and humility
MY GRANDFATHER didn't care much
for Roman Catholics with good reason. Working as a missionary
in the jungles of Mindinao in 1918 he barely escaped death at
the hands of Jesuit zealots who saw it as their divine duty to
drive out Protestant missionaries.
His brush with death left him convinced that the Roman Catholic
Church was the ten-horned beast of Revelation and the Pope the
antichrist; a sentiment shared by many evangelicals of his era.
How different the world we inhabit
today in large measure due to the remarkable papacy of Karol Wojtyla,
Pope John Paul II. Walls of hostility have begun to come down
through his courage, humility and love that are an example to
us all.
Few in 1979 challenged the power of the Soviet bloc or questioned
its hegemony over Poland. Yet, when this first non-Italian Pope
in five centuries knelt and kissed the dull gray tarmac of the
airport outside Warsaw and the bells of the churches of Poland
rang in reply, the world shifted. Hundreds lined the roads cheering
his arrival. Naturally, government leaders had feared thousands,
or even tens of thousands, might welcome the Pope, but what they
saw rocked their world. Nearly one million Poles had come to Warsaw's
city square to honour their native son and hear his word of comfort
upon a people who had suffered decades in silence.
John Paul, however, didn't offer mere comfort but a call to lift
up their suffering and endurance as a "particularly responsible
witness" of the cross and Christ's resurrection. Laying down
the gauntlet he asked whether they were ready to receive such
a high calling. A million thundered "We want God … We
want God!" In that second, the shabby façade of materialism
was rent asunder. It couldn't withstand the liberty found in Christ
and his calling …
"Never lose your trust, do not be defeated, do not be discouraged
… Always seek spiritual power from Him from whom countless
generations of our fathers and mothers have found it. Never detach
yourselves from Him. Never lose your spiritual freedom …
be strong, my brothers and sisters! You must be strong with the
strength that faith gives! You must be strong with the strength
of faith! You must be faithful! You need this strength today more
than any other period of our history."
Such words of courage in the face of fear continue to resound.
We grow frustrated and discouraged in the battle against false
secularist assumptions and hedonist distraction. The serenity
of the Christian enclave and our own private spirituality beckons
when the wearying struggle to establish a truly free, just and
moral society seems far off. Nonetheless, we should hear John
Paul II's words of 1979 afresh to renew our strength so as to
fight the good fight and overcome a more sinister materialism.
The secret of John Paul II's courage lay in his humility. The
sad legacy of Christian leaders Protestant and Catholic through
history has been to obscure, defend or explain away misdeeds.
In contrast, he recognised that truth and influence begin in honest
confession. Rather than excoriate zealous Jews who had unfairly
attacked the Catholic Church for not doing more to resist the
Nazi holocaust, John Paul II apologised for the Church's failure
to do more to rescue the Jewish people. He confessed to Muslims
the evil perpetrated by the Church in the Crusades without qualification.
He wept over the sad legacy of coercive conversions, exploitation
of colonised peoples, the blessing and enriching of Christian
conquistadors and the failure of the Church to recognise the contributions
and insight of Christians from around the globe.
The list could go on, but it is his example that is important.
He left a testament of humility founded in the love of Christ
and His Church. It eschews our tragic reflex to preserve face,
justify misdeeds, and fail to live in truth. By extending his
hand in courage and humility, he sought to heal the wounds that
rend Christendom by the wounds of Christ that unite it.
True courage and humility beget the same and evangelical leaders
such as James Packer, Chuck Colson and others, in spite of withering
criticism, have risked receiving the hand of friendship and understanding.
Out of this has come a deeper understanding and appreciation of
what evangelical Christians and faithful Catholics hold in common
as well as a clearer sense of where our views diverge. Though
a far cry from ecumenical union, many of us have begun to recognise
our brothers and sisters in Christ on the other side of the table
even if there remain important matters that still keep us apart.
In Ephesians, Paul speaks of how Jesus Christ laid low the wall
of hostility between Jew and Gentile. That legacy was furthered
in the life and ministry of John Paul II. To one who embodied
Christ's prayer "that they may be one as we are one".
Requiescat in pace (Rest in peace).
The Rev Dr Thomas Alan Harvey, a lecturer at Trinity Theological College, works with the Presbyterian Church as a Partner in Mission from the Presbyterian Church (USA).