John Paul II the Great

WITH world attention now riveted on Pope John Paul II, it might be good to take another look at this man who has unquestionably shaped and influenced our lives, our times, our world.

Many will make their own commentaries on the vast and rich heritage the
Pope is leaving us. I hope we can take time to go through them, for they surely can only nourish our soul, deepen our understanding, widen our perspectives.

Mine is just a little personal testimony of how John Paul II has made God
more known and loved by a world that’s also bent on turning its back on its Creator and Father.

No, I’ve not spent much time with him. That is, physically. But yes, I have been following him closely through all materials that come from him or are about him—his encyclicals and other writings, homilies, speeches, biographies, etc.

Plus the fact that I truly pray for him everyday. I’m not ashamed to admit
that. It’s much, much more than just a fan thing. It’s a devotion, a very religious thing. So even if I’m physically far from him, I feel a certain closeness to him.

The closest and longest time I had with him was when he ordained me priest back in 1991. That event alone already left me with a deep, unforgettable impression of the kind of person John Paul II is.

He started the Holy Mass really dead tired. He looked tired, he moved tired. He was dragging his feet. I remember pitying him. He just returned from another trip, and he looked as if he had not recovered from his jet lag.

But as the Mass progressed, I witnessed a wonderful transformation in his
face and behavior. He was regaining strength and color. He was radiating with something mysterious that made me forget about my own nervousness. It was pure delight just to see him so close.

After the ceremony, while in the sacristy, he greeted each one of us. Never one to show emotions before personalities and more of a skeptic before them, I literally melted when he looked at me.

Something convinced me I was looking at a very holy man. His eyes were
deep and straight, yet calm and loving. I thought he saw me down to my core, warts and all, and he seemed to understand me. He enveloped me with warmth.

My “affair” with him started when he got elected Pope in 1978. I was then a young professional man but with some intellectual pretensions. Though immersed in business, I pursued as some kind of hobby the study of philosophy.

His homilies and speeches immediately caught my attention. I was thrilled to discover that he articulated in a very clear and strong way ideas which started to charm me but which I was still groping to understand and express.

This encouraged me to read all his writings. I marveled at what I learned from him. The depth and breadth of his writings simply amaze me, and I felt I was lent some wings to fly high.

Of course, the way he thinks and his writing style demand some discipline. Reading him is sometimes like climbing Calvary. But once you get the hang of it, you will get to see many wonderful things often missed out by many people.

I still remember a friend-priest sort of complain that this Pope writes faster than he, my friend, could read. I was amused, but I told him that he is missing a lot not reading him.

This Pope has touched just about everything related to Christian life, be it in the big or small things, be it in the personal and family aspects or in the business, social and political fields.

He has blended both the spiritual and material dimensions of Christian life, the temporal and the eternal, the here and now and the beyond.

And yet one very important lesson I learned from him is that all his writings are never simply an intellectual exercise. While they are deeply intellectual, they are undeniably human and Christian, full of love, patience and understanding.

Though there had been some voices of dissent to his teachings, he never succumbed to any strain of bitter zeal.

This has convinced me that his writings and speeches are no mere official
functions, but a vital expression of his deep life of prayer, his constant relationship with God. There can only be love when one lives in that way.

Thus, they can only have the qualities St. James described in his letter:

“The wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.” (3,17)

There are still many things to be done, many people still do not understand him, but there had been many things that had been done, changed, corrected, improved, and many souls brought closer to God, thanks to Pope John Paul II.