there are several key aspects of his life we should imitate as the Marian Family:

•    His promotion of the Divine Mercy message and devotion. This April 30 marks 25 years since the Holy Father canonized Sr. Faustina and proclaimed the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday — what a day!
•    His love of the Eucharistic Lord and of Our Lady’s Rosary and Scapular.
•    His total consecration to Jesus through Mary, and his abiding, pervasive love and trust of Our Lady.
•    His persistent service to those in need, including the Holy Souls in Purgatory, the poor, the needy, the ill, the elderly, the young.
•    His fidelity to the fullness of the faith, encapsulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
•    His steadfast refusal to give up on either faith or reason; on either prayer or scholarship and science; on either truth or love.
•    His willingness to learn all throughout his life, listening to experts in every field till the end, knowing  a great deal himself, but always remaining open to the many truths he didn’t yet know.
•    His steadfast evangelization, marked by joy, hope, courage, and the other fruits of the Holy Spirit.
•    His development of his own gifts and talents, the better to allow the Holy Spirit to build on them and do God’s will through them.

And so much more!

So as we remember St. John Paul II, the Great Mercy Pope, let us also plan to imitate him, to learn from his mistakes and from his virtues, and so carry on his work in the service of Christ, His Church, and the whole world into the future.

Saint John Paul II, pray for us!
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