October Drinking Companion

After some discernment, I realized I needed to write about John Paul II, otherwise known as, St. John Paul the Great. As I’ve been speaking of him more over the past year, I felt it’s only right to share a little about a man who truly changed our modern world as the vicar of Christ on earth. To begin I should start in 1979, when I was born that May. Five months later I would cross paths with him, unknowingly of course. Some farmer in Iowa invited him to say Mass in his cornfield and the Pope accepted the invite. Since I was born in Iowa, I just happened to be nearby for my parents to take me. It was humbling to know I was literally feet from this future saint and I took this along with the Catholic experience for granted for a long time.

On May 13, 1981 another significant event happened, a man with different ideologies tried to assassinate the Pope. John Paul II would later credit Mary’s help and God’s Providence from this brush with death. What was more profound is that the Pope would meet the assassin a couple years later. He forgave him and this picture of mercy was spread throughout the media. In a hostile world fighting, John Paul II knew how to fight with grace, and trust the Lord and His mother in assisting all of his efforts.

In my opinion the pinnacle of his pontificate was the fall of communism without a war. It was a simple vote that freed the people of Poland, the country that lost World War II twice according to historians. First they were invaded by German and decimated, after the war came to an end, due to politics they were served up to the communist regime of the U.S.S.R. despite being freed from the Nazis. Initially as politics do they divided the people with propaganda and different levels of government enforcement from people outside of their community. Eventually as their society eroded the people came together in the solidarity movement. Through this movement they were eventually given a chance to vote. Due to the foundations laid by Karol Wojtyla (John Paul 2)  and his contemporaries, the oppression was ended without a war. Another example of peace from this man of God.

A recent book on the 100 ways JP2 changed the world, along with some documentaries that truly inspired me to the many amazing things this man did over 25 years as Pope. I want to close with two other thoughts of how he impacted the world, and touched my life. First he started the World Youth Days, and thanks to him I was able to attend an experience in Brazil in 2013 with the first Pope from the America’s Pope Francis. 

For me personally this was significant because I witnessed 3.7 million people worshiping God from 170 different countries. Rio de Janeiro was a city of God for the week and the peace on earth Jesus Christ promises through the liturgy of the Mass. It is celebrated in the only Church of all Nations taught by the Apostles. Unfortunately everything else in our modern society reinvents the wheel, and just divides us, instead of uniting us as one people of God. If people truly understood the Mass as the act of reconciliation (Passover sacrifice) by Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrificial lamb, we too would sacrifice our egos, for the good of our families and neighbors, just as Jesus did for our sins on His way to Calvary. This is where unity lies, and no war will ever achieve that, only the grace and light of Christ/God can cast out the darkness in ourselves and the world. We must sacrifice our lives for the good of others in all we do, this is what St. Thomas Aquinas defined as love, to will the good of another, through selfless acts.

To close Pope Francis was the result of what John Paul did. The cardinals (who are still bishops) of the Catholic Church vote for the Pope, they wear red in symbolism of the blood they will shed to lay their life down for their flock as a good shepherd. John Paul opened up this position in the church to all of the world, previously they were only from Europe. He envisioned one day we would have a Pope that wasn’t from Europe, which has pretty much been the standard for some time. In a short time that vision was realized.

My parents and I in Iowa for Mass with Pope John Paul II. The child of the family we went with was blessed by the Pope in the other picture.