(This the second part of a homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde during the Memorial Mass for Pope John Paul II at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington on Friday, April 8. The first part appeared yesterday.)
How did he allow God to work through him? How did he concretely place his life at the service of God's plan? Permit me to propose at least three foundational pillars, though others could be added. First, there was his deep union with Christ in the Eucharist. He understood with every fiber of his being the truth which we heard proclaimed in our midst this morning in the gospel account from St. John. When Jesus tells us, “I am the living bread, the bread that I shall give you is my flesh for the life of the world. The one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” Just to be with our Holy Father in prayer was to attain an experience, a concrete affirmation, of his deep union with the Eucharistic Christ. Those of us who were privileged to be with him in his private chapel are witnesses to that union but also, in another way, so were all of us who watched him celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice or had the opportunity to watch him on television as he made his trips, several to our country, where he would always stop by the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament whether in the Cathedral, the Church, the Seminary or the Episcopal residence.
If the first pillar is his deep union with the Eucharistic Christ, the second pillar is his true devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. I have already referenced his motto, “Totus Tuus.” He saw in Mary the model for him of obedient faith, of surrendering trust, of complete love.
The third pillar is his own love for the human person, for he realized and believed that each human person, whoever he or she might be, is created in the image and likeness of God and, therefore, has infinite worth. No one has spoken more eloquently, more consistently, more insistently than Pope John Paul II on the dignity and worth of the human person from the first moment of life at conception all the way through to the last moment of life at natural death. His words, his writings, his actions, and, finally, his own witness of life proclaimed this so clearly.
In the end, placing our life at the service of God's plan includes, and I would say demands, total oneness with Christ and that, therefore, includes and demands an acceptance of the cross in whatever form it comes. We do not choose the form. Our Holy Father lived that; and, as I have said, I know, so frequently this week, he witnessed to that truth so publicly in his own life. He did not shy away from the cross of infirmity and weakness, he did not hide out so he could not be seen, he was a model to us, not only of how to live, but of how to accept suffering, the cross, and of how to die.
Last night at the end of Mass, I was privileged to receive a poem, a copy of a poem, that a woman in Ohio by the name of Lisa Lindsey wrote. She wrote it in the last days of our Holy Father's life before he had been called home to God. While I would like to share the entire poem, perhaps it is a bit long, so permit me then to share the last stanza for it speaks about the end of life in union with Christ. She wrote: “I saw a saint at sunset, even though the hour was noon. He was in the twilight of his papacy, a long and glorious twilight " And somewhere between the twilight and the darkness I learned that Christ does not come down from His Cross until His work is done.”
On April 2, at 9:37 in the evening, the work that God gave to Pope John Paul II was done. The Lord said to him that it was time to come home. And surely when he opened his eyes, having crossed over, he heard “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!”
My sisters and brothers, for us our work is not done. Our work continues " that work for which each of us was uniquely created. Whatever that life project may be, we honor Pope John Paul II best, it would seem to me, by doing as he did, by living as he lived, by placing our lives at the service of God's plan. And we are to do that, rooted in the Eucharist, seeking Mary's help, and trying to love each person as God would have us love them.
Indeed, we commend Pope John Paul II to the Lord in our prayers, for even the holiest among us needs God's mercy; even the saints became saints only through the mercy of God.
