April 8 2005

I Googled up “Do not be afraid.” You know he began the papacy with that phrase, “Do not be afraid.” I Googled it up and in 0.05 seconds I had 470,000 hits. It’s a great world we live in. The first one was “The papacy of John Paul II”. That says something, doesn’t it? “Do not be afraid.”

We have been reflecting, the media has been reflecting, and us with them, on John Paul II universal appeal to the world. Of course the word “Universal” means “catholic”. John Paul II appealed to all people, all races, nationalities and under his reign, the church has grown greatly in the poor nations, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As I look at the millions of faces that have visited Rome in the last few days, it’s something like 4 million extra visitors. I just can’t imagine. Only the Italians could make that work. I guarantee everyone got his or her coffee and roll. They said it's a 36 hours drive from parts of Poland to Rome and the roads are filled with cars. I look at the faces and the flags that they wave, and it’s truly catholic, truly universal. The whole world. Even people who aren’t known to be that affectionate towards each other were next to each other showing their respect for this man. To see South Koreans next to Japanese, if you know their history, can be surprising. Yet, people in kimonos and people in hanbok, the traditional Korean dress, each waving their flags. There were even Irish and English getting along well. Germans and Poles. If you were born in 1920 when the Holy Father was, you’d probably say that there would never be a day when the Germans and the Poles would get along. Yet the homilist at the Pope’s funeral mass was Cardinal Ratzinger from Germany. How catholic that is? To see the coverage from Al-Jazeera and Israeli radio TV--talk about opposites. The two greatest opposites in the news media, Fox News and CNN, were both there. I didn’t know which one I was watching. They used to call CNN the Clinton News Network. Now it’s the Catholic News Network. That’s a coup. John Paul II appeals to all people and he appeals to all faiths.

I hope you remember, I think it was the Millennia year, 2000, when the Holy Father called a meeting in Assisi, that wonderful city of St. Francis and St. Claire. He had leaders of all the world’s religions there. They didn’t agree on doctrine or moral codes or beliefs but they could pray together. They could do that much and that’s what they did. There have been increased meetings of an ecumenical nature ever since that time. Only he could have done that. Only this Polish Pope could have pulled that off.

Interestingly, many of the commentators are Catholic, and of course you don’t know what religion a person is but this past week, they would say, “Well, I’m Catholic. I saw one commentator, who is not Catholic, get a little annoyed. He would say, “He’s my Pope too.” “He’s the only Pope.” “He’s my Pope.” They claimed him as “Our Pope.”

John Paul II was especially close to the Jewish community. If fifty years ago, anyone told you that a man born not far from Auschwitz would embrace his Jewish brothers and sisters, you would not have believed them.

We received a letter, you and me, from the Los Alamos Jewish Community a few days ago. It was signed by Bob Newell, the president of the Jewish Center.

This Pope appeals to peoples everywhere, of all faiths and all ages. People who were born, as some of you, in the 20’s and 30’s, remember the Nazis and fascism and communism. If anyone would have told you that some of those walls, the Iron Curtain, would come down, and to a significant degree because of our Holy Father, we wouldn’t have believed. I wouldn’t have believed the Iron Curtain would come down in 1985. We now know, and we’ll learn more, how much this Pontiff had to do with the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Gorbachev in an interview recently admitted it. Stalin said, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” Gorbachev answered, “More than I do.” Of course his divisions were truth and justice and goodness and forgiveness and peace and freedom.

So, the old remember him certainly as a member of, as Brokaw would say, “The greatest generation.” The qualities of this man were just incredible. The elderly loved him. He had that special romance with the young people. “Young people” he would say. He loved them. I would scratch my head as I watched him preach. He seldom preached without reading his notes. He would have a million kids out there and he would say, “Young people, it is important to dress modestly.” And they’d yell, “Yes.” And you know how they dress, but they listened to him. Even when he was a younger priest in Poland, the young people would call him Uncle because he’d always point to them like your uncle. He’d point to them and say, “I tell you, Uncle Karol tell you. He love you, but you pay attention to him.” He didn’t speak down to young people. He challenged them to live life at a higher level, and young people like to be challenged. He was greater than any rock star or hero that they knew. He called them the future and the hope of the church. They would chant for hours, “John Paul II, we love you.” I remember, I think it was in Denver, and he said, “John Paul II, he love you.”

His accomplishments were many. Of course, I’m not going to even try to attempt to recall them, but we did mention his forceful presence against Communism and against Fascism. I saw a documentary a year after he had visited Chili and Pinochet was gone and Pinochet actually called the Holy Father and said, “What should I do?” He said, “Resign. Resign. Resign.” He had softened him up by his visit and now was ready to help the Chileans live in some kind of freedom.

He had great accomplishments combining tradition with the modern era. He bridged that gap somehow, through media and through travel. He said, “Jesus didn’t come just for ancient people, he is also the savior of us modern men and women.”

He was devoted to the Holy Eucharist. He saw the Eucharist as constituent of the church. There is no church without the Eucharist. The church is the Eucharist. He taught clearly that the church is the body of Christ and therefore will always be holy. He said, “Yes Catholics and priests are sinners, but the holiness of Jesus is not overcome by sin and will always shine brightly in the church.” I think we’ve seen that. If you knew, if I knew twenty years ago, the scandal that would be visited upon the church by members of the clergy, I would have probably predicted that we’d have closed our doors by now, yet the church is growing. People recognize that in spite of the sinful members of the church, that the church is holy because it is the Body of Christ. It always will be. The Holy Father, as I mentioned Sunday, really brought us the beautiful and full understanding of God’s Divine Mercy. Quoting from St. Faustina, “The greater the sinner, the greater the right to God’s mercy.” So, no one’s excluded in this church of ours. The greater the sinner, the greater the rights you have to the fullness of God’s mercy.

He helped us to understand who Our Lady is, who Mary is. Of course, his motto was “Toto tuus Maria”, “All for you,” or "I’m all yours Mary.” He taught us about Mary, not by theological tract or intellectual argument, but by his relationship with her. You knew he loved her and you could sense it. He lost his own mother, Amelia, when he was nine years of age. I think Mary filled that gap from a very young age, this great Mother of God. I told you Sunday that he put Mary in the Piazza. “Mother of the Church” it says on that beautiful icon just beneath his window in St. Peter’s square. He helped many believers come much closer to Mary. Recently, a couple weeks ago in the paper, there was this thing about Protestants now praying the Rosary. He said about her, “Love Mary and she will lead you closer to Jesus.”

The Holy Father did great work with ecumenism. He worked for unity within Christianity without compromising values. That was one of his trademarks. He could bring people of diverse opinions together without compromising one Catholic dogma or doctrine or value. There was a time not too long ago at the beginning of the ecumenical movement after Vatican II, when there was this general idea that we should all just share the Eucharist if we are indeed all Christian. The Holy Father taught that the Eucharist is the end of the ecumenical process, not a means to the end. We cannot justifiably, in truth, share the Eucharist if we are not yet truly in communion. It cannot be a false symbol. He took a difficult teaching and he made a difficult teaching. Yet, he did more for ecumenism than any Pope ever, I would think.

He taught that human life was sacred. “Human life is sacred. No excuses, no exceptions.” He taught us more about human sexuality that we have not begun to appreciate. We will in the decades to come. Yet he gave us an understanding of human sexuality that is just now beginning to be understood. He taught about the theology of the body, the human body. He taught us about true love of self, love of others and love of God. He taught us that sexuality cannot be disconnected from love. Of course, that’s what the sexual revolution did. It disconnected the sexual act from love, from commitment. It made it a bodily function. It’s almost disgusting to think of or when we realize that our sexuality is sacred and holy and of God. He reminded us that love and sexuality have creative power. Put them together and they result in new life and that the love of man and woman cannot be disconnected from marriage.

We will miss this good man and this leader, but God will send us another pope. Listen to his thought on that. This is from the Hoy Father. The conclave convenes in the Sistine Chapel. Many of you have seen the Sistine Chapel. The painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling is magnificent. The Hoy Father wrote this about the next conclave. “The colors of the Sistine will then speak the word of the Lord. Tu es Petrus. You are Peter. Once heard by Simon, son of John. ‘To you I will give the keys to the kingdom.’ Those entrusted with the legacy of the keys gather here, letting themselves be enfolded by the Sistine’s colors, by the vision left to us by Michelangelo. So it was in August and again in October 1978 in the memorable year of the two conclaves and so it will be once more when the time comes after my death.”

In the end, John Paul II was all about Jesus Christ. In the beginning of his Pontificate, he had this beautiful staff, which I didn’t realize was made here in New Mexico, or by a New Mexican artist. He used to hold it up, but as he got older and frailer, it became him. You didn’t know where the cross ended and he began. There is a good picture by the altar of that. He was Christ at the end. He may have been Christ at the beginning of his Pontificate. He gave all credit to Jesus. He didn’t want us looking at him, but through him to Christ. He said, “Know that you are a simple servant even if millions shout your name and take your picture. Even if they call you the Hoy Father, remember that you still have to go to confession.”

How did he do it? How did he do that? It doesn’t seem that any one man could do what he did. Was he a master politician? Yes. Yet, politics is the art of compromise and he did not compromise much, ever. He was a traditionalist. He said truth doesn’t change, stay, or go out of style. I submit that I know how he did it. Karol Wojtyla died a long time ago. Maybe it was on his baptism on the 20th of June 1920. Maybe at his priestly ordination the 1st of November 1946. Maybe it was when he was installed as Pope on 22 October 1978. He died a long time ago. Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. “I have been crucified with Christ”, it says in Galatians, and Paul says, “Yet I live. No longer I, but Christ lives in me. Insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and has given Himself for me.”

Maybe it has been Christ that has been teaching us these past 26 years. Maybe we have been listening to Christ. Yes, I think Karol Wojtyla died a long time ago. May he rest in peace.