John XXIII and John Paul II. Two Popes single holiness
April 22, 2014: Second Vatican Council in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium
( n. 41 ), reminds us that “The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness
is one—that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God,
and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and in truth.
These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order
to be worthy of being sharers in His glory”. Now the Church's holiness is manifested
in two pontiffs , who are brought together for canonization. The two saints named
John, who reminds us of the forerunner, the one who prepares the way for the Lord
. John XXIII is a leader because the Lord has prepared the way for a greening of the
Catholic Church . He did this by convening a council at a time when humanity was on
the turn of a new era , the task of an immense gravity and amplitude awaited the Church
, as was in the most tragic period of history," says the Apostolic Constitution Humanae
salutis. The stated goal was to put the life-giving energies of the Gospel in dialogue
with the modern world as characterized especially by the progress of science and technology
and above all, preferring to be the voice of the "prophets of doom " who see everything
black but with an attitude of sympathy to the world, because "the world needs Christ
and the Church must bring Christ to the world ," said the Pope in his radio address
on 11 September 1962. Moving on the same lines , John Paul II - who added the name
of the precursor to St. Paul - also came to bring about social and political changes
as a true revolutionary . Benedict XVI , on the day of the funeral of the Pope in
his homily said that he felt " the waft of the fragrance of his sanctity, and the
People of God have manifested in many ways their reverence for Him." The Polish Pope
, among other things in a new way prepared the way for the Lord , crying out the four
cardinal points of the joy of rediscovering the Christian roots of culture. A positive
cry , which goes particularly prophetic in Europe that helped the dissolution of communism
and the fall of the real Berlin Wall, the last symbol of the divisions and wars that
had twice during the twentieth century , torn not only Europe but much of the world. In
his speech to the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council of Culture ( 12 January
1990) John Paul II said , among other things : " An earthly messianism has collapsed
and is located in the world 's thirst for a new justice ." Do not forget , however
that " there is no shortage of new risks of deception and disappointment. The secular
ethic has experienced its limitations and it turns helpless before the terrible experiments
that are carried out on human beings considered as mere objects of the laboratory
. " It was at the prelude of what was to become the new frontier of bioethics. In
the homily of the Mass celebrated in the sanctuary of Velehrad April 22, 1990 , almost
as the precursor of the themes of "new evangelization" , the Pope , opened their
hearts to hope: " The night is far spent , the day has come again . Your pilgrimage
toward freedom must continue. Walk as children of light ( Ephesians , 5, 8). Keep
walking towards full freedom. " The new saints go well together because of their
heroic degree of the practice of the three theological virtues and have admirably
illustrated , described and taught all the people of God who have benefited and still
draw inspiration.