One more time, John Paul II has drawn the world together.
The man who, in life, was seen in the flesh by more people than any other one person in history; in death, brings us together again for the largest funeral in history.
And some do not understand why. Why did people stop their lives to board a plane, a train, a bus; travel hundreds or thousands of miles; stand in line for up to 24 hours; all to spend a few seconds in the presence of (strictly speaking) a dead body?
Because he was John Paul II. John Paul the Great.
One more time, Pat Buchanan has it all wrong. He was on TV the other night, rambling on about how the crowds this pope drew in life and in death prove that the mass of people are more conservative than we think -- that they were there because they agreed with John Paul on birth control, on female priests, on homosexuality.
Wrong again, PB. Your record continues unstained.
We loved John Paul no matter the issues on which we agreed or disagreed with him. We loved him because he didn't tell us what the latest polls said he should, or what would keep him in good favor with somebody or other, or what would make him a place in history.
He spoke the truth as he saw it. And he spoke that truth in love.
In a world that shrugs off genocide; where expediency rules; where the idea of a person's word being their bond is laughable; where horrors beyond the belief of our grandparents are routinely part of the evening news -- in this world, so barren of love and so hungry for it, he loved us. Mistakes he made, of course, and errors in judgement, as do all humans; but they were not errors of self-interest, or of the easy way out. And how many of us can say that?
The man who, in life, was seen in the flesh by more people than any other one person in history; in death, brings us together again for the largest funeral in history.
And some do not understand why. Why did people stop their lives to board a plane, a train, a bus; travel hundreds or thousands of miles; stand in line for up to 24 hours; all to spend a few seconds in the presence of (strictly speaking) a dead body?
Because he was John Paul II. John Paul the Great.
One more time, Pat Buchanan has it all wrong. He was on TV the other night, rambling on about how the crowds this pope drew in life and in death prove that the mass of people are more conservative than we think -- that they were there because they agreed with John Paul on birth control, on female priests, on homosexuality.
Wrong again, PB. Your record continues unstained.
We loved John Paul no matter the issues on which we agreed or disagreed with him. We loved him because he didn't tell us what the latest polls said he should, or what would keep him in good favor with somebody or other, or what would make him a place in history.
He spoke the truth as he saw it. And he spoke that truth in love.
In a world that shrugs off genocide; where expediency rules; where the idea of a person's word being their bond is laughable; where horrors beyond the belief of our grandparents are routinely part of the evening news -- in this world, so barren of love and so hungry for it, he loved us. Mistakes he made, of course, and errors in judgement, as do all humans; but they were not errors of self-interest, or of the easy way out. And how many of us can say that?
Here is what the Pat Buchanans of the world do not, will not, cannot understand: love speaks louder than any doctrine, than any political philosophy, than any pundit's opinion. Love speaks to love, heart speaks to heart, and in so speaking, sweeps away all else.
And now that Love that is the underpinning of the universes, has called a bit of its own back to Itself. And burns the brighter for it.
One more time: John Paul Two, we love you.
Ora pro nobis.
1 comment:
Beautiful.
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