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. All materials included herein are the property of Aurem Cordis or its associated contractors and clients. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. This publication may be used for personal, non-commercial, informational, or educational purposes only. Any other use, such as the reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission, publication, or display in any form, written or electronic, is strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States of America 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. - 2 - 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. JOANNES PAULUS MAGNUS: At the Death of Pope John Paul the Great© - 3 - 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.