As I listen to the efforts for peace in Israel and Vice President J.D. Vance speak, he reminds us that Jerusalem is the City of Shalom, of peace, and for Christians, of Peace through the suffering and death of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In all the negotiations that are wholeheartedly forging at least the beginnings of such a peace, I hold the image of a deep booming voice and extended arm of one rooting for any such program: “Fear not!” “Follow Christ.”
The third-longest-reigning pope, John Paul II offered these short mottos as clarion calls for all, including the workings of multi-national peacemaking. He would inject those calls were he alive today, and both represent the man and the saint and the messenger of Christ that he was for well beyond the Catholic world. The most travelled pope ever, Karol Wojtyla brought the scars of a Nazi-damaged and Soviet- ravaged homeland, first in mind and memory strengthened by those verbal pillars bolstering him through it all; and then physically bearing the Communist-intrigued bullet which he expressed gratefully to the mother of God who saved him. He returned and transformed evil to the crown of Our Lady of Fatima a year later on the same feast day. It was a signaled way this seasoned carrier of wounded memory and physical attack turned the bullet of evil into the praise of God and His Mother.
Among his writings, sermons, exhortations, encyclicals, immense gatherings of World Youth Days, and countless visits to his flock all around the world, typically begun by kissing the soil of the country visited and ending with an exhortation and encouragement – it was these two phrases – “Be not afraid!” and “Follow Christ” that resonated through and through. That was the basis for working through Communist resistance in Nowa Huta: Yes, we WILL build the church despite the authorities arriving with ominous military machinery. And yes, we will stand up to the world in many quarters that are crafting a “culture of death” on both the dying, the duped and the preborn innocent.
From earliest days, even in seminary, he gathered with youth and then as priest he meshed with them and led between kayak and kerygma – breaking bread and transforming to Bread in treks through the Tatras and other homeland adventures. He raised those local treks and hikes to the world-wide celebrations of millions of youth – in Denver, Ireland, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Manilla, Paris, Toronto. He was the Pope of Youth. And he delivered the Gospel of Life in terms that were clear, unambiguous and down to earth (even though he was in flight hundreds of times!). The undercurrent, the spirit of strength: Fear not, Follow Christ. His Redemptor hominis, his first major encyclical, defined the Lord’s earthly mission as savior of the world, which fleshed out John Paul’s missionary vision and travels. Christ is indeed the Redeemer of mankind, not just “believers.”
Yet as teacher of the meaning of Life, his three central encyclicals stand as a triptych of magisterial teaching as well as head-on responses to the challenges of empiricism, relativism and Malthusian population control, that last one an example of undue fear and a smattering of the other two, unprovable and far from reality. In order to draw the Gospel of Jesus Christ as given in the Scriptures to a secularized society, whether East or West, minds need to grasp the reality of attaining truth. That was Veritatis splendor (1993), showing not only is truth attainable but most meaningful and anchored down – the antidote to rampant relativism that disrupts the order in the world.
Then the supposed disjointing of faith and reason was entertained in the third of the three, Fides et ratio (1998), whereby what we believe is not in opposition to true reason and true science empirically demonstrates. These were the tools that strengthened the outlay of the second encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life (1995).
This latter was not just about the transmission of life as St. Paul VI demonstrated deftly and succinctly in Humane vitae (1968) but a full-throttled compendium of human life as flowing from “image and likeness of God” in which we were created. In that document, later Americanized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Living the Gospel of Life,” the pontiff shows that legitimate authority for all local and national laws comes from God, and must be respective of that (“Follow Christ” – even in legislation, law and cultural efforts to defend life).
He speaks (#99) lovingly as a protective universal shepherd to mothers who have had abortions, stating: “The wound in your heart may not have healed [from the conscience and past abortion] … but do not give into discouragement and do not lose hope… If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and peace in the sacrament of reconciliation… that nothing is definitively lost and you will be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord.”
Even there – “Be not afraid” and “Follow Christ” are the instinctual and well-lived spiritual pillars that translate into everything this recently canonized St. John Paul has left as a towering legacy to posterity. May we grab onto the strength of endless possibilities when we release our fears and foibles and follow the Lord Who has conquered through His Calvary and Resurrection.
“Follow Christ.”
For prayers and more information about St. Pope John Paul, go PrayerCampaign.org/JohnPaul
Fr. Denis Wilde, OSA, Ph.D., is a full-time pastoral associate for Priests for Life. A concert pianist, he was formerly an associate professor of music at Villanova University.
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