top of page
Search

Pope St. John Paul II: A Catechist With God For Man

Writer's picture: Evan CollinsEvan Collins
Pope JPII

Pope St. John Paul II, whose birth name is Karol Wojtyla, was the reigning pontiff of the Catholic Church from October 1978 to April 2005. His life, in its entirety, is extraordinary. It is a testimony to the transformative and gratuitous power of the Lord’s redemptive suffering. He is one of the great figures of the twentieth century and will be remembered by Catholics and non-Catholics alike for his influence on the world. Yet, as Catholics, we are particularly blessed with an awareness the world lacks of this man. Unlike many of the people history tends to idolize, John Paul II has received the fate that secular fame only mirrors: canonization. As such the Church has acknowledged his life of holiness worthy of imitation and inspiration. Though canonization is not a declaration that every act he committed or word he uttered was infallible it is an amplification and promotion of the man’s love of Christ and the manner in which he lived his vocation. It just so happens this brilliant philosopher and theologian, a man with a profound spiritual life and particularly insightful political wherewithall, would become a successor of St. Peter, and, as such, be the primary teacher, shepherd and governor of the Catholic faithful. As such, he did not dissapoint. In fact, it is more obvious now then ever the sheer inspiration, far beyond genius, of not only his teachings but the providential circumstances of his governance (particularly in reference to the Second Vatican Council).  

 

It boggles the mind that two of the greatest thinkers in the Catholic intellectual tradition of the twentieth century not only knew each other but would become close collaborators and, as such, the veritable leaders who solidified the legacy of the Second Vatican Council in the immediate magisterium following its wake. With John Paul II as Pope and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith) they would steer between the Charybdis and Scylla of traditionalism and progressivism to preserve and propose the Catholic faith as it had authentically developed into their time. It wasn’t that these men who gave us the Catechism where some sort of Roman oracles of Delphi (forgetting the fact one was Polish and the other Bavarian), nor was it their obvious genius that provided them their navigatory power. Instead it was their pastoral aptitude and holiness that gave them the ability to be two of the greatest catechists and witnesses to the Catholic faith despite the visceral hatred they received from the two disastrous “flavors” of Catholicism that had arisen in opposition of the true spirit of the Second Vatican Council.  

 

Pope JPII

One aspect of John Paul II’s catechetical brilliance, besides the Catechism of the Catholic Church, was his transformation of the papal audience into a classroom of the riches of the faith. In 1963, his predecessor Pope St. Paul VI had begun what is now the expected tradition of the Wednesday General Audience. It is, on paper, a time of the pope meeting with pilgrims to give blessings, but what it became was a time for the pope to pastorally catechize the Church’s faithful using series, like old school sermons, that would build upon each other shedding light on the mysteries of Christ. The most famous of these is what we now call the Theology of the Body, but John Paul II and his successors Benedict XVI and Francis have given many such series that are some of the best places to teach the average faithful from. John Paul II gave us a brilliant catechesis on human love, but also on the Creed, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and one on the Psalms and Canticles which was finished by Pope Benedict XVI. This is not to mention the fantastic works John Paul II wrote on his own, or as pope, all with the goal of making the Gospel accessible to modern man. I personally love his play, The Jeweler’s Shop. His two favorite passages of Gaudium et Spes were paragraphs 22 and 24, particularly because they reveal that to be faithful to man is to be faithful to God and vice versa. The answer to humanity, all the trials we endure, mysteries we stand before, and cultures we build is Jesus Christ, and that isn’t a trite thing to say. It is the fullest thing to say about man. Jesus is our source and our end. He is the only solution to the seemingly unsolvable problem of our sins, personal and structural. In our faith there is not a destruction of what we are for the sake of God’s arbitrary will, instead, because of God’s providence and grace we can become so much more than what we would be even if we were not wounded by sin because the Trinity in the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ has opened their joy up to us to live within. That is our redemption and our destiny in Jesus Christ.  

 

So what is my encouragement on this day where John Paul II has been remembered at the altar? The easiest catechesis to get one’s hands on of John Paul II’s is Man and Woman He Created Them (the Theology of the Body), and it is also one of the most essential because seeing the unity of man and woman while preserving their differences is a trial and challenge to our world. But I would also encourage you to look up the ones on the Creed, to better understand what we profess together each Sunday and how it provides the contour and form of our lives. Get the volume on the area of our faith you want to grow in understanding and read it. Read it slowly and diligently. Let yourself be encouraged and challenged by this brilliant and holy man’s reflections. There are, of course, fantastic books on the life of John Paul II by George Wiegel or Jason Evert. I would recommend you to read them. His life is remarkable. For those with more theological or philosophical acumen there are excellent scholarly translations of his work being put out in English by Catholic University of America Press, but these are not for the faint of heart. John Paul II was truly an innovate and profound philosopher. That is why I would encourage you to read the audiences. Even great scholars benefit profoundly from their concise teaching. Read what this great teacher of the faith thought the Church needed to hear to be re-evangelized within and to go out and re-evangelize the world from. Then, once you get a taste, start reading the phenomenal, perhaps Doctor-of-the-Church quality, audiences of Benedict XVI and pray for his canonization while you do. I’m sure John Paul II would agree.  

 

But until then let us say: Pope St. John Paul II, pray for us! 

25 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comentários


bottom of page