The Most Important Day Of His Life

Yesterday papal biographer George Weigel posted an article in which he reflected upon the baptism of Saint John Paul II:

…in preparing the first volume of my biography of St. John Paul II, Witness to Hope, I described the pope’s return to his parish in Wadowice on his epic first papal pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979. Stepping into the church where he had served Mass, received the scapular, and prayed daily during his youth, the 264th Bishop of Rome went straight to the chapel that housed the baptismal font and venerated the place where he had been "born again" in 1920.

Why? Because Karol Wojtyla knew that that day was the most important day of his life: the day when he was first empowered, by water and the Spirit, to become a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ and a missionary disciple. As John Paul understood it, the most important day of his life was not the day on which he was ordained a priest, consecrated a bishop, or elected pope. The most important day of his life was the day of his baptism. Everything else flowed from that, like the waters in Ezekiel’s vision, flowing from the restored Temple to renew the face of the earth.

As we enter into Ordinary Time, let us remember the mission we received in those baptismal waters: to be Christ’s disciples and to introduce Him to the world.  

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!