JOANNES PAULUS MAGNUS At the Death of Pope John Paul the Great
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers
JOANNES PAULUS MAGNUS At the Death of Pope John Paul the Great©
JOANNES PAULUS MAGNUS: At the Death of Pope John Paul the Great©
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers
Aurem Cordis™ is a Christian evangelization and apologetics organization dedicated to the dissemination and promotion of Catholic values, principles, and teaching in complete faithfulness and total submission to Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium. The goal of this apostolate is to bring as many people as possible to a deeper love of Christ and the Gospel by sharing the truth of the Catholic faith in love.
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers is the Founder and Director of Aurem Cordis. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from the University of Dallas. Deacon Harold is a Benedictine Oblate of Mt. Angel Abbey, an associate member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, a member of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, and a consultation team member for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops National Directory for Catechesis.
Deacon Harold has given lectures, retreats, and seminars at the Summer Institute of Spirituality, the National Black Catholic Convocation, the University of Notre Dame, Theology on Tap, Oregon Right to Life, and at numerous parishes throughout the country. Topics have included Men's Spirituality, the Eucharist and Evangelization, the Sacrament of Penance, Lay Spirituality and the Call to Holiness, the Youth and the Future of the Church, Marriage and Family Life, and many more. Deacon Harold has appeared in Envoy Magazine and on the national radio program Catholic Answers Live, and has been featured on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and the Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN). He hosts the weekly program “Faith and Life” on Catholic radio in Oregon (88.3 KBVM FM). His published articles can be read by following the Media link at www.auremcordis.com.
Deacon Harold, who currently works as the Director of Public Safety at the University of Portland, is a nationally recognized expert in school safety, security, and violence prevention, and is listed in the International Who’s Who of Professional Management. He and his wife Colleen have four children.
For more information contact:
Aurem Cordis 1605 NE Broadway Avenue Portland, Oregon 97232-1425 503.721.2260 www.auremcordis.com
©2005 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers. All Rights Reserved. ©2005 Aurem Cordis. All Rights Reserved.
©2005 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers. All Rights Reserved. ©2005 Aurem Cordis, Portland, OR. All Rights Reserved.
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JOANNES PAULUS MAGNUS At the Death of Pope John Paul the Great
Introduction
To All the Faithful,
1. Pope John Paul II, one of the greatest popes in the history of the Church, who in future ages will be known as Pope John Paul the Great, has left this life on earth to live forever in the beatific vision of heaven. It is only fitting that the Holy Father died on a Saturday, a day traditionally dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, whom he loved so much and to whom he dedicated his pontificate. Saturday was also the Vigil of the Feast of the Divine Mercy, established by Pope John Paul II for the second Sunday in the Octave of Easter, to celebrate the rich and tender mercy of God the Father made visible in and through the person of Jesus Christ.
2. The death of Pope John Paul II is like losing both a loving father who gave his life in service to the Bride of Christ, the Church, and a spiritual leader who faithfully guided the children entrusted to him into all Truth. It is impossible to offer an adequate reflection on the life and meaning of this great saint here; I leave that work for the generations to come. Instead, I offer a few brief reflections on human sexuality, sin and human freedom, reconciliation and penance, the domestic church, and human suffering in honor of Pope John Paul II and his call for a new evangelization.
Human Sexuality
3. The fundamental significance of love for the human person is perhaps best summarized by the evangelist: "God is love and he who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him ... we are to love, then, because He loved us first."1 Hence, love is essential to the human person because man is "called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his Creator."2 God's sustaining and life-giving love affects man at every level of his being: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
4. On the physical level, Pope John Paul II sees sexuality as a fundamental component of personality, that is, as one of the means of expressing and living out human love. As the image of God, man is created for love and, in the marriage covenant, this love is made manifest in sexual intimacy. This physical expression of human love "includes right
1 1 John 4:16, 19.
2 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Official English Translation (New York: Doubleday [1995]), n.27, emphasis added.
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from the beginning the nuptial attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love, that love in which a person becomes a gift and -- by means of this gift -- fulfills the meaning of his being and existence."3 Human sexuality, through which we participate in the mystery of loving communion with God, can never find its full expression apart from the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator in marriage. Through this sacramental bond of unity and love "the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love"4 which is an expression of God's divine love within us.
5. Insofar as it entails sincere self-giving, growth in love is helped by the discipline of the feelings, passions, and emotions. Thomas Aquinas tells us that love is the root of all other passions because there is no passion in the soul of man which is not founded on love of some kind. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reiterates both Aquinas and Augustine when it states that "to love is to will the good of another. All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved. Passions are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."5 On this point, Joseph Pieper notes that loving someone or something means finding him or it probus (good).6 True love, which perfects man in his totality as a human person, becomes realized in him when he seeks and loves what is intrinsically true and ultimately good. Love is perfected in man in as much as it leads to his Ultimate End, which is the beatific vision and union with God.
6. The gift of love is transformed through the power of Christ's redeeming grace and we become partakers in His divine nature: "as an incarnate spirit, that is, a soul which expresses itself in a body and a body informed by an immortal spirit, man is called to love in his unified totality."7 Love entails a total self-giving, an act of selflessness which unites us to Christ crucified and opens our hearts to accept God's divine and loving will. Without love, man "remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself; his life is senseless."8 The fundamental nature of love itself, inherent within that symbiotic relationship of man and God, is spiritual communion. The spiritual dimension of love must be understood in light of Christ's redemption of the world, which calls us to God's
3 Pope John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1997), 63.
4 Theology of the Body, 432.
5 CCC n.1766.
6 Cf. Joseph Pieper, About Love (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1974).
7 Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (Apostolic Exhortation, 1981 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp- ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio_en.html. Internet. Accessed 31 March 2005), n.11.
8 Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis (Encyclical Letter, 1979 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_04031979_redemptor- hominis_en.html Internet. Accessed 31 March 2005), n.25.
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grace and love in relationship, for to be truly human means to be related in love; to be from and for.
7. Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, states that "human life, as a gift of God, is sacred and inviolable . . . The meaning of life is found in giving and receiving love, and in this light human sexuality and procreation reach their true and full significance."9 This deeply profound and pregnant insight represents a compendium of the Church's doctrine on human sexuality. Throughout his pontificate, the Holy Father developed an understanding and appreciation of the true nature and proper ordering of sexual intimacy by examining modern society's secular humanist perspective regarding married love and fidelity. He seamlessly integrated the perspectives of Thomistic philosophy and phenomenology regarding the role of sexuality in human perfection. He defended the proper ordering of sexuality to the conjugal love of man and woman, which is sanctified in the sacrament of marriage, and where the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion.10 Finally, Pope John Paul II juxtaposed contemporary societal perspectives with the Church's understanding of three disordered expressions of human sexuality: contraception, homosexuality, and pornography.
8. Love is a constant theme in modern culture. Modern music, cinema, newspapers, radio, and television constantly assault our senses with stories and features about love. Unfortunately, the attributes of authentic human love, that is, the values of fidelity, exclusiveness, dependability, stability, childbearing, the establishing of a nuclear family and love of children are downgraded, while the values of sexual compatibility, erotic passion, and emotional ecstasy are given special attention.11 In modern speech, the term "making love" has become synonymous with sexual intercourse, its value measured in terms of erotic intensity and sexual climax. This understanding of "lovemaking" makes no attempt to characterize sexual intercourse as an expression of genuine self-giving and sharing of life. It completely ignores the fact that sexual love forms bonds of communion with others in caring, faithful, and lifelong relationships based upon selflessness, sincerity, and fidelity. Modern society has, in essence, separated love from sex, thus creating a chasm of moral ambiguity from which emerges a plethora of disordered sexual desires and carnal appetites. The restoration of a true and proper sense of sexual expression must begin by reuniting human love and sexuality so that the unity between
9John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Encyclical Letter, 1995 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium- vitae_en.html Internet. Accessed 31 March 2005), n.81.
10CCC n.2360.
11"The decline of traditional models has left . . . an eclipse of the truth about man which, among other things, exerts pressure to reduce sex to something commonplace. In this area, society and the mass media most of the time provide depersonalized, recreational, and often pessimistic information [about the true meaning of sexuality]. This information . . . is influenced by a distorted individualistic concept of freedom, in an ambience lacking the basic values of life, human love, and the family." The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family ([book on-line]; available from http://www.cin.org/vatcong/sexed.html. Internet. Accessed 31 March 2005), n.1.
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sex and faithful lifelong love, the unity between sex and procreation, and the unity between sex and marriage are revived. Sex, then, will be rooted in the solid foundation of God's divine love, and it is this love which will allow man to "recognize the voice of God which urges him 'to do what is good and avoid what is evil'."12
9. Man must return to his senses. In order to develop a proper understanding of human sexuality, man must first develop an appreciation of the dignity of the human person which "is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God."13 Since this divine image is present in every man, "the human person participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit."14 The power of the Holy Spirit infuses man's soul, enlightens his intellect and will, and endows him with the capacity and freedom to direct himself toward his true good.15 Thus, man finds perfection in seeking and loving what is true and good.16 As the image of God, man is created for love, and this love is made manifest in sexual intimacy since "sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul."17 Sex, therefore, is a good "considered as desirable or capable of perfecting the agent."18 Sexual love which is ordered toward the objective good perfects man in his totality as a human person. Sexual love which is ordered toward the apparent good answers to some particular craving or desire in man, but does not perfect his nature considered in its totality.19 The intrinsic nature of human sexuality is properly ordered toward the objective good "which makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God and of neighbor."20
12CCC, n.1706.
13CCC, n.1700.
14CCC, n.1704.
15CCC, n.1704 and n.1705.
16Gaudium et Spes, n.15 in Flannery, Austin, OP, ed. Vatican Council II. Vol. I, The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, New Revised Edition [Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Co., 1996]. All future references to the documents of Vatican II will be derived from this source. "Sense pleasure . . . cannot be man's supreme good because it perfects the body only: it actualizes the potentialities of, and satisfies only a part of the human being . . . to find the ultimate good or final end of man, we have to turn to the supernatural vision of God which is attainable only in the next life." F.C. Copleston, Aquinas (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1965), 203-204. cf. ST Ia, IIae, 2, If.
17CCC, n.2332. This is not to diminish the richness, beauty, and truth of celibacy, which is an expression in the temporal order of the intimacy and communion of love that we shall experience at the wedding feast of the Lamb in heaven.
18Copleston, Aquinas, 189.
19See Copleston, Aquinas, 190-193, esp. 190.
20CCC, n.1706. "The person is thus capable of a higher kind of love than concupiscence, which only sees objects as a means to satisfy one's appetites; the person is capable rather of friendship and self-giving, with the capacity to recognize and love persons for themselves. Like the love of God, this is a love capable of generosity. One desires the good of the other because she or he is recognized as worthy of being loved. This is a love which generates communion between persons, because each considers the good of the other as his or her own good. This is a self-giving made to one who loves us, a self-giving whose inherent
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10. Pope John Paul II's phenomenological approach to human love and sexuality envisions sex not as something purely biological, but as a component of the innermost being of the human person. He sees sexuality as a physical giving of oneself to another which reaches its true and full meaning when it expresses itself in the intimate communion of persons through the sacramental sign of marriage:
Love is a gift of God, nourished by and expressed in the encounter of man and woman. Love is thus a positive force directed towards their growth and maturity as persons. Love is also a precious source for the self-giving which all men and women are called to make for their own self-realization and happiness. In fact, man is called to love as an incarnate spirit, that is, soul and body in the unity of the person. Human love hence embraces the body, and the body also expresses spiritual love . . . realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.21
11. In the marriage covenant, “love includes the human body” and in the profound encounter of conjugal love and fidelity, “the body is made a sharer in spiritual love.”22 Sexuality has love as its intrinsic end and its meaning must be understood in light of Christian revelation: "sexuality characterizes man and woman not only on the physical level, but also on the psychological and spiritual, making its mark on each of their expressions. Such diversity, linked to the complementarity of the two sexes, allows thorough response to the design of God according to the vocation to which each one is called."23
12. When love is lived out in marriage, both spouses "through this union, experience the meaning of their oneness24 and attain to it with growing perfection day by day."25 Love between a man and a woman is achieved when they give themselves totally to each other in the marriage covenant where God has willed that human life is to be conceived, nurtured, and developed.26 Sexual giving, then, belongs to married love alone where "the
goodness is discovered and activated in the communion of persons and where one learns the value of loving and of being loved." The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family, n.9.
21Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, Apostolic Exhortation (1981), n.21 and n.11. cf. Evangelium Vitae, n.43.
22Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n.11.
23The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family, n.13.
24Matthew 19:6.
25Gaudium et Spes, n.48.
26The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family, n.14. "Spouses are a community of lovers, whose loving acts, joined with the creative power of God, may pour forth into the creation of a new life." Janet E. Smith, Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later (Washington, D.C: The Catholic University of America Press, 1991), 46.
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By its intimate structure, the conjugal act, while most closely uniting husband and wife, capacitates them for the generation of new lives, according to the laws inscribed in the very being of man and of woman. By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its ordination towards man's most high calling to parenthood.29
13. Sacred Scripture provides keen insights into the nature of human sexuality30 and its proper ordering in the sacrament of marriage.31 It provides the foundation for the Church's teaching on sexual intimacy:32 "the biblical Word of God several times urges the betrothed and the married to nourish and develop their wedlock by pure conjugal love and undivided affection."33 Pope John Paul II examines a number of scripture passages which discuss the nature of human love and sexuality paying particular attention to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 534 and the Creation account in Genesis 2.35 The Holy Father's anthropology of the human person is rooted in Sacred Scripture: "thanks to [the
27CCC, n. 2360.
28"Humans have procreative sexual intercourse, intercourse wherein they cooperate with God to bring into existence a new immortal being, whose growth in love and understanding of God they undertake and guide." Janet E. Smith, Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later, 45. cf. Humanae Vitae, n.8, 9, 12.
29John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1997), 432. John Paul II echoes the sentiments of Vatican II: "[Conjugal love] involves the good of the whole person. This love is uniquely expressed and perfected through the marital act. Hence the acts themselves which are proper to conjugal love and which are exercised in accord with genuine human dignity must be honored with great reverence." Gaudium et Spes, n.49 and n.50.
30Leviticus 20:11, 17, 21; Romans 1:18; 6:12-14; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 4:17-24; 5:3-13; Colossians 3:5-8; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18; 1 Timothy 1:8-11; 4:12; and 2 Peter 1:4.
31Genesis 1:27-28; 2:18; 4:1-2; 5:1-2; Matthew 5:27-28; 9:15; 19:3ff.; Mark 2:11-20; 10:2ff.; Luke 5:34-35; John 3:29. cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27; and Revelation 19:7-8.
32For example, John Paul II's commentary on Genesis notes that "the formulation of Genesis 2:24 indicates that human beings, created as man and woman, were created for unity. Formed in the image of God, also inasmuch as they form a true communion of persons, the first man and the first woman must constitute the beginning and the model for that communion for all men and women who, in any period, are united so intimately as to be one flesh." John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 50.
33Gaudium et Spes, n.49. cf. Genesis 2:22-24; Tobit 8:4-8; Proverbs 5:15-20; 31:10-31; Canticles 1:2-3, 16; 4:16; 5:1; 7:8-14; 1 Corinthians 7:3-6; Ephesians 5:25-33. Pope John Paul II adds: "[biblical catechesis] is necessary in order to discover the depths of Christ's words and to explain [its] significance to the human heart [which is] so important for the theology of the body." John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 110.
34See John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 103-111.
35See John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 29-77, esp. 29-51.
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biblical narratives] we have been able to find the nuptial meaning of the body and rediscover what it consists of as a measure of the human heart such as to mold the original form of the communication of persons."36
14. Growth in love, as we have said, is helped by the discipline of the feelings, passions, and emotions which leads to self-mastery. "If a person is not master of self--through the virtues and, in a concrete way, through chastity--he or she lacks that self-possession which makes self-giving possible."37 Chastity is "the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being."38 It is a moral virtue, a spiritual power which frees love from selfishness and aggression. To the degree that a person weakens chastity, his or her love becomes more and more selfish, that is, satisfying a desire for pleasure that separates love from sex and seeks only the apparent good. This is why disordered sexual expressions are sinful offenses against God: "it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human sexuality."39
15. The 'contraceptive mentality,' which permeates much of modern society, undermines both the unitive and procreative dimensions of sacramental marriage. Contraceptives separate sexual intercourse from its inherent openness to life-giving love, and increase the propensity and the temptation to separate sex from fidelity, permanence, and exclusive relationship. In essence, contraceptives facilitate the separation of sex from love and, therefore, "a contracepted act of intercourse ceases to be an act of love."40
"Contraception is the choice, by any means, to sterilize a given act of intercourse. In other words, a contracepting couple chooses to engage in intercourse [the unitive dimension] and, knowing that it may result in new life [the procreative dimension], they intentionally and willfully suppress their fertility. Herein lies the key distinction between Natural Family Planning (NFP) and contraception: NFP is in no way contraceptive. The choice to abstain from a fertile act of intercourse is completely different from the willful choice to sterilize a fertile act of intercourse. NFP simply accepts from God's hand the natural cycle of infertility that He has built into the nature of women."41
36 See John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 125.
37The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family, n.16.
38CCC, n.2337.
39CCC, n.1849.
40Christopher West, "The Sacramentality of Marriage" in Naked without Shame: Sex and the Christian Mystery. Audio Cassette. [The Gift Foundation, 2000], Tape#6.
41Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Of Human Life: Addendum-Some Common Questions (Pastoral Letter, Issued July 22, 1998 [on-line]; available from http://www.archden.org/archbishop/docs/of_human_life.htm. Internet. (Accessed 31 March 2005), Answer to Question #2.
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Vatican II reminds us that harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, which respects the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love, is possible only in the virtue of married chastity.42 "[Contraception] leads not only to positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality."43 Pope Paul VI confirms this in Humanae Vitae 44 and is a constant theme in the teaching of Pope John Paul II.45
16. The truth of the language of sexuality is also missing in sexual relationships between people of the same gender. Homosexual acts themselves, not the person with a homosexual orientation, are objectively and gravely immoral because there is no communion of body and spirit which facilitates openness to the procreation of new life. Homosexuality undermines the truth, fullness, and wholeness of sexual communion. This has always been the clear teaching of the Church and is rooted in Sacred Scripture.46 The Church's teaching on homosexuality is often misunderstood or misrepresented by many in society. Catholics are often accused of discrimination against people of homosexual orientation. The truth is that the Church recognizes the dignity of every human person and condemns social discrimination in all its forms. However, when these efforts place homosexual relationships in complete social, legal, and moral parity with heterosexual relationships, the Church reiterates that "the deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage, is essentially contrary to its purpose."47 Homosexuality occurs outside of the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved.48 Consequently, homosexual persons are called to
42Gaudium et Spes, n.51.
43Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n.32.
44"Excluded is every action that, either in anticipation of the conjugal act or in its accomplishment or in the development of its natural consequences, would have as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible." Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, Encyclical Letter (Vatican: 1968); Rev. Trans. by Rev. Marc Calegari, S.J. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1978), n.14.
45"In the conjugal act, it is not licit to separate the unitive aspect from the procreative aspect because both the one and the other pertain to the intimate truth of the conjugal act." See John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 398. In addition, "When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings [unitive and procreative] that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as "arbiters" of the divine plan and they "manipulate" and degrade human sexuality--and with it themselves and their married partner--by altering its value of "total" self-giving. Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other." Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n.32.
46Genesis 19:1-19; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:10, 1 Timothy 1:10.
47CCC, n.2352.
48Ibid.
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chastity and it is the Church's sincere hope that "by the virtue of self-mastery (and) by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection."49
17. One of the most pervasive and dangerous forms of dehumanization in today's society is pornography. It is arguably the quintessential example of sex separated from love, tenderness, and human nobility and dignity. Pornography desecrates sexuality, but is often viewed by contemporary society as harmless, playful, liberating, and progressive. It constitutes an assault on the dignity of the human person, on the respect due to the human body, and the reverence due to sexuality.50 Pornography, at its core, turns sex into a consumer product and places it in a context of lovelessness, of exploitation, and of pleasure devoid of commitment.
Pope John Paul II recognizes that pornography "is not the effect of a puritanical mentality or of a narrow moralism . . . it is a question of an extremely important, fundamental sphere of values. Before it, man cannot remain indifferent because of the dignity of humanity, the personal character, and the eloquence of the human body."51 This is why pornography is so destructive to the human person: it pollutes and ultimately destroys charity, which is the fundamental mystery of personal loving communion which we, as the image of God, share with Him. It deafens us to the call of love and communion, which God has inscribed in the humanity of man and woman as our primary vocation.52 The whole meaning of true freedom directed towards self-giving in communion and friendship with God and others is lost.53
"Pornography is fraudulent because it depicts 'love' without love. Since the other person is not loved, pornography requires depersonalization and anonymity. With pornographic sex, substitution is not only acceptable, it is essential. As theologian Josef Piper said, pornography removes the fig leaf from the genitals and places it over the human face. Pornography strips its participants of more than their clothes; it strips them of their humanity."54
18. Modern society, with its secular, humanist tendencies, often views the supreme expression of communion between man and woman in the sexual act as something as casual and trivial. The true meaning of human sexuality must be rooted in the objective
49CCC, n.2359.
50cf. CCC, n.2354.
51See John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, 225.
52Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n.11.
53Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem. Apostolic Letter (Vatican Translation. Boston: St. Paul Books, 1988), n.7 and n.18.
54Robert R. Reilly, The Politics of Porn, ([article on-line]; available from http://catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0010.html. Internet. Accessed 31 March 2005).
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good which seeks to perfect man in his totality. It must also be properly ordered to and sanctified in the sacramental bond of marriage where the practice of chastity, through which conjugal love finds its fullest expression in mutual self-giving and openness to new life, gives dignity and value to the human person. Human sexuality, through which we participate in the mystery of loving communion with God, is both unitive and procreative. Hence, the disordered sexual expressions found in contraception, homosexuality, and pornography undermine the intrinsic nature of human sexuality. Ultimately, human sexuality can never find its full expression apart from the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator in marriage, where the husband and wife become one heart and one soul, and together obtain their human perfection.55 "Sex is only what it is meant to be if it is an exchange of the love of God and a participation in the Mystery of God's life and love. If it is not that, then it is not sex as God intends it to be."56
Sin and Human Freedom
19. “God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. ‘God willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.’ Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.”57
20. Man has been made for union with God. God wants us to freely choose Him; He wants us to believe that He is the Ultimate Good. Human freedom, then, rooted in the obedience of faith, has a special place within the temporal order. If we were in the beatific vision (the transcendent order), we could no longer sin because we would realize that we have found the one thing that fills all of our longings and appetites. Every good that we encounter on this earth can be seen as either “more good” or “less good”. The intellect, directed by the will, and informed by syndersis and the conscience, actively pursues the best goods in order to satisfy our spiritual longing for the Ultimate Good. Since we never directly confront the Ultimate Good here on earth, we are free in our particular choices.
21. There are two primary ways of understanding and defining the notion of “freedom”: freedom as personal and subjective, or freedom as interpersonal and objective. The United States prides itself on being the ultimate example of liberty and personal freedom; of a way of "being" characterized by the popular adage, "I am free to do what I want." This subjective freedom is contrary to the genuine, interpersonal freedom that Christ offers us; a freedom that invites us to life-giving love and intimate communion in the
55CCC, n.2364 and Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, n.9.
56 Christopher West, "The Sacramentality of Marriage."
57 CCC 1730.
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- 11 - heart of the Trinity: “I have not come to do my will but the will of Him who sent me.”58 Objective freedom means living, acting, and "being" in a way commensurate with God’s truth rooted in the natural law.59
22. Our culture tells us that freedom means "independence"; that I don't need to subject myself to principles that are true in themselves, but that truth can be changed depending upon current trends or my particular situation. Christ, the Good Shepherd, tells us that man's deepest truth and identity is to be in God--in the heart of the Trinity: to love as God loves.60 The truth of God's ever abundant and merciful love is rooted in freedom--a freedom "from" and a freedom "for"; the freedom from sin so that we can be free for God:
Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure. Often, however, they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that man remain 'under the control of his own decisions,' so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence, man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, neither under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. Man achieves such dignity when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself through effective and skillful action, apt helps to that end. Since man's freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God's grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full flower. Before the judgment seat of God each man must render an account of his own life, whether he has done good or evil.61
23. Free choice is a necessary pre-requisite for spiritual freedom but is diminished (although not completely annihilated) in the person enslaved to sin. When we willingly use our freedom to conform ourselves to God’s holy will--to be the person He created us to be made in His image and likeness, and live in a way commensurate with this Truth-- then we are spiritually free. Spiritual freedom is realized when we lovingly accept God's
58 John 6:38.
59 The natural moral law states that there is a transcendent truth planted within us to which we have access by reason alone (cf. Romans 2:15). The natural law is designed to make us free since "human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfillment precisely in the acceptance of the moral law given by God" (Veritatis Splendor, no.35). Man, then, is truly free and genuinely happy when he uses his free will to align himself with the transcendent truths of the moral life "as the response due to the many gratuitous initiatives taken by God out of love for man" (Veritatis Splendor, no.10). See Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (Encyclical Letter, 1993 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis- splendor_en.html.
60 See 1 John 4:16.
61 Gaudium et Spes, n.17.
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grace in accord with who we are called to be in Truth.62 When we are spiritually free, we are liberated from our fallen condition and directed towards communion. At the center of God's plan for human freedom is the creation of man in view of his insertion into Christ; that is, man is created in light of Christ so that man could participate in God's own Trinitarian life in a communion of mutual love. This is man's truest identity. If freedom is willing conformity to the truth of man's being, then freedom is going to liberate us and we will become members in Christ.
24. At first glance, living according to God's truth seems burdensome because following commandments and living according to a moral code goes against society's view and understanding of freedom. In God’s design for authentic freedom, laws and commandments are at the service of the practice of love. In fact, the commandments are summed up in the great commandment of love: Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.63 Mindless obedience to the commandments is an imperfect freedom, a partial “slavery,” until it becomes our delight to obey them. The truth is that "the more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to 'the slavery of sin'."64
25. Man is created yearning for fullness while still mired in concupiscent love. His deepest truth and identity is to love as God loves. Due to his fallen nature, man becomes frustrated when he cannot live according to this truth, and he comes to the realization that he is finite and incomplete. Spiritual freedom comes when we willingly conform to the truth of who we are, to love with the love of Christ, but sin impedes our efforts to make this choice. It is in this way that sin is enslaving: it binds us to disordered love. The more sin becomes a habit, the more it binds us to the fleeting goods of this world to which we have disordered attachments. Sin establishes an addictive pattern and keeps us from conforming to the truths of our being. Man's free choice needs to be set free, and it is Christ who accomplishes this. Man needs Christ's indwelling love within him to free him from the bondage of sin.
26. Imagine a violin, which has four strings. Now picture one of the strings removed from the violin and laying on a table. Our culture would tell us that the string on the table is free: it is no longer subject to the violin and can now do whatever it wants. In other words, the string is no longer bound by the restraints of the violin and can now "be itself."
62 See Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, nos. 84-87, especially no. 84: “The Crucified Christ reveals the authentic meaning of freedom; he lives it fully in the total gift of himself and calls his disciples to share in his freedom.”
63 Luke 10:27.
64 CCC no. 1733; John 8:31-38.
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27. From the Church's perspective, the violin string is not truly free because its full potential is not being actualized; by not freely choosing to be part of the whole, by allowing itself to be freed from that which makes it truly unique--from that which is true, good, and beautiful--the string can never fully be what it was created to be. The Church teaches that by freely submitting ourselves to God's law, to God's loving care, protection, and divine providence, and by making a complete gift of ourselves to the Giver of all gifts, we can be truly and fully be the people who God created us to be. It is only when the string is tethered to the body of the violin; when it is tuned to the unique and proper pitch that it was designed for; when it is played in harmony with the other strings, that the full potential of not only the string, but the entire instrument can be truly realized and fully appreciated.
28. This is why adherence to the Church's teaching, especially in the area of conscience and the moral life, bear tremendous fruits for those who are willing to give themselves over in love to God's law. Whether in the intimate expression of our human sexuality-- rooted in the life-long covenant between a husband and a wife--or whether in the intimate expression of celibacy, which anticipates the eternal wedding feast in heaven, God allows His children to participate in His creative, life-giving work. This is the Father's gift to us: to allow us to love as He loves; to allow us to give ourselves to Him fully, completely, and freely, just as Christ poured out his love for us fully, completely, and freely on the Cross.
29. The freedom to love is not rooted in "choice," but in the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. The gift of ourselves in complete love to the Father--the gift of our hearts, minds and bodies, our hopes and fears, our desires and dreams--means that we must trust God; that we must allow ourselves to become vulnerable before the God who made us. It means that we must trust God enough to come before Him and not be afraid to reveal and expose the deepest part of who we are so that His love can shine forth in and through the unique and special person that He created us to be. This is the peace that true freedom brings!
30. This freedom can be found in its fullness in the image of the crucified Christ. Society would have us believe that Christ is not free on the Cross; that he is bound by four large spikes imbedded through his flesh and into the tree. This clearly shows that our culture has a limited understanding of freedom; a freedom that focuses on the ephemeral and the subjective--the "I" and "me"--rather the on the eternal and the objective: the "Thou" and the "other."
31. Jesus' style of leadership and authority--the model of the Good Shepherd--is in direct contradiction to a culture that provides us with a leadership model based on power used to control, authority used to dominate, and “truth” that cannot discern what the meaning of "is" is. As followers of Christ, our choice is clear: do we want to use our God given freedom to "climb in through another way," or do we want to enter the doors of salvation "so that we may have life and have it to the full."65
65John 1:10.
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32. Jesus dwells in man through his Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters into man, where He simultaneously accuses and consoles. The Holy Spirit reveals man's sinful nature to him and brings him face to face with his sins so that he does not continue living a lie. The Spirit then shows mercy and opens man to the life of Christ. Man's response to the Spirit is to love, and it is through love that man follows and lives in Christ. Like Christ, man must bear his Cross; he must pour himself out; he must sacrifice himself in love, which is the culmination of freedom.
33. Christian freedom is the highest pinnacle and the summit of authentic freedom not only because "Jesus asks us to follow Him and to imitate Him along the path of love,"66 but also because "following Christ is the essential and primordial foundation of Christian morality."67 Our freedom can also be used poorly when we ignore our authentic freedom and make ourselves arbiters of good and evil. When we "disregard the dependence of human reason on Divine wisdom . . . as an effective means for knowing moral truths," we're left with "the expression of a law which man in an autonomous manner lays down for himself and which has its source exclusively in human reason."68
34. In his search for truth, man comes to realize that his freedom is, in some mysterious way, trying to betray his openness to the true and the good. Rather than choose the goods of truth and beauty, concupiscence leads him to choose the finite, limited, and transient good. In choosing the lesser good, he comes to realize that sin is enslaving and addictive, and binds him to disordered love. Consequently, free choice itself needs to be set free! Christ sets spiritual freedom free for intimate and life-giving love. We need the indwelling love of Christ to set us free, which comes through the Spirit who leads us into all truth--for it is the truth that sets us free.69
Reconciliation and Penance
35. Divine mercy is the Father's merciful love. It is God's loving response to overcome evil and suffering in the world. Divine mercy becomes visible in and through the person of Jesus Christ; through his words, his actions, his death on the Cross and his Resurrection. Through Jesus Christ, God also becomes visible in his mercy. Those who seek and find mercy in Jesus are experiencing God's own divine mercy and love.
For John Paul II, an authentic centering on Christ necessarily implies concern for humanity. If the Church carries on the mission of Christ (to redeem humanity), and if
66 Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, no.20.
67 Ibid, no.19.
68 Ibid, no.36.
69 Cf. John 8:31-38. “Jesus, then, is the living, personal summation of perfect freedom in total obedience to the will of God. His crucified flesh fully reveals the unbreakable bond between freedom and truth, just as his Resurrection from the dead is the supreme exaltation of the fruitfulness and saving power of a freedom lived out in truth.” Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, no. 87.
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Christ's will is foremost and central to what the Church is about, then it only follows that for the Church, the central guiding principal will be to serve humanity.
36. In his theology of divine mercy, the Holy Father envisions the role of Christ as follows:
Jesus is the Incarnation. The Incarnation itself is the fullest expression of God's mercy: God became man in order to redeem us from sin, suffering and evil. Mercy, in the person of Jesus, is love's response to suffering.
Jesus is the model and source of mercy by his teaching. The Lord’s parables and sermons all communicate mercy in human terms which can be understood and put into practice by all humanity.
Jesus is the model and source of mercy by his actions. Jesus' actions include his ministry, passion, and death. His actions also include miracles; extraordinary signs of mercy, love, and compassion which show and express the presence of the Kingdom of God.
37. In his theology of divine mercy, the Holy Father envisions the role of the Church as follows:
The Church professes and proclaims mercy by contemplating and living the message of Christ found in Scripture and Tradition, and particularly through her participation in the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and through forgiveness and conversion.
The Church practices mercy through evangelization, by imploring mercy for others and, in turn, receiving mercy from others. In giving and receiving mercy, the spirit of equality, justice, and forgiveness are forged in the hearts of the faithful.
The Church depends on mercy for herself and seeks it through prayer, petitions, and works of charity which are offered to the Father and implore mercy according to the needs of man in the modern world.
38. Nowhere is this theme of divine mercy more evident than in two of Pope John Paul II’s major writings: the 1980 Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia70 and the 1984 Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia. In the latter, he invites all peoples to listen and respond to the message of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Repent and believe in the Gospel."71 Throughout this document, the Pontiff states that reconciliation and penance
70 Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia (Encyclical Letter, 1980 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30111980_dives-in- misericordia_en.html.
71 Pope John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (Apostolic Exhortation, 1984 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp- ii_exh_02121984_reconciliatio-et-paenitentia_en.html Internet. Accessed 31 March 2005), n.1. Incidentally, this is the single best Lenten study program I have ever seen.
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are essential elements in man's search to understand himself, his neighbors, and his world. This pursuit leads man to further introspection, a deeper examination of conscience, and ultimately to the root cause of disunity and divisiveness in creation: sin.
39. There exists simultaneously a "longing for reconciliation"72 where man desires peace and unity above all else; where he overcomes the desire for evil through acts of penance which inevitably lead to conversion: “reconciliation . . . implies overcoming . . . sin. [This] is achieved only through interior transformation or conversion, which bears fruit in a person's life through acts of penance.”73 The Church has a crucial role to play in the reconciliation and conversion of humanity. It is part of her intrinsic mission to heal the brokenness of humanity, just as Jesus, through his passion, death, and resurrection, “reconciled the world to himself.”74 Thus, through her preaching, practice, and example of a penitential life, the Church exercises its prophetic role in converting individuals, which in turn leads to the conversion of all humanity.
40. Pope John Paul II uses the parable of the prodigal son to show the inexhaustible love and mercy of God the Father "who is always willing to forgive,"75 and how man identifies with both sons in the parable. Humanity is both the prodigal son who, in his sinfulness, separates himself from God and uses his free will to follow his own plans and designs, and the elder son: jealous, selfish, and hard-hearted in the face of the father's forgiveness, which he does not understand and cannot accept. Both sons, and indeed all of humanity, need a "profound transformation of hearts through the discovery of the Father's mercy."76 This reconciliation can only come in and through Jesus Christ, who liberates man from sin and reconciles man to himself, to all of creation, and who restores the "communion of grace with God."77 Since Christ entrusted his continuing mission to the Church, it is her goal and mission "to bring all people to full reconciliation."78
41. The Pope explains how the Church accomplishes this mission by speaking of her as the reconciled and reconciling Church. The reconciled Church makes communion with God and the unity of the human race visible and tangible. The Church, as the sacrament of communion, shows, symbolizes, and expresses this communion and unity. The Church is also reconciling when she lives her mission; when she acts as the sign, instrument, and agent of reconciliation in, through, and under Christ to bring about man's reconciliation
72 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.3.
73 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.4.
74 Ibid.
75 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.5.
76 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.6.
77 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.7.
78 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.8.
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with himself and with God. The Church, in essence, becomes a living sacrament of reconciliation; "a means of conversion to God and of reconciliation among people."79 It is the sincere hope of the Church that through prayer, preaching, pastoral action, living and faithful witness to the Gospel kerigma, and by God's grace that man will experience "mutual forgiveness (and) growth in the spirit of brotherhood and peace . . . throughout the world."80
42. Pope John Paul II then explores the reasons for man's sinfulness and the types of sin which are committed. He begins by pointing out man's failure to recognize and acknowledge his sinful state. In order for conversion and reconciliation to begin, this acknowledgment must be made. The Pope recognizes that man is so ensconced in the "horizontal dimension of work and social life"81 that he forgets the "vertical dimension": man's life in and with God. The exercise of free will, which man uses to reject God's merciful love, leads directly to sin. This deliberate separation from God inevitably leads to separation from the rest of humanity and all of creation.
43. Pope John Paul II describes sin as having both personal and social dimensions. Sin is personal because it is an individual act of freedom The willful act of sin, which can be influenced by both external and internal factors, "weakens man's will and clouds his intellect,"82 and impairs man's reason and judgment which damages the relationship with himself and with God. Sin is social in that the individual's sin has an effect on society and the whole human family. Social sin affects not only familial relationships, but interpersonal and social relationships as well. This sin manifests itself through violations of basic human rights and privileges, and in the loss of dignity, honor, and freedom in all aspects of human life. It is from this perspective that the Pope leads us to see that "the real responsibility . . . lies with individuals,"83 and so all reconciliation, penance, and conversion must start with each individual acknowledging their sinfulness and turning back to God.
44. The Pontiff also describes mortal and venial sin, which outline the levels of separateness from God. Mortal sin is "the act by which man freely and consciously rejects God (and) his law"84 and acts in a way that is "contrary to the Divine will."85 This type of sin, since it is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, destroys our
79 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.11.
80 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.12.
81 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.13.
82 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.16.
83 Ibid.
84 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.17.
85 Ibid.
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- 18 - relationship with God and, in doing so, man destroys himself and his relationships with others. The Pope is careful to make the distinction between mortal sin and: (1) an individual's free determination which orients that individual towards or away from God in the "fundamental option"86 and, (2) those acts that are always intrinsically and objectively evil. Venial sin is less egregious and "does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity and therefore eternal happiness, whereas just such a deprivation is precisely the consequence of mortal sin.."87
45. The Pope also notes that in the conscience of man is rooted a "sense of sin."88 This sense of sin, along with the moral conscience, has become "seriously clouded"89 in the modern world. Thus, "when the conscience is weakened, the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result . . . the sense of sin is lost."90 John Paul II examines the reasons for this occurrence in today's world and identifies several key factors which include secularism, the errors made in evaluating the findings of human science, historical relativism, and "when [the sense of sin] is wrongly identified with a morbid feeling of
86 The idea of the fundamental option is that each person makes a basic choice whether or not to love God and to accept His truth. This fundamental orientation toward God is lived out each day of our lives by the individual choices we make to do good. These particular choices are a response to the God of love who has approached us intimately and personally in Jesus Christ. Through the gift of sanctifying grace, the virtue of divine charity bears us directly toward God, allowing us to love Him and others with divine love. As such, our primary and original love of God is not an explicit, peripheral, and categorical love that manifests itself in outward acts, but rather a non-categorical, transcendental, and athematic love of Him that resides at the very core of our being. It is in this transcendent and dynamic orientation towards God that we grow and develop into authentic persons, that is, we become truly free. However, human freedom--tainted by concupiscence--also provides man the opportunity to refuse God's grace and thus destroy the fundamental option towards God. The moderate branch of this theory states that there is a distinction, not a separation, between the transcendental and categorical levels of the self and it is always through concrete acts that one manifests the inner, deeper core. Thus, one can engage in a categorical act that does not reflect the transcendental level of the self and does not change our fundamental option towards God (venial sin). Likewise, one can engage in an act that is, by its nature, mortally sinful and incompatible with our Final End, thereby destroying our fundamental option towards God (mortal sin). The radical branch of this theory posits that as long as a categorical act is done in such a way that one does not detest or hate God, then, even though one is knowingly and freely committing a grave act of sin, one's fundamental option remains focused on God. Hence, a wedge is driven between the categorical and transcendental levels of the self, separating them in such a way that external, categorical acts are no longer determinative of the fundamental choice at the core of the being. It denies the fact that the categorical evidences the transcendental and the transcendental expresses itself through the categorical. Thus, for an action to be a mortal sin, it must be an expression of an explicit formal break with God, not reflected on the categorical level, but through our basic freedom of self-determination. Moreover, in this theory, 'good' and 'evil' acts are eliminated in favor of 'right' and 'wrong' choices. As such, mortal sin in the radical fundamental option theory becomes a "generic intention"; as long as an individual is sincere, he cannot, through his individual choices, change his fundamental orientation towards God. For more on this topic, see Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (Encyclical Letter, 1993 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis- splendor_en.html).
87Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.17.
88 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.18.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
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guilt or with the mere transgression of legal norms and precepts."91 The Pope also notes that this loss of a sense of sin is present, to a certain extent, in the life of the Church.
46. Humanity, in order to restore a "proper" sense of sin and begin the process of reconciliation and penance, must be reminded "of the unchangeable principles of reason and faith"92 which the Church professes in its teaching and by its example, in catechesis, biblical theology, openness to the Magisterium, and through a "more careful practice of the sacrament of penance."93 The Pope engages in a brief discussion of our relationship with Jesus Christ, the pillar of our salvation, through whom we can begin to understand the depths of the father's loving kindness. If we follow Christ's example and allow ourselves to be open to the Father, who is rich in mercy, we can "evoke in the soul a movement of conversion, in order to redeem it and set it on course toward reconciliation."94 Our response to God's love and mercy must be that of the prodigal son: recognition of our sinfulness, humility before the Father, and the conversion of the heart, mind, and will.
47. John Paul II then devotes his attention to the various pastoral applications of reconciliation and penance, and to their promotion. He describes three means by which the Church promotes reconciliation and penance: dialogue, catechesis, and the sacraments.
Authentic dialogue, which includes "renewed dialogue within the Church herself"95 as well as ecumenical dialogue, promotes "rebirth of individuals through interior conversion and repentance."96 The Pope encourages the Church, in obedience of faith and in the spirit of reconciliation, to "relinquish its own subjective views and seek the truth . . . in the authentic interpretation . . . provided by the Magisterium of the Church."97 It is only when the Church is reconciled herself can she be a "sign of reconciliation in the world and for the world."98
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid. For a detailed study of the Holy Father’s understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, see Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (Encyclical Letter, 1998 [book on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et- ratio_en.html.
93 Ibid.
94 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.20.
95 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.25.
96 Ibid.
97 Ibid.
98 Ibid.
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48. Catechesis is important for reconciliation because it explains the nature of penance and the value of conversion and, by appealing to the intellect, helps to change the attitude of the sinner. Furthermore, catechesis teaches us that "penance also means repentance."99 Showing repentance and doing penance "means above all to re-establish the balance and harmony broken by sin.”100 John Paul II also sees catechetical topics, such as the conscience and its formation, temptation, fasting, almsgiving, overcoming divisions, the fundamental rights, and the "last things of man" (death, judgment, heaven, and hell) as paths that lead to harmony, individual conversion, and universal reconciliation.
49. Sacraments are visible signs and instruments of communion with God that make the reality of God concrete and real. They are experiences of God's presence, power, and purpose in which sanctifying grace is given to the Church. Each sacrament is "also a sign of penance and reconciliation."101 After giving a brief treatment of each sacrament, the Pope focuses on the pastoral applications of the sacrament of penance, noting that priests must lead by example when ministering to others on reconciliation and penance. The Pope goes on to trace the development of the Sacrament of Penance; state several fundamental convictions which affirm Catholic doctrine on Penance; and discuss the rites used to administer the sacrament. He ends the document entrusting to the Blessed Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary the hope that mankind will come to realize complete conversion and the fullness of reconciliation with God and with all creation.
50. The message of Pope John Paul II in Reconciliatio et Paenitentia is still very meaningful, necessary and important for humanity in today's world. It expresses the basic truth of the nature of divine relationship: that God exists in Trinitarian relationship and, since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we possess, rooted in our souls, the capacity to relate to and love God, our neighbors, and ourselves in God.102
51. This relational dynamic is intrinsic and can only be understood in and through Jesus Christ. In the Person of Christ, oneness and union with God is perfectly realized. God, in his infinite love and mercy, allows us to have the freedom to choose whether or not the potential for relationship present in us will be realized. If we live in harmony with our being made in the image and likeness of God, using our freedom to respond to God's grace, then we are living in the fullness of life. If we use our freedom to reject God and choose to worship ourselves instead, living in accordance with our own desires independent of the will of God, we become blinded to the Truth and live in a state of sin: a state of disunion, alienation, and separation from God and from all creation.
52. John Paul II knows that God, because He is rich in mercy, wishes to be in complete harmony with all His creation. The Holy Father also understands that there is an immense
99 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.26.
100 Ibid.
101 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.27.
102 See 1 John 4:16.
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battle raging in the human heart: whether to follow God's will and law, or whether to surrender to our own sinful desires, pleasures and gratifications. Many of us choose the path of the prodigal son, ignoring the Father's merciful love and succumbing to the passing temptation of sin. As pleasing as sin may be at the outset, however, it ultimately leaves us empty, desolate, and void. This feeling of isolation and shallowness is a direct result of our existing outside of the divine relationship, the realization of which comes through examination of our moral conscience and the restoration of the "sense of sin." The process of healing and reunion can truly begin once the desire and longing for reconciliation is reawakened within us, leading us to conversion, penance, and the reconciliation of ourselves to God.
53. The Pope states that priests should, in order to carry out the Church's mission of reconciliation and penance, seek strength through "lived prayer, the practice of the theological and moral virtues of the Gospel, faithful obedience to the word of God, love of the Church, and docility to her Magisterium."103 These norms for a healthy and genuine spiritual life are guidelines which all the faithful should follow. They help form the conscience in a manner conducive to reconciliation and penance, and strengthen the bonds of love between humanity, God, and all of creation. They are also weapons which we can use in our battle against sin. The world becomes the enemy of the Christian and an obstacle to sanctification when we become so attached to created things, living only for the moment and for the pleasures and satisfactions that are produced by the world, that we fail to advance in our love and service of God.
54. The culture exalts power, wealth, and fame; it is enamored by gratuitous violence, licentiousness, and moral relativism; it promotes dehumanization through abortion, euthanasia, and fetal stem cell research, all of which display the godlessness of the world's ways. We must defend ourselves with the armor of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us the strength to reject the ways of the world. We must strive to acquire the mind and spirit of Christ in all that we do and utilize both spiritual and intellectual means to avoid sin. Other practical remedies include avoiding occasions of sin, vivifying our faith, meditating on the vanity of the world, ignoring how the world thinks, practicing self- denial through fasting, abstinence, and other ascetical or penitential practices, frequent reception of the sacraments, particularly Penance and especially the Eucharist, devotion to Mary, and accepting crosses in our lives with patience, dignity and love.
55. The story of the prodigal son also tells us that the elder brother, who has been faithful to the Father, cannot comprehend nor accept the forgiveness shown by the father to the repentant son. Once we begin to live our lives in communion with God and his will, in a spirit of reconciliation and penance, then the world, like the elder brother -- still mired in self-centeredness, confusion, and anger -- will reject us and our way of thinking. We must stand firm in the face of this adversity and use it as an opportunity to fulfill our prophetic mission as the reconciling Church: the mission of evangelization. By spreading the Gospel message, we become extensions of Christ to others; we become lights to those who are in darkness. Our words may often fall on deaf ears, and we may appear to
103 Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, n.29.
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accomplish nothing, but therein lies the Mystery of Christ. Someone "in the world" who listens to Christ's message through us may, by the grace of God and in God's own time, begin the process which leads to an examination of the moral conscience, the restoration of the "sense of sin," conversion, penance, and finally reconciliation.
56. Christ gave us the greatest commandment: to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. When we live a life of reconciliation and penance, we are living God's greatest desire for his people. Through conversion and reconciliation, we become living sacraments of God's divine life and symbols of that loving relationship to the world. By "doing penance," we strive to preserve, maintain, and foster that divine relationship with God and with the rest of creation. Reconciliation fills the soul with peace and consolation, gives hope to a sinful world, and unites the Mystical Body of Christ under Jesus, its head.
The Domestic Church
57. God creates man and woman in his image and likeness, and then blesses their relationship, uniting them in the one-flesh union of intimate, loving, and life-giving communion. On this point, the truth and beauty of our faith is clear: "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own proper laws . . . . God Himself is the author of marriage . . . Marriage is not a purely human institution . . . [and] the vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator."104
58. The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, which is called to participate in the prayer and sacrifice of Christ.105 Familial communion must be rooted in love "and the mutual self-donation of a husband and a wife to one another,"106 which draws the spouses into the mystery of divine love. The marital union is a total commitment, and must, as a result, be exclusive and permanent. The grace received in the conjugal bond of love is shared with the entire family, who strives to promote the dignity of every member. As such, God must be at the center of their home life and their individual lives.
59. This communion of persons is a sacred sign, a mystery, and a living sacrament of Christ's love for his Church. The domestic church is the family, the Church of the home. As the domestic church represents the universal Church, so the love of spouses images the love of Christ for his Church. This reality is not possible without the Eucharist, which "makes the Church" and -- within the lasting bond of sacramental marriage and expressed in the total giving of self in sexual intercourse -- celebrates the spouses' presence, renews their strength, and makes their communion deeper and more real.
104CCC 1603.
105Cf. CCC, no. 2205.
106Hogan, Richard M. and John M. LeVoir. Covenant of Love: Pope John Paul II on Sexuality, Marriage, and the Family in the Modern World. 2nd. ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), 238.
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60. It is the relational nature of God, revealed to us most fully in Jesus Christ, who "restore(s) the unity of all in one people and one body."107 This unity is expressed in a special way through the family, who form a community of persons and "is thus the first human 'society.' It arises whenever there comes into being the covenant of marriage, which opens the spouses to a lasting communion of love and of life, and it is brought to completion in a full and specific way with the procreation of children: the 'communion' of the spouses gives rise to the 'community' of the family."108 Together, the married couple form a lifelong,109 self-donating, and unbreakable union of love: a "communion of persons intended to bear witness on earth and to image the intimate communion of persons within the Trinity."110
61. The family needs the nourishment of the Eucharist to survive. The Eucharist, as the source of Christian family life, constantly renews the marriage covenant. The Eucharist is the source of Christian marriage because the Eucharist is Christ himself; it is the fountain from which spouses and families receive the strength, power, and grace to seek the Lord by living holy lives, and by participating in works of justice and charity.
62. Through the deepening of family spirituality and prayer life, through the strengthening of our efforts to image Christ within us, and by reflecting on the Eucharist and its relationship to the marriage covenant, our families will be greatly enriched and improved. The better spouses understand the Eucharist's role in Christian families, the more they will be able to love Christ present in the Eucharist, in the Church, and in one another throughout their lives.
63. There is no question that the influences of secular thought and culture have a profound influence within and upon our children today. Many of our teenagers and young adults are struggling to hold on to the Catholic belief in absolute truth, and because they have a weak foundation in the faith, they are unable to see how their faith is connected to their life experience. Instead, our youth align themselves with a society that places itself and not Jesus Christ as the center of all reality and truth; so much so that, as
107CCC n.813. This same paragraph adds: "It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church's unity."
108Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families, Apostolic Letter, Issued 2 February 1994 [article on-line]; available from http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2FAMLT.HTM (Internet, accessed 20 September 1999), n.7.
109"The sacrament of Matrimony can be regarded in two ways: first in the making and then in its permanent state. For it is a sacrament like to that of the Eucharist, which not only while it is being conferred, but also while it remains, is a sacrament; for as long as the married parties are alive, so long is their union a sacrament of Christ and his Church." Peter J. Elliott, Rev. What God Has Joined . . . The Sacramentality of Marriage, 112, citing Pius XI, Casti Connubii, n.110, citing St. Robert Bellarmine, De controversiis, Tom. III, op. cit., cap. vi, p.628.
110William E. May, Marriage: The Rock on Which the Family is Built (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995), 65.
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adults, many end-up becoming Christmas and Easter Catholics, or leave the Church altogether.
Solid formation within the family must occur and operate within the context of faith and community so that, as the domestic church, we are continually molded into the image of Christ for the purpose of salvation and evangelization.
64. Families must nurture an atmosphere of inclusion in all aspects of family and parish life so that even the young persons, "who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ and integrated into the People of God, are made sharers in their particular way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ, and have their own part to play in the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world."111 It is within the family-- with the support of the parish--that youth should participate fully in evangelization and faith-sharing activities, as well as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, the renewal of the social order in the spirit of the gospel, and the pastoral ministry of the parish in order to become living witnesses of God's truth.
65. In addition, the sacramental dimension of family life must be encouraged in young people. The home must embody a spirituality that enhances and promotes devotion and active participation in the Eucharist where "grace is channeled into us and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their goal, are most powerfully achieved."112 This must be accompanied by a deeper appreciation and understanding of the reality of sin and the need for frequent reception of the Sacrament of Penance.
66. All of this must be fostered in the home, the domestic Church and foundation of the parish community, where education in the fundamental truths of the faith are nurtured, fostered, and instilled through family prayer activities, including the rosary, meal and bedtime prayers, and Scripture study.
67. Families also have a duty, by extension, to all who are in need of assistance, especially the poor. In this way, the family plays a vital role in" teaching all people that they have an incomparable dignity."113 The values taught and affirmed in families should be affirmed and incorporated into society, and society should respect the rights of the family, especially the right "to exist and to transmit and educate new life".114
68. Families are a special witness to God's loving plan in the world and the breeding ground for future generations of Catholic men and women. The mission of the family to evangelize--particularly parents who are educating their children in the faith--should
111CCC no.896.
112Sacrosanctum Concilium, no.10.
113Hogan and LeVoir, Covenant of Love, p.268.
114Ibid., p.269.
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"always remain in union with the evangelizing activities of the universal Church".115 In this way, the domestic Church, while always remaining faithful to the Church's teaching, works together as an evangelizing society to produce "shining witnesses and models of holiness"116 that reflect the reality and awesome power of God's love in the world.
69. The Holy Family bears special witness to contemporary family spirituality. Mary and Joseph possessed immense courage and enduring faith at a time of tremendous upheaval early in their marriage. They had their lives turned completely upside down and yet lovingly followed God's will for them, even without understanding the still unfolding Mystery of God's plan in salvation history and the pivotal role they played in it.
70. "The Holy Family offers us rich insight into God's view of the family [and] is a model of family life full of beauty, truth, and goodness. The Holy Family was united with Heaven at the birth of Jesus, and shared in the normal, day-to-day activities common to families of that time. There were struggles, to be sure, yet this family ate, talked, prayed, worked, laughed, traveled, and grew together. They were [living witnesses] of God's plan for family togetherness."117
71. Within the Holy Family, “obedience and humility were particularly evident, such as Mary and Joseph's acceptance of God's plan to be parents of the Messiah and their continuing surrender to God's will after the birth of Jesus. Joseph and Mary were Holy Spouses united in common faith and acceptance of God's will, regardless of the circumstances or outcome.”118
72. What lessons can The Holy Family teach us today? That "through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of [educating] and evangelizing their children."119 Parents bear witness to this responsibility by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and humility are the rule; where education in the virtues takes place, requiring parents to teach their children self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery--the preconditions of all true freedom.120 Being free to love as God loves means placing the interior, spiritual aspects of our lives above the exterior, material aspects of society.
115Ibid., p.273.
116Lumen Gentium, n.39.
117Rick Sarkisian, Ph.D., The Mission of the Catholic Family: On the Pathway to Heaven (San Diego: Basilica Press, 1999), 5-6.
118CCC, no. 2205.
119CCC, no. 2223.
120Cf. Ibid.
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The Blessed Virgin and her husband Joseph show parents today the importance of teaching our children that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus and that becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in conformity to His way of life.121 Parents must be examples to their children of what it means to love God with all our heart, with our whole soul, with all of our mind, and with all our strength.
73. Each member of the family has a role to play. “Joseph, as quiet servant to God Almighty, is a model for husbands and fathers today. Long before the 'Lord's Prayer,' Joseph was a living, breathing example of what 'Thy will be done' really means. Mary and her child were entrusted to Joseph's care and fatherhood within their home. He was the protector of The Holy Family and provided the foundation for Jesus' early growth and maturity. Joseph was devoted in love and sacrifice to Mary, and took great care in providing a secure setting for their growing Son, Jesus. He understood the importance of placing God in supreme position at the center of his life and in Kingship over his family.”122 For fathers and husbands today, our mission is clear: to love our wives and children as Christ loved the Church. How did Christ love the Church? He gave himself up for her; he died for her. The husband's headship in the family derives from the fact that he is not the boss, but the chief servant.123
74. “Mary, mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church, points the way to Jesus. Through her beautiful example of motherhood, fidelity, and holiness, all mothers have the gift of a living sign post along the road to salvation. She was filled with humility and sought God's presence in all that she did. Though she rose to extraordinary holiness, it is in the simple day-to-day events of home life that Mary shines as a model of simplicity, as well as love for her husband and child. Mary's greatest desire is for us to find her Son and bring Him fully into our hearts and home, just as she brought Him into her own heart and home at Nazareth.”124
Mary shows us that parenthood--even though it belongs to both mothers and fathers--is realized much more fully in the woman. Hence, “although both of them together are parents of their child, the woman's motherhood constitutes a special "part" in this shared parenthood, and the most demanding part . . . which literally absorbs the energies of her body and soul. It is therefore necessary that the man be fully aware that in their shared parenthood he owes a special debt to the woman. The man - even with all his sharing in
121Cf. CCC, nos. 2232 and 2233.
122Sarkisian, 6-7.
123Cf. Christopher West, "The Sacramentality of Marriage."
124 Sarkisian, 7.
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parenthood - always remains "outside" the process of pregnancy and the baby's birth; in many ways he has to learn his own "fatherhood" from the mother.” 125
75. The fourth commandment says, "Honor your father and your mother." This means that children are to show respect and gratitude toward their parents who, by the gift of life, their love and their hard work, have brought them into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom, and grace.126 This respect is shown primarily through obedience. This is not the blind obedience of a mindless robot or of a trained pet, but the obedience of faith: a spirit of faith in which children, with complete humility and generosity, obey, revere, and continually strive to discern and fulfill the will of God in and through the loving guidance and direction of their parents. "As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents in all that they ask of him when it is for his own good or that of the family. Children should also obey the reasonable directions of their teachers and all to whom their parents have entrusted them. As they grow up, children should continue to respect their parents. They should anticipate their wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions."127
76. This is especially true for teenagers, who should remember these two things: as parents, we will not always tell you what you want to hear, but if you listen to us with the ear of your heart, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, our advice may eventually lead you toward your ultimate happiness and fulfillment, that is, a deep, personal, and loving relationship with Jesus Christ--something that drugs, alcohol, sex and even your friends can't begin to offer you.
We parents may not be as "hip" or as "cool" as you are; we may not always understand your music and your choice of clothes, but know this: we would rather die than see you participate in self-destructive activity. We would gladly take your place if it meant that you will be safe, secure, and healthy. We love you more than you will ever know, but our love doesn't even come close to the love that God has for you. Our greatest hope for you flows from our greatest gift: teaching you by our example of what it means to be fully alive in our Catholic faith.
77. On the family's journey to the Father, we must not overlook the importance of the Holy Family as timeless teachers for our role as parents. Joseph and Mary taught Jesus important lessons about life, as we must do with our children.128 Fathers and mothers must teach their children about the meaning of authentic manhood and womanhood rooted in our Christian faith. "If we do not get involved with our children's voyage to
125Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, Apostolic Letter, Issued 15 August 1988 [article on-line]; available from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp- ii_apl_15081988_mulieris-dignitatem_en.html (Internet, accessed 20 September 1999), no. 18.
126cf. CCC, no. 2215.
127Ibid., no. 2217.
128Cf. Sarkisian, 9.
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adulthood, then, by default, the world gets involved. All kinds of distorted images follow, dumped on our kids by TV, movies, magazines, sports, and other media figures that pitch superficial images [in an] attempt to shape who they should be as men and women. Instead, our example should be the Holy Family, who offers all of us a path to holiness, and through whom we enter the very core of the salvation message."129
78. "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank You for the example of the Holy Family in which the Savior of the World was prepared for his mission. Pour forth Your Spirit upon our families that we may be what You want us to be, a communion of life and love. Let not our individual wants and desires obscure Your wonderful plan for us. Never let hurt or differences or selfishness draw us apart. Fill us with love and forgiveness toward each other, centered on Your love and forgiveness toward us. Mary, Mother of the Church, be the mother of our family, the domestic church. Joseph, Patron of the Church, guard and protect our family as you guarded and protected Jesus and Mary. Holy Family, as you always followed the course the Father mapped out for you, so help our family to stay on course toward our eternal destiny with you in the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen."130
Human Suffering
79. We have learned much about the meaning of suffering from Pope John Paul II’s beautiful example over the last few years. The Holy Father has shown us that there is a profound and indissoluble link between sharing in the Cross of Christ and sharing in the Kingdom of Christ. Man is suffering with Christ and, for the sake of his own Redemption, he is brought closer to Christ and the Redemption of others. The 'glory' involved in man's Redemption is that the Redeemed Christ is active in him and the power of the Risen Lord enables him to suffer and to share in His Crucifixion, Passion and Death. When he suffers with Christ now, man knows that he will one day share in His Resurrection. Suffering with and in Christ is suffering for the sake of bringing God's Kingdom:
To the prospect of the Kingdom of God is linked hope in that glory which has its beginning in the Cross of Christ. The Resurrection revealed this glory—eschatological glory—which, in the Cross of Christ, was completely obscured by the immensity of suffering. Those who share in the sufferings of Christ are also called, through their own sufferings, to share in glory. Paul expresses this in various places. To the Romans he writes: " We are ... fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us". In the Second Letter to the Corinthians we read: "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen". The Apostle Peter will express this truth in the following
129Ibid.
130Ibid, 24-25.
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words of his First Letter: "But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed ".131
80. God has allowed man to suffer and He has graced man with the ability to suffer through Jesus. By man's free cooperation with this suffering, united to the work of Christ, man, in a certain qualified sense, becomes 'worthy' of the Kingdom. Through the passion and death of Christ, man is made a son and daughter of God in baptism. There is a cooperation that occurs and can only be truly realized in a loving relationship of communion, to which God calls him through suffering. This cooperation happens by grace, which is a gift of God and the only thing that man contributes is his free-willed fiat in submission to God's holy will. The work of salvation belongs to God, but nevertheless, man has a role through cooperation, which is why he can talk about being made worthy of the dignity of the Kingdom. By enduring the suffering, man is made worthy of the Kingdom of God: Christ's Redemption is worked in him.
81. Suffering can, in some way, no matter how deep or profound it is, be related to the Cross of Christ and be used as a way of deepening the experience of God's merciful love. Redemption is not a pure substitution. Christ did not suffer so that man would not have to: Jesus suffered for us to enable us to love as He loves. Through the Cross, we can participate in Christ's suffering. He suffered to make more fully ours what He has accomplished, that is, union with the Father. Christ surrendered Himself wholly over to the Father and carried out God's plan of salvation. What Christ has objectively accomplished has to be subjectively appropriated by man and his free embrace of suffering acts as one of the vehicles for this appropriation. Man can take the suffering that he experiences and, by uniting himself with Christ, he is brought back to the Father. Thus, man can share in Jesus' own communion with the Father in a way that he could not before:
As a result of Christ's salvific work, man exists on earth with the hope of eternal life and holiness. And even though the victory over sin and death achieved by Christ in his Cross and Resurrection does not abolish temporal suffering from human life, nor free from suffering the whole historical dimension of human existence, it nevertheless throws a new light upon this dimension and upon every suffering: the light of salvation. This is the light of the Gospel, that is, of the Good News. At the heart of this light is the truth expounded in the conversation with Nicodemus: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son". This truth radically changes the picture of man's history and his earthly situation: in spite of the sin that took root in this history both as an original inheritance and as the "sin of the world" and as the sum of personal sins, God the Father has loved the only-begotten Son, that is, he loves him in a lasting way; and then in time, precisely through this all-surpassing love, he "gives" this Son, that he may strike at the very roots of human evil and thus draw close in a salvific way to the whole world of suffering in which man shares.132
131 Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, Apostolic Letter, Issued 11 February 1984 [article on-line]; available from www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici- doloris_en.html (Internet, accessed 20 September 1999), no. 22.
132 Ibid, no. 15.
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82. Suffering has an educational/conversion value. Suffering creates the possibility to rebuild goodness in the one who suffers. The complete answer to the question of suffering will be found only in Christ, because it is only in the full Revelation of Divine Love that man finds the truth. Suffering is an expression, ultimately, of His love. This is difficult to see since God's love is made manifest in pain, yet man must trust that God is able to work good out of evil and bring about a greater good. Faith, then, is required of the one who suffers and, as people of faith, we must learn to embrace the truth of suffering and see the Cross as God's instrument of merciful love. In His infinite wisdom, God knows that by allowing human beings to abuse their freedom and, as a consequence, to bring suffering into the world that He is able to bring a greater good out of it. Hence, the greater good is not only an expression of God's merciful love for those who suffer; He also brings man into that merciful love. By sharing this love with others, man becomes an agent of God's merciful love in the alleviation of suffering. By embracing suffering ourselves and alleviating it in others, man becomes like Jesus: he grows closer to the Father and is able to participate more fully in the Father's own life.
83. All human suffering has been redeemed by Christ on the Cross. Suffering, then, is capable of being used as the means of encountering and experiencing God's merciful love. No human suffering, then, remains utterly pointless or meaningless:
In order to perceive the true answer to the "why" of suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love, the ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists. Love is also the richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations. Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and to discover the "why" of suffering, as far as we are capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love.
In order to discover the profound meaning of suffering, following the revealed word of God, we must open ourselves wide to the human subject in his manifold potentiality. We must above all accept the light of Revelation not only insofar as it expresses the transcendent order of justice but also insofar as it illuminates this order with Love, as the definitive source of everything that exists. Love is: also the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.133
Conclusion
84. In the light of God's saving action, fidelity to God's holy will frees us to love and disposes us to receive the gift of grace, while obedience paves a path to growth in holiness and elicits a response to the Lord's call to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."134 When we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we freely,
133 Ibid, no. 13.
134CCC n.2013, citing note 66, Matthew 5:48.
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85. I end these reflections by offering the following prayer inspired by the pontificate of Pope John Paul II:
God our Father, through the prayers of your handmaid Mary, may we be obedient in faith so that we can be free to love you with our whole being. As your Word filled Mary's womb, may the precious body and blood of your Son fill us with the Holy Spirit and unite us with you in an intimate, personal, and life-giving bond of love here on earth until we are united with you forever in heaven.
Almighty Father, in your divine providence, you gave the people you created and love the gift of salvation in and through your Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. Just as Mary said, "Yes" to your holy will, may we say, "Yes" to you by using the grace you have given us to transform the world from the inside out. Just as Mary bore your Son in her womb, may we who receive the same Jesus in the Eucharist gain the strength to stay true to our Catholic faith in a world which makes it difficult for us to accept the truth. Just as Mary gave birth to your Word, may we too give birth to Jesus in our own lives, using the unique and special gifts given to each one of us to evangelize; to be faithful witnesses of your love and life within this culture of sin and death.
Merciful Father, Mary's immaculate purity enabled her to enter into the sufferings of Christ in the obedience of faith and in compassionate love. May we bear the trials of this life with Mary's heart, so that in our weakness your glory will shine forth through us, that we may be fully and completely the people you created us to be, made in your image and likeness. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Farewell, Pope John Paul the Great! You will always be in my heart.
Given in Portland, Oregon, on 8 April, the day of the funeral and burial of Pope John Paul II, and promulgated on 15 August, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 2005, the Year of the Eucharist, the third of my Diaconate.
Rev. Mr. Harold Burke-Sivers www.auremcordis.com
135 Galatians 2:20.
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