John Paul II and Old Age
The youngest pope since Pope
Pius IX was elected in 1846, John Paul entered the papacy as
an exceptionally healthy relatively young man who unlike previous
popes swam and skied. However after twenty-six years on the papal
throne, a serious assassination attempt and a number of cancer scares,
John Paul's physical health is poor. In May 2003, the Vatican confirmed
that, as international observers had suspected, Pope John Paul is
suffering from Parkinson's
disease. He has difficulty speaking and hearing. He also has
severe arthritis in his right knee, developed following a hip replacement.
Nevertheless, he has continued to tour the world. Despite speculation
that he may resign, he appears determined to remain in office until
his death. Those who have met him say that, though physically in
poor shape, he remains mentally in full health.
John Paul II has spoken often of the font of strength of the elderly
in the Church, "When God permits us to suffer because of illness,
loneliness or other reasons associated with old age, He always gives
us the grace and strength to unite ourselves with greater love to
the sacrifice of His Son and to share ever more fully in His plan
of salvation. Let us be convinced of this: He is our Father, a Father
rich in love and mercy!" Monsignor Thomas Wells remarks, "A
number of commentators have remarked that our Holy Father may be
giving some of his most valuable service in what are probably the
last years of his Papacy. In a world that increasingly sees old
age as a burden, and which is starting to push both for euthanasia
and assisted suicide, we have the constant image of a man who suffers
physical pain with every step he takes but who continues to challenge
with his thinking, his enthusiasm and his generosity."
When it comes to what we expect of our leaders we're all the same.
We want them to be, if not mirror images of ourselves, then reflections
of the best of ourselves, images of what we want to be. What makes
us different is how we define that "best."
By who he is and by how he is, John Paul II is challenging our
very notions of Church leadership. Here is a man in his sunset years,
who understandably can no longer stride across the world's stage
as he once did. He struggles to speak. He can hardly walk. Though
mentally sharp, still he is tired. Such a figure in a prominent
position proves an embarrassment to a culture in which appearances
and efficiency are often considered the measure of leadership.
Without prejudice to all the requirements of the Petrine ministry,
such embarrassment beckons each of us to examine the real issue.
Christ's humiliation-his passion and death-and his resurrection
stand at the salvific center of his entire redemptive life. Paraphrasing
Teresa of Jesus, one of the greatest Christian mystics, ours is
not a time for following everyone, but only those who model their
lives on Christ. He is the "leader in the work of salvation [made]
perfect through suffering" (Heb 2:10). Thus the life of the Church,
and by association, the life of every Christian and of every Christian
minister, is salvific for itself and for the world to the degree
that it does mirror-Jesus Christ-sharing "in his sufferings by being
formed into the pattern of his death" (Phil 3:10).
Is what some call John Paul's "clinging to power" actually his
fidelity to God's call: not to papacy as such, but to the testimony
of what is at the heart of all evangelical ministry? The call to
shepherding, perhaps, even to the laying down of one's
life?
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