St. John Paul II Found Dignity in Suffering

October 22nd [was] the Feast Day of Saint John Paul II, and this year also marks the 20th anniversary of his passing. It is hard to forget the dramatic end to his life, his suffering on display as he struggled into his very last days to be spiritual father to Catholics around the world. Throughout his pontificate, he had elevated that mission of universal fatherhood in the many visits he made to countries around the world and in his use of media to share the hope of Christ with a world in need.

John Paul II understood the desperate need for Christ because he witnessed the horrors brought about by a turning away from God during World War II - and in the depravation produced by communism. Elected pope in 1978, he celebrated his first World Day of Peace on January 1, 1979, when he declared, "Do not be afraid to take a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace. Peace will be the last word of history."

He arrived at this wisdom by grappling with the reality of suffering and coming to understand the peace of Christ as the only answer to the deepest questions and most profound challenges in life.On Christmas Eve in 1959, as Bishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, Poland, he led a group of Polish workers into a field in Nowa Huta, the city designed and built by their Soviet occupiers to have no Church. They planted a cross in that field, set up an altar, and Wojtyla offered Mass for them, declaring that no government could ever extinguish the light of Christ.

As pope, John Paul II tirelessly advocated for the dignity of the individual in a world constantly marginalizing people, especially those who are weak and suffering. At the height of his abilities, he was a force for good, unrivaled in intellectual prowess and persuasiveness. But that final chapter of his life, in which he allowed himself to be seen in increasingly diminished capacity, sent the most powerful message of all. His successor, then Cardinal Ratzinger, said of John Paul II's very public suffering, "Even age has a message, and suffering a dignity and a salvific force."

In his 1984 apostolic letter "Salvifici Doloris," on the Christian meaning of suffering, John Paul II wrote, "In the light of Christ's death and resurrection, illness no longer appears as an exclusively negative event. . . . Rather, it is seen as . . . an opportunity to release love . . . to transform the whole of human civilization into a civilization of love."

This message reveals the reality at the heart of John Paul II's public suffering, when he offered the world a glimpse of this mystery taking place in his own life. He was making a statement on behalf of all those who suffer, especially those nearing the end of their lives: that human dignity is not based on the things of this world but on Christ, who meets us in our suffering and can elevate our trials, through the assent of our will, to be joined to the mystery of His redemptive sacrifice.

"Be not afraid," the pope declared on October 22nd, 1978, in the first homily of his pontificate, and he lived those words to the last, announcing to the world the dignity of the human person in every state in life. May Saint John Paul II intercede for us to have the same courage to "be not afraid" and announce in our own time the dignity of each individual in society. 

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column, written by Fr. Ed Dougherty, M.M, of The Christophers' Board of Directors; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.)

Background information:

The Christophers