St. John Paul II and Seeking Jesus

Today is the Feast of St John Paul II.  Honestly, he is one of my favorites!

To encounter JPII was to encounter a true Father.  He had a special love for young people — and we felt that love with every event, every word directed towards us. 

He understood our search for meaning and purpose and happiness in our lives — and he had a way of helping us understand that Jesus was the source of all of it.

He understood our restlessness, and he met it with the TRUTH — he was willing to speak the truth, even when it was difficult or unpopular — and that truth SET US FREE.

Look up some of his quotes and you will understand the privilege it was to have lived during his pontificate.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s a few of his own: 

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.”

St. John Paul II

You could spend a few hours just unpacking that quote, but I’ve never really given much thought to the latter part of this quote, “It is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.”

Talk about a quote for a social media world. Talk about hitting the nail on the head as we see “influencers” peddle off products and lifestyle choices — who make a living creating a persona, rather than developing the interior — and countless people following these accounts and not every taking the time to ask, “but are they being genuine?”.

But even that influencer has a heart that has been created by God. Even that politician we think is lost has a soul that God wants to save — and it’s up to everyday men and women like you and me who will love them and pray for them and refuse to give in to the pressures to conform to mediocrity and political correctness and vapid conversation that don’t really get to the heart of the human person.

John Paul II knew the challenges that we would face in creating a culture of love and respect for the dignity of the human person. His answer to all those fears were simple: “Do not be afraid.  Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.  Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”.

We have a part to play in putting out into the deep and catching the hearts of our fellow man and leading them back to Jesus — the only One who can truly satisfy their hearts. John Paul II reminded all of us that we must look beyond the superficial exterior and see the HEART OF THE MAN OR WOMAN BEFORE US.

He made us want to look outside of ouselves and to begin to really love the people around us.

Personally, I can say that JPII made me want to run the race to heaven so as to WIN IT ALL.

Even as he aged, he never lost that ability to inspire young people to never give up the fight to be better, to love more heroically, to make a difference with our lives.

When I met him, He was so weak.  I’ll never forget the way he gently pulled me down so he could kiss me on the forehead.  I’ll never forget how much energy and effort it seemed to take from him — but he still went to the effort to let me know his love for me (a perfect stranger!).

I remember looking into his face, his eyes piercing blue, but you could see his exhaustion and weakness — and to me that giving every bit of his strength to show love to another person is what TRUE MANHOOD looks like.

You can be a man in his prime, but if you have no love, you have nothing! John Paul II modeled fatherhood and masculinity for a generation, half of which hadn’t grown up with their dads. He stood as a model for all of us, as we began our own families.

Years later, on those especially exhausting nights with littles, when I felt I had nothing left to give — I would remember the lengths JPII went to, to make me feel loved, and it gave me the energy to love my kids and to not give in to exhaustion or despair.

And as my little ones are growing older, I know that I must share that same message that JPII shared with my generation. I know that I have to teach them to give freely without cost and to run towards Heaven, bringing as many people with us as we can.

John Paul II loved to the very end.  His was a beautiful life.  May we all live such lives of heroic love and may we never stop putting out into the deep — forsaking mediocrity — until we make it HOME again!

St. John Paul II, we love you.  Pray for us!