Fr. Barron: Heroic hope of John XXIII and heroic courage of John Paul II
(Vatican Radio) With the canonization of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul
II, Catholics around the world have been reflecting on the lives of heroic virtue
led by these two beloved leaders of the Church.
One of the many pilgrims who
came to Rome for Sunday’s canonization of the two Popes was Fr Robert Barron, rector
of Chicago's Mundelein Seminary, and founder of the online initiative Word on Fire.
“John
XXIII, was a man of tremendous justice,” said Fr. Robert Barron in an interview with
Vatican Radio’s Ann Schneible. We know of this great justice on the part of John
XXIII, he said, “because of the very courageous way in which he saved the lives of
upward of 25,000 Jews during the Nazi period… at great personal risk.”
In calling
the second Vatican Council, Fr. Barron added, Pope Roncalli also demonstrated “heroic
hope”. “Here’s a 77 year old man at the time, a Church historian – so he knew the
dark side of the Church’s history – yet he knew that the Holy Spirit’s always guiding
the Church.”
“I think it was an enormous act of hope for this elderly man that
many saw as a ‘caretaker pope,’ to call this extraordinary council,” he said.
For
his part, John Paul II demonstrated heroic courage, Fr. Barron said. Having suffered
through the Nazi occupation of Poland as child, then the communist occupation as a
young priest, Karol Wojtyla had been “under surveillance” his entire life. It took
“extraordinary courage, he said, “to face that down for years and years… and then
to stand up there, in 1979, in the belly of the beast, to call for the worship of
God, for human rights”.
Through his courage, John Paul II had an essential
role in bringing about the collapse of communism, by “calling the people to spiritual
freedom”. He went “into the heart of the communist empire,” with its nuclear weapons
and massive army. “But he knew there was something more powerful, which is the human
spirit, fueled by the Divine Spirit: nothing can stop that. And John Paul, in the
midst of his own country, calling his people to worship God, calling them to embrace
human rights, and when they responded the way they did, that was the beginning of
the end of communism”.
Both John XXIII and John Paul II, moreover, confronted
atheist ideologies, by signaling “powerfully the spiritual dimension of life”.
“The
danger in the West is a secularism,” Fr. Barron said, “which just flattens out life
to what we can see in front of us, to our immediate gratification, and so on.”
These
two popes, in response, offer a “reminder of the power of the spiritual reality”.
“That’s
what brings us to life,” he said. “That’s what really makes us human. And, ironically,
that’s what makes us more committed to doing good in the world. It’s a flattened-out
secularism that says: ‘well, my life’s about me, I get it my way, I get what I want’.
But when you’re deeply aware of God, the reality, of God, then the moral demand becomes
very powerful, and you turn to this world to make it better”.
“Look at John
Paul’s commitment to social justice in this world. Read John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris.
You find the same thing. It’s precisely this belief in God, the spiritual dimension,
that opens us to a deeper commitment to the world. That’s a hugely important message
today”.
Listen to Ann Schneible’s interview with Fr Robert Barron: