ARCHBISHOP'S HOMILY: THE FAITH of Pope John Paul II had allowed him to “achieve remarkable things in remarkable times”, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said Sunday.
“His faith was rock-like and gave him the courage to follow intuitions he received from the Lord, which at times were not understood even by his close collaborators,” he added.
He was delivering a homily at a Mass in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, to mark the late pope’s beatification.
Dr Martin said John Paul’s death reflected his life.
As the world watched his physical powers decline, he never flinched in his dedication to the mission he had achieved, until the final moment when he realised it was time to return in peace to the house of his Father.
“His life was realised in a special manner in the way he publicly and courageously encountered death,” he added.
Dr Martin said there were those who criticised his call for prayer for peace by leaders of various religions at an interfaith gathering at Assisi in 1986.
“We often tend to forget the political climate in which that Assisi event took place,” he added. “It was at the height of the build-up of nuclear weapons during the Cold War.”
He said John Paul understood peace was not the fruit just of politics or negotiations; peace was a gift of God to be implored in prayer.
“He realised that it was possible and indeed necessary for people of various religions to come together in one place and understand each other’s prayer and witness together to the God of peace,” Dr Martin added.
He said there were also those who criticised John Paul’s call for Christians to ask forgiveness for the sins of past centuries in the Catholic Church.
“Pope John Paul’s understanding of the holiness of the church was so strong that it enabled him to recognise openly and to pray for forgiveness for the sins of Christians who over the centuries had resorted to methods which were far from Christian, in inquisitions and crusades, in relation to the Jewish people and in the divisions which emerged among believers in the same Jesus,” he said.
Dr Martin said it was John Paul’s “faith and his sense of prayer” that gave him a special appeal among young people.
“In a youth culture marked by doubt and uncertainty about ultimate values, Pope John Paul stood out as someone who was uncompromising in his proclamation of truth, yet outstanding in his witness of love,” he added.
Dr Martin said there was, in a sophisticated culture, more and more a wish to block out physical weakness and remove from sight the starkness of human death.
“In his life, his ministry and in his death, Pope John Paul witnessed to the strength which comes despite human weakness when we allow the message of Jesus to be the guide of our lives,” he added.
“We pray that the church of our times will enjoy the protection from heaven of one who loved and served and suffered for the church during his life, Blessed Pope John Paul II.”
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