A Eucharistic Recollection of Pope John Paul the Great

by Father John McCloskey

I arrived in Rome on October 1, 1978 just in time to wake John Paul I in St. Peter's. Two weeks later I witnessed the election of John Paul II and a week later his installation as Supreme Pontiff. Hence both in my preparation for holy orders and actual priesthood have been day by day and year by year inextricably tied up with his papal person and teachings. Along with St. Josemaria Escriva and Venerable John Henry Newman, he has served as the model for my priestly pastoral work and apostolate during the last 27 years.

At the heart of his pontificate has been his desire to proclaim Christ particularly through the prism of the greatest ecclesial event of his lifetime: the Second Vatican Council of which he was a father. Through his person and preaching, he as given given us the correct interpretation of those teachings and has set the agenda for the Church for many, many decades ahead. At the heart of his teaching is that all are called to holiness in the middle of the world and that is achieved above all, through the contemplative life of grace that is gained through the sacraments and prayer that lead to the imitation of Christ in his "sincere gift of self" to others.

I concelebrated the Mass with the pope with many other priests in Rome in '92 and at World Youth Days in Paris in '97 and Czestochowa in '91, in the driving rain in Giant Stadium in New Jersey in '95. But the last time was on another level. In January 2002, I concelebrated with a small group of priests in his private chapel sitting just a few steps behind him, watching the intensity of his prayer before Mass. Listening to his groanings filled with the Holy Spirit, and the agonizing, slow, painful renewal of the Holy Sacrifice of a man wracked with pain and exhaustion with the burden of the whole world on his hunched over shoulders. There I learned the historical and unique greatness of John Paul II — where he got his strength from — his identification with Christ on the Cross and the centrality of the Mass and Eucharist in his life. From this came his effectiveness, his holiness and his Greatness. As we came out, he gave each one of us a rosary because when or where Christ or the pope or ourselves are on the Cross, Mary is always at our side to comfort us.