Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wadowice, birthplace of Karol Wojtyla (the building on the right is where he was born)
Ephesians 4:4-5: There is one body and one Spirit… one faith
It is
impossible to believe on our own. Faith is not simply an individual decision
which takes place in the depths of the believer’s heart, nor a completely
private relationship between the "I" of the believer and the divine
"Thou", between an autonomous subject and God. By its very nature,
faith is open to the "We" of the Church; it always takes place within
her communion (Lumen Fidei).
The question of
truth is really a question of memory, deep memory, for it deals with something
prior to ourselves and can succeed in uniting us in a way that transcends our
petty and limited individual consciousness. It is a question about the origin
of all that is, in whose light we can glimpse the goal and thus the meaning of
our common path (Lumen Fidei)
There is great power in unity. We see it in the coverage
of World Youth Day this week, and I saw it on my pilgrimage. Everyday life
keeps us quite divisive these days; we mingle with people who verbally oppose
our faith and our belief in God and in His Church. This is not the era of
support for Catholics. Christian Persecution takes place daily yet is rarely
covered in the secular media. Tremendous faith events are occurring in
societies around the world, yet the gag order on the media limits the coverage
of these events. We need ways to remember that our faith is something that is
shared with our brothers and sisters around the world. It is not a private “God
and me” affair.
In the encyclical begun
by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and completed by Pope Francis I, cited above, we
are reminded that we need communion with our fellow Catholics. We need to seek
ways to be reminded of the faith of our fathers, the faith of the persecuted, and
the faith of the Church today, which, by the way, is alive and well. That is
what a pilgrimage does for you. It unites you with your fellow faith- travelers,
and it places you in environments filled with believers unabashedly and
joyfully professing their love and devotion to Jesus and His mother.
I experienced this in a profound way in Poland. The
history of the country is just plain sad; it has been conquered, partitioned,
occupied, and for a good while did not even exist. Yet the faith of the people
remained strong. It was their national identity, and the force that kept them
going.
When John Paul II
returned to Poland in 1979, this time as Pope, he addressed this plight of his
people. George Weigel, in his book Witness
to Hope, tells us:
Then he addressed his beloved brothers and sisters, his
dear fellow countrymen, whom he greeted on this special day “with the same
words I used on October 16 last year (when
he became pope) to greet those present in St. Peter’s Square: Praised be
Jesus Christ!” That was how he had learned to greet fellow Poles during his
life among them, and that was how he came to them now. Poland had been denied
its history and culture by five years of Nazi occupation and thirty-three years
of communist hegemony. Now he, a son of Poland, would give people back what was
their s by birthright.”
The Polish people’s love for John Paul II is an
inspiration in itself. Nowhere have I ever seen so many statues, images,
paintings and photographs of a religious figure. Parks, public places, churches
and shrines all display a reminder of Poland’s favorite son. This is expressed
so beautifully in the town of Wadowice, where John Paul II was born and spent
his early years. He stated upon his return to this town in 1999:
“Once again, during my
service to the universal Church in the See of Saint Peter, I come to my native
town of Wadowice. With great emotion I gaze upon this city of my childhood
years, which witnessed my first steps, my first words…. The city of my
childhood, my family home, the church of my Baptism . . . I wish to cross these
hospitable thresholds, bow before my native soil and its inhabitants, and utter
the words of greeting given to family members upon on their return from a long
journey: "Praised be Jesus Christ!" (Homily of His Holiness John Paul II, Wadowice, Wednesday, 16 June 1999)
We were able to see the house at 7
Koscielna Street where John Paul II was born and
raised in a second story apartment. Most thrilling was our visit to the Church
of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary where he was baptized,
confirmed, served as altar boy and prayed daily before the miraculous picture
of Our Lady of Perpetual Hope. The left aisle contains the baptismal font where
baby Karol Wojtyla was baptized; we were able to celebrate Mass in a beautiful
side altar in the right aisle. In the town, we walked his streets and even
sampled the delicious cream cakes he enjoyed after successfully completely his
exams! In this small town the faithful joyfully attend Mass, visit
the Blessed Sacrament, and support each other in their faith. I felt I had
stepped into a tiny part of heaven.
We need each other in order to experience the joy of
our faith. We need to seek Catholics alive and on fire with their faith to
remember that it is the only aspect of our lives that will be with us through the
hardships and trials we face today. We cannot be immersed in secular concerns
and find God. We must seek Him in each other, unite with each other and become
strong people of faith, as the people of Poland did in the many times of their
distress and persecution.
Christ lives in each of us, and He planned it so that
each of us will make Him alive in the world. As John Paul II said on his first
visit to Poland after becoming Pope: …so…I beg you: never lose your trust, do
not be defeated, do not be discouraged…I beg you: have trust, and… and always
seek spiritual power from Him from whom
countless generations of our fathers and mothers have found it. Never
detach yourselves from Him. Never lose your spiritual freedom… Never disdain
charity, which is “the greatest of these” and which shows itself through the
Cross….(Witness
to Hope, George Weigel,
HarperCollins Books, 1999).
The best way to never lose spiritual freedom is to see
it in practice. The people of Poland taught me a great lesson… “Faith takes
place…in the communion of the Church.”
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