John Paul II's Challenge Lives On

This post on my blog is well overdue. Since I have been traveling nearly the past 3 weeks, I have not had the opportunity to sit down and write something reflective on my thoughts. But, while I was home in Florida visiting my family, I sat around the television on Saturday, April 2, and watched as the scenes from Rome unfolded, as thousands gathered to pray with the ailing Pope John Paul II as he passed away from this world and moved on to be with the angels and saints in Heavan with our Lord.

During the first nine months of my life here on earth in 1978, I lived under the reign of three different Papacies. However, I never really knew the first two Popes. Both Paul VI and John Paul I died that year. But, when Karol Wojtyla, a Cardinal from Poland was surprisingly selected as Pope – the first non-Italian Pope in nearly half a millennium – it was a selection that shocked the world.

I would never know of this “shock,” but I and billions of others around the world, would never forget his name and the impact he had on our world. He helped bring down communism, not by advocating capitalism, but instead by going to the heart of the beast, and advocating religious liberty. Communism works under a doctrine of atheism, where the state replaces God as the benefactor of all. Pope John Paul II, and even President Ronald Reagan (who shared a deep relationship with the Pope), both understood that religious liberty was the key to helping people living in communist countries to overthrow the oppressive regimes that dictated their lives.

Freedom of religion is in fact a freedom. There are very few, if any, freedoms in communist countries. The totalitarian state always tries to monopolize all the power (and usually succeeds), be it economic, political, or spiritual. The former USSR was not only an avowedly “atheist” state, but also persecuted, imprisoned and killed anyone who professed a faith – any faith. What is little known, but becoming more known now, is how much John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and others, worked towards getting Moscow to allow religious liberty throughout the Soviet Empire. The moral leaders of our times deeply understood that if people had religion, any religion, they would each realize they had a soul. And, no matter how totalitarian a government can be, they cannot have power over a person’s soul, for that is truly and uniquely their own.

John Paul II also did much to speak to the young people of our generation. For more on this, I would advise you to consult this article, written by a Methodist student at Berry College in Georgia.

Though his teachings and leadership was important to Catholics like myself, John Paul II also transcended the Catholic faith, reached out to all people, and was committed to ending the moral relativism so prominent in our world – a relativism that has been with the modern world for quite some time.

Last summer, my brother and I went on a month-long trip to Europe, most of which was spent in Italy, and five days of which were spent in Rome. We visited the Vatican museum and St. Peter’s Basilica, but we also were able to attend one of the weekly blessings the Pope usually held on Wednesdays in St. Peter’s Square. With thousands of other, very jubilant people, we received a blessing from the Pope and we saw him from less than 100 feet away as he rode by in an open vehicle, before he was propped up on the stage. I will never forget the experience. And, my picture below captivated the moment of seeing before my eyes the successor of St. Peter.

When I left the Vatican, I wanted to take a momento and one item I bought was an 8x10 sheet with the Pope’s photo on it, as well as a quote of his blessing to all of us. I had it framed and ever since I returned, I put it on the wall in my living room in my apartment to remind me of our Holy Father's call to our generation.

It reads: “Do Not Be Afraid! Open the doors to Christ. God works in the concrete and personal affairs of each one of us. Don’t let the time that the Lord gives you run on as if everything were due to chance. With this expression of my hope, I send you all, from the depths of my heart, my blessing.”

It truly is a blessing that we can each relate to. After all the doctrines, the catechism, the way we each practice our own faiths, we often do “let the time that the Lord gives” us run on, whether it be by chance or the fact that we each become consumed with the things of this world, perhaps most simply the busyness of our lives. Once we truly “open the doors to Christ,” everything truly becomes new again. Some of us are reluctant to open those doors – simply open them. We each need to go to the Bible, go to the Gospel, and read what Jesus instructed us to do. For some, we have read these stories many times – but they are worth re-reading, every day if possible. For others, these stories are only vaguely known or known very little of. With the spirit of John Paul II, I challenge my readers and myself, to continue to “open the doors”.

Those doors are doors to our hearts, our minds, and our soul. John Paul II encouraged and succeeded at getting communist dictators to allow the people of their countries to “open the doors”. Once the doors were opened, the walls were knocked down and liberty flourished. On a personal level, we can each search deeper and continue to open the doors. The hardest part is the first step of opening those doors. So, I challenge you to open them. In the words of John Paul II, “Do Not Be Afraid!”