THE PERSONAL TOUCH

WORDS Jessica Gadd

After the Farewell Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral people lingered, swapping stories about how they will remember Pope John Paul II, and how he touched them.

There was a sense of comfort in the telling and the hearing, a human exchange that gave personal meaning to an occurrence that is far removed in terms of distance. As I spoke to people about Pope John Paul II, it was his ability to touch people that stood out.

People who had the opportunity to meet him in person spoke about how the experience changed their lives, while those who met him more than once noted his amazing memory for previous encounters. People who had been addressed by him as part of a crowd felt as though his words were spoken just to them.

His gift for making each person feel valued and loved extended to those who had not been in his presence physically. This ability to be present to everyone helped him build his world-wide flock. Modern technology and advancements may have helped John Paul II to be seen by billions of people around the world, but it was his simple message of love and service that was instrumental in cultivating his global parish.

Many young people spoke of the stability the Pope offered. Despite all the pressure of the modern world, he was resolute in his moral stand and did not bend to the whims of popular opinion. Whether or not they agreed with some of the church’s teachings, many young Catholics appreciated the fact that the church offered guidelines.

For young people of my generation, the Pope has been one of the few constants in an ever-changing world. I suspect for some, the lack of security in their homes, where so many marriages are broken, also added to the Pope’s appeal. He was always there, and he always radiated love.

He was also approachable, and willing to listen to what young people had to say. In some parishes young people struggle to find a voice because older parishioners don’t want to let go or allow others to have a say in how things are done.

I read recently that young people are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today–if somebody invites them to take part. John Paul II understood this and invited young people to be active in their faith. This was especially evident in Pope John Paul II’s initiative, World Youth Days, which over the years have been attended by millions of young people.

People of other faiths respected Pope John Paul II because his key message, like that of Jesus, was of compassion for the oppressed and down-trodden. He was a humanitarian who showed us how to see the world with eyes of love. John Paul was able to show us how to live our own lives with compassion because he strove to live as Jesus taught us, as a humble servant of God. His devotion to a life of service inspired the love of millions of followers.

A life lived in love, ends in love. And one of the most-loved people on earth is now embraced by the purest love of all, God’s.

Farewell John Paul II. May the prayers of your flock journey with you as you are enfolded in God’s final embrace.

Jessica Gadd is the editor of Australian Catholics magazine.

A RADICAL FAITH

WORDS Andrew Hamilton sj

Photo taken by Peter Casamento at the Hearts on Fire Congress concluding Mass, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne.

Death brings us all back to earth. So Pope John Paul II has died and has left his responsibilities to others. Christians believe that the God who loved him as Karol has now welcomed him to share Christ’s life. For them nothing that the Pope did is more important than his adamantine faith in this Good News. They will find an adequate response to his death in prayer and gratitude.

Fallen human beings, however, look for the epithets, sound bites, places and events that sum up a life and a papacy. Some search in Poland. I find it in Assisi, the town to which in 1986 he invited leaders of the world religions to join him in praying for world peace.

As more generally with Pope John Paul II, what he did in Assisi was more important than what he said. He was a master of the symbolic gesture. We need to think only of his practice of kissing the earth as he arrived in each land he visited, and of his meeting with his would-be assassin. The gestures spoke more powerfully than any explanation could.

The gesture at Assisi gave shape to two major emphases of the Second Vatican Council. The council committed the Catholic Church to share the desire of ordinary human beings for peace and a decent life, and to reach out affectionately to the members of other churches and religions. John Paul II found many new gestures: he was the first pope to preach in a Lutheran church, the first pope in recorded memory to visit a synagogue, the first pope to enter a mosque, and almost certainly the first pope to kiss the Koran.

But what he did at Assisi was different because it was uncontrolled. There the Pope was seen as one of many religious leaders. They were invited to pray in their own way in Catholic churches of the city. The sight of the Pope in Assisi to pray as one Christian among other Christians, as one theist among other theists, disturbed many Christians both within and without the Catholic Church. Its consequences are vast and have yet to be articulated. But he was unperturbed.

He chose the town of Assisi deliberately. He wished to associate the event with St Francis of Assisi, on whose life he often reflected. Francis had gone unarmed to the Muslim king in Syria at a time when the dominant form of Christian contact with Islam was at the point of a sword. The life and simplicity of Francis, too, appealed beyond Catholic and Christian boundaries to people of many faiths and none.

But Francis also embodied the way in which the Pope believed that he himself was called to engage with the world. At a time when the Church was widely regarded as out of touch both with the Gospel and with peoples’ lives, Francis offered a way of reconnection that was wild and beyond rational planning. He offered poverty–selling everything, poor living, celebration of God’s creation, and encouragement in popular language to live the Gospel. Francis’ gesture was new and unpredictable–a circuit-breaker. It was a model for the meeting at Assisi.

But as described by the Pope, Francis’ radical gesture comes out of a radical faith. At its heart was a deep following of Jesus Christ and acceptance of his path of suffering. It also rested on solidarity with the Catholic Church and the Pope. His gesture was a gift to the Church, where it could be radical and powerful in its effects.

Underlying John Paul’s invitation to Assisi was the same radical commitment to share the passion of Christ, to live within the Church, and to reach confidently out beyond the predictable and safe. Their welding together marked his whole papacy.

For John Paul, popes are the ones providentially appointed to make such gestures. For others, the Spirit breathes in the Church more eclectically. But, one would hope, no less radically.

Andrew Hamilton sj is the publisher of Australian Catholics, Eureka Street and Madonna magazines.

This article featured in the May issue of Eureka Street magazine.

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