Suffice it to say, at least in my humble opinion, that the greatest man of our times passed away this weekend. While we all have been bombarded with non-stop news coverage since last week of the Pope’s failing health, the sentiment is not diminished at all. Over-saturated media be damned.
See, I’m not one for hero worship. I dreaded college applications for their “if you could have dinner with three persons, dead or alive, who would it be?” questions…for I look to not many people for this answer. Pope John Paul II, however, has always held a special place in my heart…and yet I don’t know why.
For the majority of my life, this Pope has been nothing but a title to me. I never really studied him or paid much attention to his world travels as they graced the newspapers or headline news broadcasts. He was just the Pope. Yet somehow, I always felt a strong affinity towards him. I projected the visage of my grandfather on him, though appropriately so. His patient, kind yet incredibly strong demeanor put the two patriarchal figures in my life close together.
Over the past few years though, I’ve begun to read more about this Slavic man…as a poet, a playwright, a linguist, a university professor and as the man who has singlehandedly done more for my religion than anyone in history. For those older generations that think he was too outdated, I fear they miss how much of a media genius he was. I think we all missed how incredibly important he was. I’m slowly starting to realize all of this through my research, but of course it is a day late and a euro short. I would not be surprised if it takes another thirty years for us to even begin to realize what gifts this man bestowed upon us.
My words do nothing to express the loss, despair and hopelessness that I now have. My Church has lost it’s strongest member, it’s greatest visionary and it’s most faithful servant. I can only pray that the next Pope fills at least half of the role that Karol Wojtyla did so faithfully for the past 26 years.
He was the true pilgrim of love, of truth and of hope.
Link: QTVR of the mourners in St. Peter’s Square in Rome
