De Labore Solis
A week of sadness has also been a week of strangely mystical confluents.
Coming immediately after Easter, the Christian season of suffering and resurrection, it would be hard to miss the symbolism: Terri Schiavo, a Catholic, dramatically denied a feeding tube and starving to death, at nearly the same time Pope John Paul II is receiving his, reflecting his stated belief that such a measure was morally and religiously required of Catholics and not considered extraordinary life support. It is hard to imagine a more powerful irony or example, or that these events are simply the result of some well-timed coincidence. Much of Schiavo's and John Paul's final struggles were shared together in what became, to anyone with the least amount of compassion or humanity, an overwhelming sense of discordant loss. Catholics understood (but others may not) that Schiavo's family took solace and found peace in the suffering of the Holy Father, who had just days before prayed and personally appealed for their daughter's life, to no avail. Indeed, such suffering is foundational to Easter's message of loss and rebirth.
Although the American Catholic Church must have given the Holy Father fits during his tenure, it was like a final gift that American Bishops and Rome were wholly united on this issue, as the Pope and Schiavo seemed to be inextricably joined as evident reflections of Christ's own sufferings, and man's courage and cruelty.
It can be assumed that none of this was lost on John Paul II, either. He was a man of great intellect, but also a man of deep mystic beliefs, including the apocryphal visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima and the appearance of Jesus Christ to Polish Sister Faustina. In fact, his own birth was steeped in papal legend. He was born on May 8, 1920, during an eclipse of the sun, which does amazingly correlate with the prophecies of St. Malachy, an Irish bishop who died and was discovered to have left behind a prophetic list predicting all popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143. In those prophecies, St. Malachy described the 110th pope as De Labore Solis, "From the Toil of the Sun".
John Paul II perfectly represented the Church herself: an often dissonant rendering of pragmatic tradition and supernatural experience.
After he survived a May 13, 1981 assassination attempt, John Paul II credited the Virgin of Fatima for saving his life, because he was shot on her feast day.
As Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, he vigorously embraced the legitimacy of Faustina's visions, even after the Church had banned further examination. Sister Faustina, a young religious student at a Krakow convent, claimed to have been visited several times by Christ between 1931 and 1938. Faustina described the first appearance of Christ: "In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord. My soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while, Jesus said to me 'paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.' "
The Lord further described what she was seeing. "The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous; the red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My most tender Mercy at the time when my agonizing Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross...Fortunate is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him."
According to Faustina, Christ also spoke of the Feast of the Divine Mercy. "I want this image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. On that day, the depths of My Mercy will be open to all..."
Finally, Faustina said that Christ described a Novena to the Divine Mercy, beginning on Good Friday, and leading up to the Feast of the divine Mercy, the Sunday after Easter.
She wrote nearly 600 pages of recorded revelations before her death in 1938.
Because of then-Cardinal Wojtyla's aggressive support for the Polish nun's visions, the Church concluded the required examinations, and on April 15, 1978 lifted the ban on the devotion to the Divine Mercy according to the writings of Sister Faustina. In 1993, John Paul II beatified Sister Faustina, and in 2000, he declared her a Saint. By all accounts, he was deeply and personally involved at every step. He often said that Faustina's writings "shaped my pontificate".
He died on Saturday, April 2. The Vigil of the Divine Mercy.
He will be buried on Friday, April 8. On that day, a rare "hybrid" solar eclipse will be visible over much of the world.
John Paul would have wanted it this way. Certainly not for personal glory, but for his one last opportunity to show us that if we look, miracles are not dead in our rational world.
Coming immediately after Easter, the Christian season of suffering and resurrection, it would be hard to miss the symbolism: Terri Schiavo, a Catholic, dramatically denied a feeding tube and starving to death, at nearly the same time Pope John Paul II is receiving his, reflecting his stated belief that such a measure was morally and religiously required of Catholics and not considered extraordinary life support. It is hard to imagine a more powerful irony or example, or that these events are simply the result of some well-timed coincidence. Much of Schiavo's and John Paul's final struggles were shared together in what became, to anyone with the least amount of compassion or humanity, an overwhelming sense of discordant loss. Catholics understood (but others may not) that Schiavo's family took solace and found peace in the suffering of the Holy Father, who had just days before prayed and personally appealed for their daughter's life, to no avail. Indeed, such suffering is foundational to Easter's message of loss and rebirth.
Although the American Catholic Church must have given the Holy Father fits during his tenure, it was like a final gift that American Bishops and Rome were wholly united on this issue, as the Pope and Schiavo seemed to be inextricably joined as evident reflections of Christ's own sufferings, and man's courage and cruelty.
It can be assumed that none of this was lost on John Paul II, either. He was a man of great intellect, but also a man of deep mystic beliefs, including the apocryphal visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima and the appearance of Jesus Christ to Polish Sister Faustina. In fact, his own birth was steeped in papal legend. He was born on May 8, 1920, during an eclipse of the sun, which does amazingly correlate with the prophecies of St. Malachy, an Irish bishop who died and was discovered to have left behind a prophetic list predicting all popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143. In those prophecies, St. Malachy described the 110th pope as De Labore Solis, "From the Toil of the Sun".
John Paul II perfectly represented the Church herself: an often dissonant rendering of pragmatic tradition and supernatural experience.
After he survived a May 13, 1981 assassination attempt, John Paul II credited the Virgin of Fatima for saving his life, because he was shot on her feast day.
As Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, he vigorously embraced the legitimacy of Faustina's visions, even after the Church had banned further examination. Sister Faustina, a young religious student at a Krakow convent, claimed to have been visited several times by Christ between 1931 and 1938. Faustina described the first appearance of Christ: "In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord. My soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while, Jesus said to me 'paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.' "
The Lord further described what she was seeing. "The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous; the red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My most tender Mercy at the time when my agonizing Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross...Fortunate is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him."
According to Faustina, Christ also spoke of the Feast of the Divine Mercy. "I want this image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. On that day, the depths of My Mercy will be open to all..."
Finally, Faustina said that Christ described a Novena to the Divine Mercy, beginning on Good Friday, and leading up to the Feast of the divine Mercy, the Sunday after Easter.
She wrote nearly 600 pages of recorded revelations before her death in 1938.
Because of then-Cardinal Wojtyla's aggressive support for the Polish nun's visions, the Church concluded the required examinations, and on April 15, 1978 lifted the ban on the devotion to the Divine Mercy according to the writings of Sister Faustina. In 1993, John Paul II beatified Sister Faustina, and in 2000, he declared her a Saint. By all accounts, he was deeply and personally involved at every step. He often said that Faustina's writings "shaped my pontificate".
He died on Saturday, April 2. The Vigil of the Divine Mercy.
He will be buried on Friday, April 8. On that day, a rare "hybrid" solar eclipse will be visible over much of the world.
John Paul would have wanted it this way. Certainly not for personal glory, but for his one last opportunity to show us that if we look, miracles are not dead in our rational world.
posted by Mark Outland at 9:44 PM
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