October 19, 2003
Basilica of St. Josaphat, Milwaukee, Wis.

“Praise be Jesus Christ!”

“Now and Forever!”

With those words, Pope John Paul II began his pontificate twenty-five years ago last Thursday, and those words of praise to Jesus Christ are indeed ours this afternoon as we of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee come together on the Lord’s Day to thank the Lord for the gift He has given us in the person of our Holy Father.

We are grateful indeed to Father Callahan, the Conventual Franciscans, and the entire family of the Basilica Parish of St. Josaphat for hosting this sacred event with their characteristically gracious hospitality and reverent, joyful liturgy. How appropriate that we would gather here, in a basilica, which enjoys a special bond with the bishop of Rome, in a parish which so many sons and daughters of the pope’s homeland of Poland have called their spiritual home.

I’m grateful for the presence of distinguished civic officials, for brother priests and deacons, consecrated religious women and men, seminarians and postulants, our Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre, Knights and Dames of Malta, our loyal Knights of Columbus, and so many of God’s People from southeastern Wisconsin who assemble to praise God for the inspired papacy of Pope John Paul II.

My appreciation for your presence is enhanced as I realize that we gather in competition to that other Sunday ritual . . . the Packer Game. Since they’re playing the St. Louis Rams today, it’s not going to be much of a contest . . .

You know, I thought this would be one of the easiest homilies to preach, since to extol John Paul II comes so naturally to all of us . . . but it has proven to be one of the toughest sermons to preach precisely because there’s so much to say. From a purely human, natural point of view, one could give a graduate course on his accomplishments, from the fall of communism to the prodigious travels; from a supernatural perspective, one could speak volumes about a towering man of God who is sure to be called by history “John Paul the Great” and most probably “Pope St. John Paul.”

What I would propose is that we concentrate on two features of his universal pastorate, “John” and “Paul” - - Karol Josep Wojtyla told us something about his vision of his ministry as supreme pontiff of the Church universal when he chose those names of two apostles.

“John:” in selecting St. John, the beloved disciple, as his patron, His Holiness tells us that what is most important to him is his deep love for and faith in Jesus. Had Karol Wojtyla died from his injuries after being hit by a Nazi truck on his way to the factory in 1940, or been arrested and shot like some of his other seminarian classmates, or married one of his many women friends and had a family, or become a Carmelite as he had wanted to do until talked out of it by Cardinal Sapieha, or remained a parish priest at St. Florian or university chaplain in Krakow - - in other words, if Karol Wojtyla would today not be known to the world outside his beloved Krakow - - he could care less, for his most important possession, his “pearl of great price,” the defining, life-giving focus of everything he is, is his faith in and love for Jesus Christ. That’s why a good friend of mine, a priest in Krakow, so proud of this Polish pope, observed to me: “Yes, I’m proud we have a pope from Poland; but I’m more moved that we have a pope from Palestine.” For this is a man who sees himself first and foremost as a disciple of Jesus, and thus chose the name of “the blessed disciple,” St. John, as his patron.

He is like St. John in three important ways:

First, in his intense love for the Eucharist. Remember it was St. John who was closest to Jesus that first Holy Thursday when the Lord gave us the “gift and mystery” of the Eucharist at His Last Supper. If you want the key to the energy, zeal, and commitment of Pope John Paul II, look no farther than his private chapel, where early every morning he can be found for what he terms the heart of his day, an hour of deep prayer before Jesus really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, followed by a reverent celebration of the Eucharist. Like St. John, everyday he has his head on the shoulder of the Master at the Eucharist.

He is like St. John, secondly, in his love for the Blessed Mother of Jesus. It was John to whom the dying Savior entrusted his mother, and this pope has had a tender, manly, sustaining devotion to her since, he tells us, as early as he can remember. He took her motto, totus tuus, “all yours” as his own, and has probably been the most effective “troubadour of Mary” since St. Bernard.

And, thirdly, he is like St. John in that he stands with Jesus at the cross. John was the only one of the twelve to be with His savior on Calvary. This pope who chose his name has been with Jesus on the cross since birth, with his country in shambles after World War I; losing his mother, sister, brother, and father, the only family he had; watching his beloved Poland invaded by the Swastika; friends, especially Jews, disappear; hit by a truck and left for dead; risking his life to study for the priesthood; watching as the distorted cross of the Nazis was replaced by the oppressive hammer and sickle; harassed by communists; shot by a would-be-assassin, mocked by a world fearful of the truth, and now hardly able to walk, speak, or move without pain - - this pope has stood near the cross - - and would not move away from it for all the favorable editorials in the world.

The Eucharist; Mary, the cross - - no wonder he chose the name John.

“Paul”: in selecting Paul as his name, the Holy Father shows that all this intense love of Jesus nurtured by discipleship, prayer, the Eucharist, our blessed Mother, and the cross shows its effects, its fruit, in tireless preaching of the gospel and love for others.

Thus today, as the Church wanted to center on him for his silver jubilee, he preferred to beatify our era’s greatest preacher, the most effective apostle of love, a contemporary Paul who traveled the globe with a simple message of love, humility, and service, now Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

“Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for Mary,” teaches Jesus in our gospel. Paul knew that; Blessed Theresa of Calcutta knew that; Pope John Paul II knows that. Thus would he claim as his favorite title after a quarter-century in the chair of St. Peter that most venerable appellation given the bishop of Rome, “Servant of the servants of God.”

He is Paul: indefatigably traveling, always preaching the gospel, constantly serving and loving . . .

He is John Paul: we love him! We are loyal to him! We thank God for him! We pray with him! We pray for him! We believe that the weaker the world sees him the stronger the Lord sees him! We shout, viva il papa!

“May Jesus Christ be praised!

Now and forever!”