The Pilgrim's Way: The Dignity Of The Human Person

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the sixth gallery: The Dignity of the Human Person. Every human person is created in the image and likeness of God, and from Him we each receive irreducible worth and dignity. In an increasingly utilitarian world, St. John Paul II tirelessly defended this truth about the person.

The late Holy Father preached a Gospel of Life, calling the Church to defend those like the unborn, the sick, the elderly, and victims of war and genocide. He reminded us to defend and serve every human person as we would Christ, who reveals to us what is truest about man.

Jesus, The Face Of The Father’s Mercy

This week, the Vatican announced more specific details about the upcoming Year of Mercy. They also introduced a logo for the Holy Year. There has been much excitement about this Jubilee –which is to begin this coming December, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception—especially on Divine Mercy Sunday when Pope Francis released Misericordiae Vultus, the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

The Holy Father called for this Year of Mercy, because we “need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy.” He continues:

It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.

We also need to contemplate this beautiful mercy, “so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s action in our lives.” If the Church does not show the world mercy, then how will the world know of the all-merciful Father? How will they know of His presence? Of His love for us? Pope Francis declared this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as a time for the Church “when the witness of believers might grow stronger and more effective.”

There would be no Year of Mercy if it weren’t for the Pope of Divine Mercy. During his presentation at the Shrine last month, Andreas Widmer said that this Holy Year is "one of the many fruits of the teachings of John Paul."

The Jubilee Of Mercy

Last Friday, Pope Francis announced an extraordinary Jubilee dedicated to Divine Mercy. This Holy Year will begin on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception this coming December, and it will end on November 20, 2016—the Sunday we celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

The theme for this Jubilee Year comes from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, in which St. Paul names God as “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4). Pope Francis challenges us to believe that this mercy is for us. He also challenges us to share it with others:

The call of Jesus pushes each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we are dealing with a person. We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much generosity everyone is capable. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house that welcomes all and refuses no one. Its doors remain wide open, so that those who are touched by grace can find the certainty of forgiveness. The greater the sin, so much the greater must be the love that the Church expresses toward those who convert.

Saint John Paul II led the Church through two Jubilee Years, in 1983 and 2000. Let us ask him and the Mother of Mercy to pray for the Church as she prepares to embark on this Holy Year.

In The Places Where God Pitched His Tent

We are less than two weeks away from the canonization of Blessed John Paul II, and only a few months away from opening the exhibit of his life and legacy at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine. As we prepare here, especially during this Holy Week, we thought it would be appropriate to reflect upon one of the most important moments in the late Holy Father’s papacy: his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Blessed John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a key part of the Jubilee Year celebrations in 2000. It was also part of a bigger desire of his to visit the “‘places’ in which God has chosen to ‘pitch his tent’ among us”:

I have a strong desire to go personally to pray in the most important places which, from the Old to the New Testament, have seen God's interventions, which culminate in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.

This desire was fulfilled in March of that year, when John Paul II made this pilgrimage for the entire Church.

His pilgrimage began symbolically with honoring Abraham in Rome, and it continued on to Mount Sinai where the Holy Father meditated upon those moments in the Old Testament linking the Church with the ancient people of the Covenant. There he spoke of “the Law of life and freedom,” and how, through “revealing himself on the Mountain and giving his Law, God revealed man to man himself.”

That Prisoners may be Treated with Justice and Respect

Visiting the imprisoned…

It’s that corporal work of mercy we always remember for Catholic trivia games, but it’s also the one we conveniently forget about when it comes time to serve others.

It is good, then, that Pope Benedict XVI reminds us to pray for our forgotten brothers and sisters this month. His general intention is: “That prisoners may be treated with justice and respect for their human dignity.”

During the Church-wide celebration for the Jubilee Year in 2000, Blessed John Paul II called for a Day of Jubilee for Prisoners. Prison gates should not exclude men and women from celebrating the Holy Year, he said, and his hope was that “the Risen Lord, who entered the Upper Room through closed doors, will enter all the prisons of the world and find a welcome in the hearts of those within, bringing peace and serenity to everyone.”

In his message for the event, the late pontiff encouraged prisoners to realize that their time was not lost in prison. “Even time in prison is God’s time,” he said, and if prisoners approach their time behind bars with faith, then true healing, rehabilitation, and growth can come out of it.

Blessed John Paul II reminded government leaders of this as well. He encouraged legislators to make it possible for inmates to deepen their relationships with God. Their social recovery could then have a deeper, more meaningful impact.

The Holy Father celebrated the Jubilee with Mass in a Roman prison called "Regina Coeli." In his homily, he repeated much of what he had included in his message. One new point was made, though, and it was a reminder that Jesus Christ was also a prisoner: