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Bishop Olmsted's Homily from
Mass of the Dead in Remembrance of Pope John Paul II

A sign of contradiction

In 1976, Pope Paul VI invited Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, Poland to lead the annual Retreat that takes place each year in the Vatican for the Pope and his closest collaborators. Few, if any at the time, would have guessed that, two years later, this largely unknown figure from behind the Iron Curtain of communism would be elected to the Chair of Peter in Rome. Cardinal Wojtyla accepted the invitation and gave a retreat that focused on the person of Jesus Christ and on the dignity of every human person, from the moment of conception until natural death. His series of talks drew richly upon the Sacred Scriptures and a broad spectrum of classical and contemporary literature. One verse from the Gospel according to Luke was lifted up by the Polish Cardinal to serve as the cornerstone for all 22 talks he would give over the course of the weeklong retreat: Luke 2:34, the prophetic words spoken by Simeon to the Virgin Mary as she held the Child Jesus in her arms, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and as a sign of contradiction.”

“A sign of contradiction,” for the 55 year-old Wojtyla and for the 84 year-old Wojtyla who died last Saturday, this prophecy best captures the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth during His earthly life, and the mystery of the living Risen Christ, still present in the world through His Church. It also captures the experience of the Church as she serves her Master in varied cultures of every time and place. It certainly fits with Wojtyla’s experience of being a follower of Christ, then a priest, a bishop, a Cardinal and then Pope.

As a teenager, he witnessed the violent oppression of his homeland by the Nazis of Adolph Hitler. Tens of thousands of Polish Jews were rounded up and carted off to concentration camps, where they would be murdered mercilessly. Many of these were his childhood friends from Wadowice. 1/3 of all the priests and religious of the Catholic Church in Poland would also die at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. And when the Nazis were driven out of Poland at the end of World War II, an equally oppressive and unjust totalitarian regime suppressed the freedom of the Polish people, with a special hatred for fervent believers in God, like Jews and Catholics.

It was in this oppressive political climate that Karol Wojtyla answered Christ’s call to serve Him in the Church. The Christ he loved is the same one that most of us gathered in this Cathedral tonight have come to love. He professed the same Creed that we do every Sunday. And he served the same Lord with a joyful heart. Still, what stood out especially for Wojtyla about Christ was how often He, the Risen Christ, is a sign of contradiction. As the 55 year old Cardinal said during his retreat conferences at the Vatican in 1976, “[Christ’s] kingdom will come in this world in accordance with the program of the beatitudes, and we know that the poor are the blessed ones, the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for justice and those who weep…” Then, he added this observation about the modern world, “There is a desire to ‘re-shape’ [Christ], to adapt Him to suit mankind in this era of progress and make Him fit in with the program of modern civilization—which is a program of consumerism and not of transcendental ends… This opposition to Christ which goes hand-in-hand with paying him lip-service--and it is found also among those who call themselves His disciples—is particularly symptomatic of our times.”

For the man who would become John Paul II, then, contradiction was an inherent part of Christ’s life and something to be expected in the lives of Christ’s followers. Encountering hardship and being contradicted for the sake of Christ, these became a kind of gage for measuring his own fidelity to the Gospel: the more opposition and difficulty the Church encountered the more faithful it was being to Christ. After all Jesus had told His followers (Jn 15:18-19), “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own, but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.”

This mystery of contradiction reaches its summit at the hour of death. For death makes no sense to those who do not believe in the Resurrection, for those whose hearts are set on the things of this world. As Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians (I Cor 15:15):

“If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of people. But as it is Christ is now raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Is it not quite striking that the death-by-denial-of-food-and-water to Terri Schiavo, which was such a source of contradiction and conflict in America and which was roundly condemned by John Paul II, should occur so near to the death of the Holy Father himself, as he was being assisted with a tube for nutrition and hydration?

With eagerness of spirit and without fear, Pope John Paul II, once elected to the Apostolic See of Peter, eagerly proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ to people all around the world. He did not set out to make enemies but to love his enemies and to forgive those who persecuted him; yet he had no illusions that his message would meet with acceptance or approval by all. He knew it would be greeted with mixed response because Christ remains today a sign of contradiction. He is a sign of contradiction, in a particular way, in the face of an expanding culture of death. For that reason, John Paul II spoke constantly of Christ’s message as the Gospel of Life.

On his first visit to the United States in 1979, at a Mass in Washington, D.C. he made this solemn promise on behalf of the Catholic Church in this land and everywhere: “…we will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life.

When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, we will stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God, with the right to a loving and united family.

When the institution of marriage is abandoned to human selfishness or reduced to a temporary, conditional arrangement that can easily be terminated, we will stand up and affirm the indissolubility of the marriage bond…

When freedom is used to dominate the weak, to squander natural resources and energy, to deny basic necessities to people, we will stand up and reaffirm the demands of justice and social love.

When the sick, the aged or the dying are abandoned in loneliness, we will stand up and proclaim that they are worthy of love, care and respect.”

For John Paul II, it was not only a duty to proclaim the Gospel of life and to be, in doing so, a sign of contradiction, it was a great honor and even a joy. So, consistently and faithfully to the end, that was his first priority. Many of you gathered here tonight witnessed this firsthand in Phoenix.

Eighteen years ago, John Paul II was present in this very Cathedral of Sts. Simon and Jude. On that occasion he spoke words that still sound prophetic today. It was September 14, 1987, the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, and the Holy Father said:

“It is easy to understand that God’s plan for us passes along the way of the holy cross, because it was so for Jesus and His apostles. Brothers and sisters: Never be surprised to find yourselves passing under the shadow of the cross. Christian life finds its whole meaning in love, but love does not exist for us without effort, discipline and sacrifice in every aspect of our life. We are willing to give in proportion as we love, and when love is perfect the sacrifice is complete. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and the Son so loved us that He gave His life for our salvation.”

Tonight, we pray for the eternal repose of John Paul II, asking God to grant him the reward of his laborers. We also thank God for this man of faith who in the crucible of suffering refined like gold his commitment to the Gospel of Life.

From beginning to end, John Paul II was focused on fidelity to Christ and His Church. Perhaps his first message as pope, given October 22, 1978, at the Mass inaugurating his pontificate, would be fitting words with which to close my reflections. He said: Be not afraid. Open the doors to Christ, the doors of your homes and families, the doors of your businesses and careers, the door of your mind and heart. Open the doors to Christ. And be not afraid.