To the Band of Brothers: October 24, 2022
On Saturday, the Church celebrated the feast day of a modern-day saint. It’s funny because when I think of saints, I think of those men and women from a long time ago who lived these holy and extraordinary lives. So long ago, I only have access to them through books that I read or anecdotes I hear in homilies or read about in articles. Because they belonged to a time centuries ago, I have to imagine their context because it is not my own. I have to imagine their reality that is so different from mine.
But Saturday’s saint is so modern we don’t have to imagine his context or reality because it is pretty much the context and reality we live in today. He died in 2005 after 27 years of service to the Church as Pope. I know you can’t, but I remember clearly his election to the papacy, watching the white smoke emerge from the roof of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The reason this election was so anticipated was because 1978 was the year of the three Popes. Pope Paul VI died in August of that year, John Paul I was elected, then quickly died in September, and now it was the new guy, and the month was October.
I remember watching on television in my classroom at St. Timothy as Cardinal Pericle Felici, the senior Cardinal Deacon at the time, walked out onto the balcony at St. Peter’s Square and pronounced, “Habemus papam,” the traditional Latin phrase that declares, “We have a pope!” As we held our breath, he continued, “The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Karol Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Wojtyla. Who the name John Paul.” It was at that moment John Paul II walked out and began to greet everyone and the crowds bellowed and cheered.
I will confess I had no idea who he was. I had never heard of him. When they informed me that he was not Italian, I was stunned. What?! A non-Italian Pope?! That was amazing. But, when they told us he was Polish, I was truly shocked. Polish? The only thing I knew about Poland was it belonged to the communist bloc of the Soviet Union and a few (actually more than a few) funny Polish jokes. I figured the Holy Spirit must have been wanting to play some kind of joke on the Church.
Boy, was I wrong!
The Holy Spirit was so in tune with the reality of the world and the Catholic Church, that He decided to blow everybody away with the election of Karol Wojtyla. This was a man who understood suffering at the hands of fascism and communism because he had lived them both. He was young, charismatic, very intelligent, a great public speaker, and a great writer. He was exactly what the world needed, exactly what the Church needed, and, I can tell you unequivocally, exactly what I needed.
In his homily for the inauguration of his papacy, Pope John Paul II spoke in St. Peter’s Square in front of millions of people and clamored in a loud voice, “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power… Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, and the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man.’ He alone knows it.”
It stirred the masses. He went on to preach those very words of “Do not be afraid” to crowds in Poland in 1979 surrounded by members of the communist party and then again in Cuba in 1998 to millions of people in the middle of the Plaza de la Revolución. In 1987, after recently graduating from Belen, I went with a large group of my classmates to Tamiami Park to be part of the Mass he celebrated when he came to our hometown. I clearly remember how excited we were, and how he helped change my life and the lives of so many people.
Pope St. John Paul II was an extraordinary man. He set a whole new standard for the papacy and future popes will always be measured to a certain extent by his great successes. His spirit is still very much alive and I know my vocation to the priesthood has a lot to do with him. It is for this very reason that on Saturday, I gave particular thanks to God for allowing me to spend so much time as a member of His Holy Church during the papacy of this holy man.
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba, by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit is situated on a 34-acre site in western Dade County, just minutes away from downtown Miami.