Oct. 22, 2020: St. John Paul II
Oct. 22, 2020: St. John Paul II
On this memorial of St. John Paul II, it will be helpful for us to study the saint who has influenced his mystical, interior life--St. John of the Cross.
Young Karol Wojtyla attended Kraków’s Jagiellonian University in 1938 where he studied Polish language, literature, theater, and poetry. He also performed in local theatrical productions, co-founding the Rhapsodic Theater of Kraków. It was during this time that he met his spiritual mentor, Jan Tyranowski, and was introduced to the Carmelite mysticism of St. John of the Cross. This meeting profoundly changed the course of his life, leading him to the priesthood. However, his studies were interrupted when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. In order to remain in the country, Karol was forced to work in a stone quarry as well as night shifts at the Solvay chemical plant. During this time, Karol suffered the loss of his father, who died of a heart attack on February 18, 1941. In 1944, he miraculously survived being hit by a German truck. Through all this, he recounts the maturing of his vocation and the formation of his priestly identity. (https://www.jp2shrine.org/en/about/jp2bio.html)
As a young priest, he wrote a dissertation on St. John of the Cross on the topic of faith. Here is what Pope John Paul II wrote on the 400th Anniversary of the Death of St. John of the Cross:
"I (JPII) myself have been especially attracted by the experience and teachings of the Saint of Fontiveros (John of the Cross). From the first years of my priestly formation, I found in him a sure guide in the ways of faith. This aspect of his doctrine seemed to me to be of vital importance to every Christian, especially in a trail-blazing age like our own which is also filled with risks and temptations in the sphere of faith.
Europe was still bathed in the afterglow of the celebration of the fourth centenary of the birth of the Carmelite Saint (1542-1942) and rising from its ashes after the dark night of war when, in Rome, I wrote my doctoral thesis in theology on the subject of Faith according to St. John of the Cross. In it, I devoted special attention to an analytical discussion of the central affirmation of the Mystical Doctor: Faith is the only proximate and proportionate means for communion with God. Even then I felt that John had not only marshalled solid theological doctrine, but that, above all, he had set forth Christian life in terms of such basic aspects as communion with God, the contemplative dimension of prayer, the strength that apostolic mission derives from life in God, and the creative tension of the Christian life lived in hope.
During my November 1982 visit to Spain, I had the joy of extolling the Saint's memory against the evocative backdrop of the Roman aqueduct at Segovia. I visited his tomb and venerated his remains. There I once again voiced the great message of faith, the essence of his teaching for the Church, for Spain and for Carmel: the message of a vigorous, living faith which seeks and finds God in His Son Jesus Christ, in the Church. in the beauty of creation, in quiet prayer, in the darkness of night, and in the purifying flame of the Spirit."
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"The Mystical Doctor appeals today to many believers and non-believers because he describes the dark night as an experience which is typically human and Christian. Our age has known times of anguish which have made us understand this expression better and which have furthermore given it a kind of collective character. Our age speaks of the silence or absence of God. It has known so many calamities, so much suffering inflicted by wars and by the destruction of so many innocent beings. The term dark night is now used of all of life and not just of a phase of the spiritual journey. The Saint's doctrine is now invoked in response to this unfathomable mystery of human suffering.
I refer to this specific world of suffering about which I spoke in the Apostolic Exhortation Salvifici Doloris. Physical, moral and spiritual suffering, like sickness—like the plagues of hunger, like war, injustice, solitude, the lack of meaning in life, the very fragility of human existence, the sorrowful knowledge of sin, the seeming absence of God—are for the believer all purifying experiences which might be called night of faith.
To this experience St. John of the Cross has given the symbolic and evocative name dark night, and he makes it refer explicitly to the light and obscurity of the mystery of faith. He does not try to give to the appaling problem of suffering an answer in the speculative order; but in the light of the Scripture and of experience he discovers and sifts out something of the marvelous transformation which God effects in the darkness, since "He knows how to draw good from evil so wisely and beautifully". In the final analysis, we are faced with living the mystery of death and resurrection in Christ in all truth.
The feeling that God is silent or absent, whether voiced as an accusation or as a complaint, is an almost spontaneous reaction to the experience of pain and injustice. The very people who do not credit God with their joy hold Him responsible in detail for human suffering. The Christian, however, feels the torment of the loss of God or of alienation from Him in a different, and often deeper way, to the point of feeling flung down into the darkness of the abyss.
The Doctor of the dark night finds in this experience the loving hand of the Divine Teacher. He is silent and hides Himself sometimes because He has already spoken and manifested Himself with sufficient clarity. Even the experience of His absence can communicate faith, love, and hope to one who humbly and meekly opens himself to God. The Saint writes: "The soul wore this white tunic of faith when it departed on the dark night and walked ... in the midst of interior darkness and straits ... and suffered with constancy and perseverance, passing through these trials without growing discouraged or failing the Beloved. The Beloved so proves the faith of His bride in tribulations that she can afterwards truthfully declare what David says: Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways (Ps 16:4)".
This schooling at God's hand is an expression of love and mercy which gives back to man a sense of gratitude so that he is free to accept God's gift of Himself. At other times it makes him feel the full effect of sin, which is both an offense against God and death and the void for man. The dark night educates man so that he is able to discern regarding God's presence or absence. Thus schooled, he no longer depends on pleasant or unpleasant feelings to guide him, for he is led by faith and by love. God remains his loving Father, in the hour of pleasure and in the hour of pain.
The contemplation of Christ Crucified
Only Jesus Christ, the final Word of the Father, can disclose the mysterious meaning of suffering and, through His glorious Cross, light up the darkest night of the Christian. St. John of the Cross, consistent with what he teaches about Christ, tells us that after God revealed his Son He "was, as it were, mute, with no more to say". The silence of God speaks its most eloquent and revealing word of love in Christ Crucified.
The Saint of Fontiveros, who habitually contemplated the mystery of the Cross of Christ, invites us to do so too in the poem of El Pastorcico (The Shepherd Boy) and in his celebrated drawing of Christ Crucified which is known as the Christ of St. John of the Cross. John wrote some of the most sublime pages in Christian literature on the mystery of the abandonment of Christ on the Cross. Christ experienced suffering in all its rigour right up until His death on the Cross. In those last moments, extreme physical and psychological and spiritual pain combine to wreak all their fury upon him: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" This atrocious suffering, provoked by hate and lies, has a profound redemptive value. It was ordained so "as to pay the debt fully and bring man to union with God" (24). By means of His loving surrender to the Father in the moment of extreme abandonment and of greatest love, "He accomplished the most marvelous work of His whole life, surpassing all the works and deed and miracles that Me had ever performed on earth or in heaven; that is, He brought about the reconciliation and union of the human race with God through grace". In that way, the mystery of the Cross of Christ reveals the gravity of sin and the immensity of the love of the Redeemer of man.
Christians who live by faith habitually make the Cross of Christ their point of reference and norm of living. "When something distasteful or unpleasant comes your way, remember Christ crucified and be silent". Faith becomes a flame of charity, stronger than death. It is the seed and fruit of resurrection: "Do not think of any other thing," writes the Saint in a moment of trial, "but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put in love and you will draw out love,". Because ultimately, "At evening they will examine you in love".
St. John Paul II - MASTER IN THE FAITH (Apostolic Letter Of His Holiness John Paul II To The Very Reverend Father Felipe Sainz De Baranda Superior General Of The Order Of The Discalced Brothers Of The Blessed Virgin Mary Of Mount Carmel On The Occasion Of The IV Centenary Of The Death Of Saint John Of The Cross, Doctor Of The Church)
