Second Sunday of Easter
John 20, 19-31
Today we celebrate not only the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday but we also celebrate the canonisation of two outstanding popes of the last century. Today Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be known as Saints Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.
These two men will be acknowledged saints not because they are popes but because they have shown great holiness that we may be inspired to follow them too.
Saint Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was fourth of fourteen children on the 25 November 1881 in a relatively poor family. He was ordained priest on the 10 August 1904 and was consecrated bishop 19 March 1925. His life as a bishop was to be in service in various countries like as an Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria and Greece and an Apostolic Nuncio to France before becoming a cardinal and Patriarch of Venice.
When Pope John XXIII was elected pope on 28 October 1958, he wasn’t expecting to be elected and had already bought a return train ticket to Venice. Being elected at the age of 76, many expected him to be a “caretaker pope”, a pope who would just hold the fort until the College of Cardinals elected somebody who was younger. However, Pope John XXIII surprised everybody, even his own staff when he announced his intention to call for an Ecumenical Council in order to renew the church for the modern world. And despite attempted delays, Pope John XXIII lived long enough to open the first session of the council on the 11 October 1962. The effects of that council have greatly changed the church, so much so that many of us couldn’t imagine what the church would look like without it.
Pope John XXIII was the first pope since 1870 to make pastoral visits around the Diocese of Rome. He visited the Gesu Bambino Hospital to see children with polio and also visited Spirito Santo hospital. He also visited Regina Coeli prison to visit inmates. He was quoted as saying, “You can not come to me, so I came to you.” He was even reported to sneak out of the Vatican and walk along the streets of Rome during late at night. He was eventually known as “Johnny Walker”.
Pope John Paul II, born Karol Josef Wojtyla, was born in Wadowice, Poland on the 18 May 1920. He was the youngest of three children. He was a very athletic person with love of football. But his real love was acting and also he had a love of languages, learning around 12 languages, 9 of which he used extensively as pope. He entered the underground seminary in Krakow during the war. He was ordained a priest 1 November 1946. After ordination he went for further studies and obtained his doctorate in Philosophy in 1948. Later on Pope Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow, Poland. He also contributed in 1962 to the Vatican Council II documents, Decree on Religious Freedom and Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. After the sudden death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, he was elected as Pope taking the name Pope John Paul II, in honour of the last pontiff. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and at 58 years of age, is the youngest pope since Pope Pius IX who was 54 in 1846.
As pope for more than 26 years, he achieved so many things. The most notable of them were visiting 129 countries. He beatified 1,340 people and canonised 483 saints. He tried to bring the Catholic Church to better relations with Anglicans, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutherans. He condemned the culture of Death, which included practices like abortion, euthanasia and almost all forms of capital punishment. He was also instrumental in the fall of communism in Europe. He started the gathering of young people all over the world which we now know as the “World Youth Day”. I think the most notable example of holiness that Pope John Paul displayed was when he met and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca, the person who attempted to assassinate him in 1981.
These two popes who will be made saints this Sunday are a testament of how our church is trying to give us more people whom we can emulate because of their heroic holiness. However, we must never forget that these two are also as human as we are. They experienced frustration and disappointment. Pope John XXIII was said to have expressed frustration for being too fat and tried to slim down. Pope John Paul II was seen as being angry for not being able to talk properly because of his Parkinson’s Disease in the late stages of his pontificate.
We thank God for this event of giving us saints to emulate so that the example that they have given us will also inspire us to become saints one day.
Image above right, drawn by internationally acclaimed artist Anna Gulak. Displayed in the Vatican Press Office Media Centre, Paul VI Hall, on the occasion of the canonisations. (Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/113018453@N05/13982574126/)