John Paul as gleaned from his poems
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Apr 04, 2005
“MY life will no longer be weighted/deep in my blood; the road will
no longer slip away from my weary feet; New time now shines in my
fading eyes: It will consume me, and dwell with my heart, And all
shall be full at the last/and left for nought’s delight.”
These lines-about a life slipping away and getting a taste of
heaven-might have run in the lucid mind of Pope John Paul II as
he hovered at death’s door, “aware that he is going to The Lord,”
as Cardinal Ratzinger put it, on the eve of the Feast of the Divine
Mercy. Actually, the lines were taken from a poem titled “Embraced
by new time,” written by a poet named Karol Wojtyla, who later became
the first Polish pope, and the third longest-reigning one.
***
Like millions of other Catholics, I spent the past two days absorbed
in JPII’s deathwatch, praying for him. As his condition worsened,
I dug up a booklet of his poems, gathered and annotated by my
former UP humanities professor, Josefina Constantino, now Sr. Teresa
Joseph Patrick of the Carmelites, for the silver jubilee of JPII’s
pontificate on Oct. 16, 2003. The poems, titled “The Easter Vigil
and Other Poems,” were written in his native Polish (translated by
Polish poet and professor Jerzy Peterkiewiez of London University)
and published between 1950 and 1966, as JPII began serving his
priestly ministry. Sister Teresa noted that while his poetry “was
generally profound and philosophical,” yet he was able to deliver solid
universal truths and deeply personal convictions with a radiance and
an invigorating freshness that expands the mind and lifts the heart.
She found resonances of Polish writer Joseph Conrad, English poet
T.S. Eliot, American Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and even the
Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross in Wojtyla’s poetry.
***
In one poem, talking through the lips of the bishop (himself) as he
administered the sacrament of confirmation to the villagers, Wojtyla
says: “I am a giver, I touch forces that expand the mind.” In those
lines, he couldn’t have foreseen the profound influence he was to
have in the realm of spiritual renewal, ecumenism, the sanctity of
human life, the world’s youth and the Sacrament of the Eucharist
(he declared October 2004-2005 as the Year of the Eucharist). Church
historians consider as one of JPII’s legacies his huge role in the
dismantling of communism in Europe, which, in turn, is traced to his
profound respect for human rights, very evident in his early poetry.
JPII was famous for his great devotion to the Mother of God, and
this could be gleaned from the fact that his book of poems began with
“a little unassuming poem” on Mary titled “Her amazement at her only
child,” wherein she contemplated his Godhead even in his childhood:
” …In that little town, my son, where they knew us together, You
called me mother;
but no one had eyes to see the astounding events as they took place
day by day; Your life became the life of the poor, In your wish to
be with them, Through the work of your hands.”
It ends with the precious lines:
“I knew; the light that lingered in ordinary things like a spark
sheltered under the skin of our days-The light was you; It did not
come from me. And I had more of you in that luminous silence than I
had of you as the fruit of my body, my blood.”
***
In time he came to be referred to as John Paul The Great, in the
tradition of the Church’s more memorable popes, such as Leo The
Great and Gregory The Great. His almost 27-year reign saw the Church
embroiled in some of the bitterest controversies, but he didn’t shirk
from getting his preachings across, no matter how bitter it was for his
flock. He was known as the “Great Communicator” and his autobiography,
“Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” was a consistent bestseller. It’s
a bitter irony that toward the end he couldn’t utter a word; but,
in that, he gave us a shining example of how to bear afflictions with
more than just Christian fortitude. In the end he refused to die in
a hospital hallway, preferring to meet death in his own bedroom.
***
JPII utilized the mass media and man’s inventions, such as the
airplane, to bring his gospel around the world-the “travellingest” pope
in history. Some of those travels were efforts to promote ecumenism:
he was the first pope to visit a Muslim mosque and a Jewish synagogue,
and in his visit to the Holy Land in the Holy Year 2000, he apologized
to the Jews for the failings of the Church during their persecution. He
also reached out to the Protestants in Martin Luther’s backyard.
***
Everyone has his own memories of this man whom the youth have known
as their one and only pope. We followed him during his visits here
in 1981 and 1995. I recall how, in 1995, my brothers and sisters
and their families staked out in front of the house of my brother
Ed and sister-in-law Ninez in Para¤aque, hoping to catch a glimpse
of JPII from the airport. Ninez is not exactly the religious type,
but when he passed in front of her in his “Popemobile,” she murmured,
“It’s like seeing God.”
The last time I saw JPII was in Rome, at the canonization of Opus
Dei founder Josemaria Escriva in October 2002. His debilitating
Parkinson’s disease was very advanced even then, but he seemed buoyed
up by the 400,000 people from around the world who had trooped to
Rome. After the ceremony his “Popemobile” drove him up and down St.
Peter’s Square, and he repeatedly blessed the huge throngs. Cries
of “Viva Il Papa” lustily rose and many cried at the sight of the
charismatic Pope. But the shouts became more deafening when a ranking
official of the Armenian Orthodox Church went up to greet JPII,
who gave him a big embrace. JPII would be a tough act to follow.
–Boundary_(ID_MoiAIBvYVh/GQSQP8cnNBg)–