{"id":3530,"date":"2011-04-30T21:45:44","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T01:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=3530"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:27:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:27:36","slug":"homily-for-may-1-2011-2nd-sunday-of-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/homily-for-may-1-2011-2nd-sunday-of-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily for May 1, 2011: 2nd Sunday of Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

With all the attention focused on the royal wedding the last few days, it would be easy to overlook another global event this weekend: the beatification of Pope John Paul.<\/p>\n

I wanted to spend a little time this morning talking about him \u2013 and, in particular, about a key part of his life that I think relates to this Sunday\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Shortly after Karol Wojtyla was elected, a journalist asked someone in Rome what he thought of this new pope \u2014 the first in over 400 years who was not Italian.<\/p>\n

And the observer responded: \u201cWell, they didn\u2019t elect a man from Rome. Instead, they elected a man from Galilee.\u201d<\/p>\n

To me, that now sounds prophetic, and for one simple reason: this man from Poland, the vicar of Christ on earth, so often lived his life in imitation of Christ.<\/p>\n

To begin with, like the resurrected Christ, he made these words his first message to the world: \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d\u00a0 And he lived his own life as a fearless example of that.\u00a0 He had been a laborer, an outdoorsman, a writer and poet.\u00a0 But then he became something else: a seminarian, studying for the priesthood in a country where doing that could cost you your life.\u00a0\u00a0 When he told the world, \u201cDo not be afraid,\u201d he spoke with the authentic voice of a man who knew what that meant, who knew what it was to put his life on the line again and again, and who put everything in the hands of God.<\/p>\n

That, too, was in imitation of Christ.<\/p>\n

We see that again and again.\u00a0 There was the forgiveness he offered to the man who tried to assassinate him \u2013 an act of mercy that made headlines around the world and echoed Christ\u2019s own forgiveness of those who put him to death.\u00a0 Small wonder that John Paul is being beatified today, on the feast dedicated to Divine Mercy, a feast connected intimately, too, with a beloved saint of Poland, St. Faustina.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, like Christ, John Paul took the gospel to anyone and everyone.\u00a0 While Jesus went searching for disciples on the seashore of his homeland, Pope John Paul went to more distant shores, traveling more than a million miles to 149 countries.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an exaggeration to call his papacy epic \u2013 it\u2019s one reason why many call him today John Paul the Great.\u00a0 I was struck by this simple fact:\u00a0 John Paul\u2019s 27-year papacy was almost as long as Christ\u2019s entire earthly life.<\/p>\n

But it was in the pope\u2019s final years, I think, that his imitation of Christ was most profound \u2013 and, for our time, most meaningful.<\/p>\n

John Paul was a vigorous and active 58 when he became pope.\u00a0 But across two decades, his health began to fail, and the world watched as he grew weaker and weaker.\u00a0 In time, slowed by disease, his steps became halting and difficult.\u00a0 Finally, he couldn\u2019t walk at all. The last weeks of his life he couldn\u2019t even speak.\u00a0 Cameras caught him struggling to offer a blessing from his balcony.\u00a0 This man whose speeches had inspired millions, and whose homilies had hastened the fall of communism, couldn\u2019t utter a word.<\/p>\n

Most public figures would try to hide that part of their lives.<\/p>\n

Pope John Paul didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s gospel, the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples and showed them his wounds.\u00a0 He said, in effect, I am one of you.\u00a0 I have known what it is to suffer, and bleed, and die.\u00a0 I have felt what it is to be human.\u00a0 I bear the scars.<\/p>\n

In the same way, Pope John Paul showed us his weakness.\u00a0 His humanity.\u00a0 His challenges.\u00a0 His failings.\u00a0\u00a0 He bore witness to the struggles we all have against pain and hardship, against sickness and death.<\/p>\n

In the ultimate imitation of Christ, he showed us his wounds.<\/p>\n

And he did it, like Christ, so that we might believe \u2013 that we might believe that God\u2019s work continues in us, even in our frailty and imperfection.<\/p>\n

In a time when so many in our culture see human life as dispensable \u2013 when the small, the weak, the frail are considered disposable \u2013 John Paul\u2019s long goodbye stands as a powerful testament.\u00a0 It says: \u201cAll life has meaning.\u00a0 Even when it is weak.\u00a0 Especially<\/em>, when it is weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it repeated his continuing theme: do not be afraid.<\/p>\n

Do not be afraid of suffering, or of illness.<\/p>\n

And: do not be afraid of death.<\/p>\n

The other day, Peggy Noonan wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal and reflected on one galvanizing moment in John Paul\u2019s life, his first visit to Poland in 1979.\u00a0 She recalled his sermon, when he wondered: why had God lifted a Pole to the papacy?\u00a0 And John Paul answered his own question: Perhaps because Poland is \u201cthe land of a particularly responsible witness,\u201d a witness to many of the sufferings of our age.<\/p>\n

That, I think, became John Paul\u2019s witness, too.<\/p>\n

To a lot of people, he will be remembered as our pilgrim pope, the man who traveled the world to build bridges, reaching out to those in Africa, Asia, India and the Americas, trying to craft a New Evangelization, using all the modern tools at his disposal.\u00a0 He touched hundreds of millions by his presence, by his courage, by his compassion.\u00a0 His powerful writings on sexuality and human dignity will be studied for generations.\u00a0 Certainly, scholars and historians will be debating his legacy \u2014 both positive and negative \u2014 for generations.<\/p>\n

But, on this particular Sunday, let\u2019s also remember something else.<\/p>\n

Again and again, this pope lived a life in imitation of Christ.<\/p>\n

Even to the end.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t flinch from reminding the world that all life has dignity and sanctity.\u00a0\u00a0 And he did it by showing the world his wounds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one reason \u2014 among many \u2014 why today we call this extraordinary man\u2026 \u201cblessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s why we might also look to his life as an example, praying that it may bring us to a closer imitation of Christ in our own<\/em> lives \u2013 on all our journeys, through all our hardships, all our sufferings.<\/p>\n

Blessed John Paul, pray for us.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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