Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II were not afraid
to look upon the wounds of Jesus, to touch his torn hands and his pierced side.
They were not ashamed of the flesh of Christ, they were not scandalized by him,
by his cross; they did not despise the flesh of their brother (cf. Is 58:7),
because they saw Jesus in every person who suffers and struggles. These were
two men of courage, filled with the parrhesia of the Holy Spirit, and they bore
witness before the Church and the world to God’s goodness and mercy.
They were priests, bishops and popes of the twentieth century. They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more powerful; faith was more powerful – faith in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man and the Lord of history; the mercy of God, shown by those five wounds, was more powerful; and more powerful too was the closeness of Mary our Mother.
They were priests, bishops and popes of the twentieth century. They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more powerful; faith was more powerful – faith in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man and the Lord of history; the mercy of God, shown by those five wounds, was more powerful; and more powerful too was the closeness of Mary our Mother.
In these two
men, who looked upon the wounds of Christ and bore witness to his mercy, there
dwelt a living hope and an indescribable and glorious joy (1 Pet 1:3,8). The
hope and the joy which the risen Christ bestows on his disciples, the hope and
the joy which nothing and no one can take from them. The hope and joy of
Easter, forged in the crucible of self-denial, self-emptying, utter
identification with sinners, even to the point of disgust at the bitterness of
that chalice. Such were the hope and the joy which these two holy popes had
received as a gift from the risen Lord and which they in turn bestowed in
abundance upon the People of
God, meriting our eternal gratitude.
This hope and
this joy were palpable in the earliest community of believers, in Jerusalem, as
we read in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. 2:42-47), as we heard in the second
reading. It was a community which lived the heart of the Gospel, love and mercy,
in simplicity and fraternity.
This is also the
image of the Church which the Second Vatican Council set before us. John XXIII
and John Paul II cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the
Church in keeping with her pristine features, those features which the saints
have given her throughout the centuries. Let us not forget that it is the
saints who give direction and growth to the Church. In convening the Council,
John XXIII showed an exquisite openness to the Holy Spirit. He let himself be
led and he was for the Church a pastor, a servant-leader, led by the Spirit.
This was his great service to the Church; he was the
pope of openness to the Spirit.
In his own
service to the People of God, John Paul II was the pope of the family. He
himself once said that he wanted to be remembered as the pope of the family. I
am particularly happy to point this out as we are in the process of journeying
with families towards the Synod on the family. It is surely a journey which,
from his place in heaven,
he guides and sustains.
May these two
new saints and shepherds of God’s people intercede for the Church, so that
during this two-year journey toward the Synod she may be open to the Holy
Spirit in pastoral service to the family. May both of them teach us not to be
scandalized by the wounds of Christ and to enter ever more deeply into the
mystery of divine mercy, which always hopes and always forgives, because it
always loves.
~ From the Homily of Pope Francis (Mass of Canonization 27 April 2014)
