A Way For The Church

As he took the Chair of Saint Peter, Saint John Paul II challenged all people to open wide their hearts to Christ, for it is His “perfect love” that “casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). It is His love that gives man life. In his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, the late Holy Father wrote:

Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.

St. John Paul II taught us much about this love that man cannot live without, and we remember this in our permanent exhibit: A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II.

The sainted pontiff showed us this love by visiting his people. Early in his papacy, he made pilgrimages of love to the faithful in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and other places throughout the world.

His travels shed light on the youthful enthusiasm of the Church in places like Africa, where people greeted him with dance and song.  They also brought publicity to places in the world where people were suffering, so that God’s people might properly embrace their poor brothers and sisters in solidarity. They gave him an opportunity to encounter his Church with love.

St. John Paul II also showed us this love through his reflections on human love. The “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960's introduced many errors into modern thought. The late Holy Father recognized this before his papacy, and once he became Pope he made it a priority to address new challenges in the area of sexual ethics.

So early in his papacy, the late pontiff introduced what we now call the Theology of the Body, a series of 129 general audience addresses given over four years. Through these, through other writings, and through his public celebration of the beauty of marriage, St. John Paul II taught us the importance of giving ourselves in love to another.

Finally, St. John Paul II showed us this love through his reflections on the dignity of man and his work. Early in his pontificate, he reflected on the meaning of human work, something that he thought much about as he performed forced labor in his youth and as he grew up resisting a Communist regime’s materialistic understanding of man and his vocation.

In his reflections, he showed us that there is a deeply personal dimension to work. Work is a good thing for man, and through it he realizes himself. Work makes family life and providing for one’s family possible, and it allows the human person to contribute to the common good.

The human person becomes more of who she is in her work, in her relationships, and in her vocation. She becomes more of herself when she gives herself in love in the way she was made to, and this is what St. John Paul II taught us.

Please join us here in the coming weeks as we continue to explore the themes of our permanent exhibit. As you learn more, prayerfully consider a pilgrimage to see these themes come to life yourself.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us!