This beatification requires our testimonies
Fr Ireneusz Skubis
We are returning from the Eternal City with joy and satisfaction but also with reflection. We are returning after the wonderful events that are testimonies of great faith, love and hope of the Polish Pope John Paul II, a universal shepherd who was raised to the altars. It exceeds our imagination. Not long ago we participated in his audiences, listened to his speeches that made us think. Not long ago he visited different countries in the world, including Poland, and then we listened to his wise words by which he reached people's consciences and posed important questions, which also concerned our religious lives and our attitudes towards God. And now this Shepherd is speaking from a different position - as a blessed, called so through the definition of the Church…
We are returning home and to our inner beings, our hearts, with this very important statement: we have a new blessed, Someone who does not only live in us as a pattern of reference towards God and man but also Someone who wants to help us with God's power, interceding for us before the Father in heaven.
Therefore, the first thing we are going to do is to pray to God through his intercession, asking him for various graces we need.
Secondly, following his example we are to learn how to pray sincerely and fervently. He gave us a true example of such a prayer and with his help we are to become people of prayer. Since prayer places man before God. Prayer is the understanding of man's role and place in the universe. It is a great school of humiliation and a school of strength. We saw such a prayer in John Paul II's life.
Finally, the beatification of John Paul II is an occasion to reflect on your lives, to evoke the desire to become better, to grow to the measure of Jesus Christ. It is also the awareness of the Church, the awareness that man is destined to eternity and that his life does not end on earth.
John Paul II also turns our attention to the matters of our Homeland that he loved so much and testified about this love in various ways. His raising to the altars obliges us, his countrymen. And if we add that we are baptised, we are Christ's people, which means that we should follow the most important commandment of love of God and neighbour, we have nothing to justify our quarrels and malice, mockery and 'sacred' indignation.
There is only one condition: Do we listen to John Paul II? Will we listen to him as the Blessed…? He speaks to us permanently: from the perspective of God and eternity it is not important whether someone is a president, prime minister, minister, director, etc. Posts, offices, dignities pass away and in the end people will stand before God in the whole truth about themselves.
We all have what is called conscience and what should show us the truth about ourselves. Therefore, it is worth, especially after this beatification, rejecting hatred, the father of which is Satan, and rejecting all what leads to it. It is wonder that having the Gospel, having so many good examples, having the teaching of John Paul II we are unable to hear the most important thing: love your neighbour, love your brother-Pole. Since it often seems that it is easier for us to love a German, a Russian, a Frenchman than to love your brother whom we hate, show suspicion and coldness.
Blessed John Paul II says clearly: Let us reject the kingdom of Satan of our times. It brought about the destruction of our Homeland - we destroyed its good name; we did not use so many chances; misfortune affected us and we were left in pain and tears. Thus when we are returning from the beatification services: from Rome, from Wadowice, from Lagiewniki, from Zakopane-Krzeptowki, from Jasna Gora and many other places in our Homeland and in the world, let us make one resolution: Blessed John Paul II, whom the world and Lord God loved very much, You who were a visible prescription for a full and worthy life, we are Your brothers and sisters and we want to see life and each man, including those who represent other political options and opposite ideologies or those who are our enemies, like You did. Since that really makes sense and builds a new, beautiful world, a new civilisation the taste of which You let us get to know.
"Niedziela" 20/2011