Richard Ho Lung
JOHN PAUL II has been the most magnificent and magnetic world figure over the past hundred years. He dared to confront the evils of communism as well as liberal capitalism, an attempt to assassinate him was made and he survived it, he visited as a true pastor most of the countries in which the Catholic Church exists, he emphasised justice and righteousness more than any world leader in his time, he wrote extraordinary number of volumes in an attempt to address modern religious and spiritual questions.
His qualities were that of the holiest and humblest of men, yet he knew a wide range of subjects, including literature, philosophy, theology, and world religions. He was the most warm of human persons. One of his closest friends was the saintly Mother Teresa who captured the imagination of the world with her compassion for the poor.
He generated humour, intelligence, simplicity and a great human compassion.
He had this wonderful ability of paying attention to an individual completely while retaining a universal apostolic love for everyone. He visited his would-be assassin in prison and forgave him; he welcomed sinners, churchmen, laymen, and those outside the Catholic Church. He fearlessly spoke to statesmen and stateswomen all over the world. Often he would welcome children, the aged and crippled, the forgotten and alienated whenever he went on his pastoral trips John Paul's missionary journeys made him the most travelled Pope in the history of the Catholic Church.
PROMOTED LIFE
John Paul II has been heroic throughout the 26 years of his papacy.
In an age when the culture of death has promoted abortion, war, euthanasia, and artificial birth control, the Pope promoted life from the beginning to the end.
More than 20 years ago, after recovering from the pistol shot that almost took his life in front of St. Peter's, John Paul II declared that suffering, as such, is one of the most powerful messages of Christianity. "Human suffering evokes compassion," he wrote in 1984, "it also evokes respect and in its own way, it intimidates." In 1996, as age and infirmity began to incapacitate John Paul II he told his followers he had heard God and was about to change the way he led the church. "I must lead her with suffering," he said. "The pope must suffer so that every family and the world see that there is, I would say, a higher gospel: the gospel of suffering, with which one prepares for the future."
EVERLASTING LIFE
As happens with Christ, the most powerful and memorable event of His life was His condemnation, judgment, via cruces, crucifixion, and death which gives great meaning to the resurrection, the message not only of life but everlasting life for all who come to him, live and labour in him, suffer and die with him for such there is everlasting life.
I remember the 1993 visit of John Paul II. I remember him in the ghettos, visiting the Mother Teresa Sisters.
I remember him greeting the Brothers and myself warmly and us dancing before him. I remember him at the National Stadium and his humble greetings and blessing of our homeless and destitute. I walked on cloud nine with him when he asked that I come to the altar in the Holy Trinity Cathedral and he grasped my hand warmly like a father and walked with me hand in hand to the front of the sanctuary.
The Missionaries of the Poor was elevated in his pontificate to the status of a Religion of Diocesan Right under Archbishop Samuel Carter. I recall when he walked with the crowds in the South end. A Jamaican woman of enormous size ran up to him and hugged him and cried out "I'll never bathe again."
There was a twinkle in his eyes; everyone was surprised that John Paul II refused the shackles of the security forces that surrounded him and embraced this poor ghetto woman. But he is a breaker of barriers. I wonder if there will be another like him.
"We love John Paul II, Long life! Long life!" That we can expect since he will surely leave this earth and enter yet another life this time, for all eternity.
Father Ho Lung is founder and leader of the Missionaries of the Poor.
