Whether you are Roman Catholic or not; whether you understand the RC faith or not; whether you are RC and understand the authority of the papacy or not, I pray you learn more about the greatness of this man, Pope John Paul II.
JP2's existence in my lifetime, in the evolution of humanity, is ethereal and effervescent. He was destined for greatness, even if he had never become Pope. I truly believe that.
Before I was aware of my journey into my own conversion, I was in awe of this man. I was attracted to him in a special way. Before I knew the papacy's role in the church (in the world), I would see footage of him and wonder, 'why isn't he married? he's so handsome!', as if being handsome disqualified someone from cloistered life, from clergy. Silly me!
I learned he was an avid lover of theater. He was a joker. He loved youth, even in old age, he embraced youth. Most men would be crotchety, I imagine. I figured a celebate priest would not have the time, patience or interest in the world youth. JP2 did.
He also looked to women to nurture his own faith journey. And I get aggravated at the ignorance of people (I shouldn't but I do -- sorry) who say things like, 'Catholics don't respect women because they don't let women be priest, or don't allow their priests to marry'. Trust me, women have some VERY influential roles in the church, in faith life, in the formation of policy, etc. We are there. We make process happen. We nurture the church. We don't need the credit.
Anywhooooo, JP2 consulted women all the time. He surrounded himself with the wisdom of feminity. Especially poignant was his love of Mother Theresa, as well as the Blessed Mother.
His global travels, the apologies he made - one by one - for the wrongs of The Church throughout history, his ability to cross political and religious lines in order to create unity are unheard of. When have we ever seen or known a person in history to have this kind of love and respect of differences? JP2 loved.
He canonized more people (thousands!) during the tenure of his papacy that many Popes combined! He believed and SHOWED his beliefs that the common man is a saint (we all are). Sainthood is not predicated on martyrdom. Perhaps one could argue he stretched the bounds of the meaning of 'martyr' to include spiritual and emotional martyrdom; not just being literally executed in the name of The Church. When Catholics pray to saints, we are not 'making false idols'. We are invoking the spirit of an individual with whom we identify to intercede on our behalf much like Mary did at the Wedding at Cana when she appealed to Jesus to provide for the guests. Mary carried the request of the people to Jesus. He delivered. So, JP2 gives humanity more -- more people, more options, more causes -- more with which we can reach out and identify. He gives humanity back to us to use in our prayer life. Brilliant....
I love him. I love this zest-for-life, hopelessly romantic, extremely smart, ultimately humble servant. This Polish war survivor who has a real life....a story....a humanity behind his divinity (as do we all!). I love him. And I miss knowing he's no longer physically with us. I do however lay my weary head, spread out my hair, close my eyes, breathe deeply, stretch out my arms as if in a meadow, and soak in his legacy. I am thankful that he lived in my lifetime and that I appreciated his beauty before I was ever Catholic. I am sad that as a Catholic, I never got to see him in person. But, without his progressive thinking, and without his existence, this Earth (and The Church) would be far worse off than it is.
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