John Paul II’s life as revealed in this book was
formed from the very beginning in the school of the Cross. He said that
suffering in whichever way or form it is presented, only reaches its most
profound fecundity in the light of the Cross of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. He
came to know and understand suffering in the school of the Pierced Hearts, as
he was always close to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. He knew profoundly the
pain of losing his loved ones, his friends, his mentors, his brother
seminarians. He knew the effects of a lack of liberty, of the denigration of
human dignity, of persecutions, war, injustice, loneliness, and sickness. He
knew the martyrdom of the people of God, the suffering that totalitarian systems
cause - systems without the presence of God. All of Saint John Paul's privations
notwithstanding, his closest friends claimed that he lived what he preached
more consistently than most of us.[2] Despite the many
sufferings that John Paul II went through and endured throughout the course of
his life, because of the maternal mediation and filial union with the heart of
Mary, he never ran away from the Cross; rather he made it a path, his most
efficacious ‘resource’ to transform himself into another Christ, to be that
luminous light to the world in these moments of darkness. He was able to communicate that only love is
capable of transforming suffering in a fecund fountain of grace.
John Paul II’s pontificate was an immense gift for the
life of the church, and His entire mission was to be a great witness of the
power and fecundity of love. But, in a
very particular way, his life was a witness of the immense gift of the maternal
Heart of Mary. He was a great witness of the potency of being all Mary’s. Ever
since he was a young man he clearly understood that the Heart of Mary was par excellence the home and school for
forming the human heart in the way of heroic love and of the holiness expressed
in the daily choices of love. By his unconditional Totus Tuus to the Heart of Mary, John Paul II showed humanity that
there is no greater gift than to allow our Blessed Mother to form us, her
children, through her maternal and immaculate hands into ardent witnesses of
the power and fecundity of love, revealed to us by the mysteries of the life of
Jesus Christ our Savior. [3]
His main concerns of the church during his pontificate
were the threat to the human person from abortion, euthanasia, eugenics,
embryonic and genetic research; a host of dangers to the family; the great
crises of the spirit of individualism, indifferences, secularism, and relativism;
and the decline of Christian morality which we are all facing in this time in
history. That is why he encouraged us all through his many writings, speeches,
homilies, but most of all through the witness of his life, to seek sincerely
the heart of Christ through the maternal heart of Mary, and to allow ourselves
to sit in the school of her heart so that we may truly come to comprehend,
together with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, of God’s infinite love; that we may be filled up with all the fullness
of God.[4]
The world has an urgent need of faith, hope and
charity, especially in this difficult phase in the history of the church and of
mankind in which we are living. Pope John Paul II throughout his petrine
ministry called humanity to an encounter with Christ, and he truly believed
that nobody but Mary, the Mother of God can bring us all into the divine and
human dimension of the mystery of His love.
Pope John Paul II saw the role of the saints as an essential part of the
Church’s universal call to holiness - always in line with his overall view that
holiness is open to and should be pursued by every Christian. He did not regard
sainthood as the domain of an elitist, special group of individuals who are
separated from the people of God. Nonetheless, there is a unique function that
the canonized saint serves for ordinary Christians in their quest to become
holy. The saint is the exemplar of holiness, who has been touched by divine
grace, and on this account can model the life of holiness for others.[5]
I truly recommend this book because it brings forth
the inspiring and exemplary life of one of the greatest saints in the history
of the Church. I believe we have much to learn about John Paul II as he so
arduously worked in order to elevate the dignity of the human person unto a
higher level as sons and daughters of God. He witnessed and explained to the
world how “man cannot live without the love of God, thus he remains a being
incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to
him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience love and makes it
his own, if he doesn’t participate intimately in it.”[6] It is only by understating
love, and contemplating the life and mystery of Jesus Christ that man finds
again his greatest dignity and value that truly belongs to human life. For “God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Saint John Paul II’s life,
pontificate and magisterium has been a great gift to all Christians, a gift
that must be treasured, must be enfleshed and lived so as to build a new
civilization of love and life in the Heart of the Church and in the Heart of
the World.
[1] Los Angeles Times
Book Review
[2] Volf, Miroslav.
"Love Affair." Christian
Century, vol. 122, no. 20, 04 Oct. 2005, p. 33. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=18430266&authtype=cookie,cpid&custid=s9245834&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
[3] Galindo, Mother
Adela, Foundress SCTJM “We are called to
be living legacy of the person, mission and Magisterium of Saint John Paul II”
(March 7, 2009)
[4] Senior, Donald, John J. Collins, and Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan. "Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians 3:18."
The Catholic Study Bible: The New American Bible. New York, NY, United States
of America: Oxford UP, 2016. N. pag. Print.
[5] Zunic, Nikolaj. "Models of Holiness."
["Heythrop Journal: A Bimonthly Review of Philosophy and Theology"].
Heythrop Journal: A Bimonthly Review of Philosophy and Theology, vol. 55, no.
2, 01 Mar. 2014, pp. 256-269. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pif&AN=PHL2220356&authtype=cookie,cpid&custid=s9245834&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Product Details
- ISBN: 9780060732035
- ISBN 10: 0060732032
- Imprint: Harper Perennial
- Pages: 1056
- List Price: 24.99 USD
- BISAC1: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General
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