JPII – Catholic Superhero, Rockstar and Saint

WHAT. A. MAN.

Batman – take a seat. Watch a real hero in action.

His family were killed. His Gotham was the entire world – corrupted by evil. He studied and trained as a priest in secret whilst working as a miner. He fought hatred with love. He even had a cool butler [insert Catholic-nerdgirl Ganswein swoon here]…

… then in 1978 he went into a secret cave (read: the Sistine Chapel), came out with a cool outfit (yes, he had a cape) and changed the world completely. He even had a Batmobile (the Popemobile counts, OK? – It was bulletproof!).

The youth used to flock — literally by the millions — to see him. They chanted "John Paul II, we love you!" He chanted back "John Paul II, he loves you."

… and we all believed him.

THAT is *rockstar status*. 8 years after his death, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Catholic who doesn’t cite him as one of their biggest influences. Awesome. I don’t think I’ve met a single priest or religious under 40 who hasn’t told me he changed them because he challenged and inspired the world.

But why do we love him so much? JPII showed us what love really is: it’s fun. It’s personal. It’s soft and tender and playful but it is challenging and demanding and takes more than mere words – it asks us to step up and be who we are called to be. JPII taught us that.  He also taught us that above all – love is our vocation.

He was fun *cue YouTube videos of him with babies*, but he was a fighter – suffering until the Lord called him to the place meant for him from all eternity. He was intolerant of sin, but never allowed us to forget the redeeming power of Christ. He was young at heart even in his old age, but possessed a wisdom that only comes with true holiness.

He was a living Saint.

My generation are hungry. We are hungry for knowledge, hungry for honesty and hungry for love in a world that has forgotten that we are all brothers and sisters. It is a mistake to believe that young people want sex, drugs and rock and roll. JPII taught us that the “rules” free us. When seen in the right context, those “rules” take on a whole new meaning and purpose. They make us live life to the full and to pass on that knowledge and love to others to make a better world.

This is a man who refused to allow evil to destroy his belief in the inherent goodness of man. This is a man who taught a broken people that “no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young.”

JPII believed in people. He truly believed that people needed Christ, needed His Church, and he stopped at nothing to make the world see that. He believed in the power of hope so much that he asked us to “stake our lives on it,” because “we are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

JPII truly believed that love conquered all – and we need only look at the way he forgave his could-be assassin, in one of his most publicised and famous moments – to see how love manifests itself into actions that change the world.

We loved him because he didn’t merely TELL us how to be, he showed us how he was able to truly "respond to an abyss of evil with an abyss of love."

JPII, we love you… pray for us.

P.S. I kinda sorta forgot to mention that when (if! God willing...),
I enter into eternal glory, I expect him to be standing there with a cup of coffee.
We have a deal - dessert is on me.