We are his legacy…

We learned the word ” Pope” by point­ing to his pic­ture. We have seen his quotes on posters, cards, and adver­tise­ments for as long as we can remem­ber. Maybe many of our older broth­ers and sis­ters have gone to his World Youth Days, and many of us were hop­ing to see him this sum­mer in at the World Youth Day in Ger­many. For all of us who are younger than 27, Pope John Paul II is the Holy Father who has shaped us in the Catholic faith more than any­one. We, the Catholic youth of the world, are his legacy. In this les­son we will remem­ber the mes­sage he gave us, and the ways that we can live up to it. 

His mes­sage to Youth

From Den­ver to the Phillip­ines, Paris to Toronto we helped him break records. They were the biggest gath­er­ings of young peo­ple in his­tory. We were attracted to his mes­sage, because he believed in us. He had  faith in our poten­tial and hope for our great­ness. When other peo­ple were say­ing that young peo­ple “just couldn’t help them­selves” from doing bad things, he knew the power of God’s grace in our hearts and chal­lenged us to be coura­geous; to not be afraid to change the world for the good. He told us:

“In you there is hope, for you belong to the future, just as the future belongs to you. For hope is always linked to the future; it is the expec­ta­tion of ‘future good things’. As a Chris­t­ian virtue, it is linked to the expec­ta­tion of those eter­nal good things which God has promised to man in Jesus Christ. And at the same time, this hope, as both a Chris­t­ian and a human virtue, is the expec­ta­tion of the good things which man will build, using the tal­ents given him by Providence.”

Dear young friends, it is to your prayers that I want to entrust the prob­lems of your own fam­i­lies and of all the fam­i­lies of the world…the Pope counts very much on your prayers.

With enthu­si­asm and  exu­ber­ant energy, young peo­ple ask to be encour­aged to become “lead­ing char­ac­ters in evan­ge­liza­tion and par­tic­i­pants in the renewal of soci­ety” (Cristi­fi­de­les laici, 46).

 Never let your­selves be dis­cour­aged by evil! For this you will need the help of prayer and the con­so­la­tion that is born from an inti­mate friend­ship with Christ. Only in this way, liv­ing the expe­ri­ence of God’s love and radi­at­ing Gospel fel­low­ship, will you be able to be the builders of a bet­ter world, gen­uine peace­ful and peace­mak­ing men and women.

“You have come look­ing for me.”

Lis­ten­ing to Pope John Paul II was like hear­ing some­thing you already knew in your heart, but it was the way he said it that made it new. He is the only man who could stand up on a stage in front of mil­lions, yet make each per­son feel like they were hav­ing a per­sonal con­ver­sa­tion with him. He spoke to the mul­ti­tude in Spain as if speak­ing to an old friend: “I am back with you again. We know one another from pre­vi­ous meet­ings, such as the one in Toronto, Canada. I embrace each one of you…I con­fess to you that I have been look­ing for­ward very much to this meet­ing with you (May 3, 2003).” On a few occa­sions, he had a spon­ta­neous con­ver­sa­tion with the crowd of youth, in an exchange between one man with a micro­phone, and the shouts of hun­dreds of thousands.

 There was some­thing about his per­son that drew all peo­ple to him. As he lay dying, he directed some of his last words to the youth that gath­ered under his win­dow: “I had looked for you. Now you have come look­ing for me.” His faith­ful­ness and self­less­ness were attrac­tive and made peo­ple pay atten­tion to him. 

 Even under Nazi  and com­mu­nist per­se­cu­tion or fierce crit­i­cism, he never backed down from what he believed. He helped bring down com­mu­nism in East­ern Europe, and yet he acknowl­edges the evil that it did while it existed 

 He was loyal to his Chris­t­ian faith, and authen­tic in his priestly voca­tion. At the same time, his self­less­ness touched peo­ple of all types.

 He became our hero and leader not just because he was Pope, but because he sac­ri­ficed him­self in order to bring us Christ. His love for all peo­ple, espe­cially the youth, moti­vated him to travel with­out rest in order to reach as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble. He knew that he was called to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, and was faith­ful to that call by try­ing to do as Christ would do. As his biog­ra­pher George Weigel said: “He’s been appre­ci­ated as a man of cul­ture, a man of great human sym­pa­thies, a man of great courage and integrity and com­pas­sion. I won­der, though, if he’s been appre­ci­ated for what he in fact was-​​the great­est Chris­t­ian wit­ness of the past century?”

He was a Chris­t­ian first, and thus by his life he chal­lenges us to live the same way as authen­tic Chris­tians. We are attracted to him because he is like Christ, and we fol­low him because we see that he brings us to Christ. This is what every Chris­t­ian is called to be for other people.

The two flags

 Pope John Paul II saw clearly that there are two flags that fly over the world, and a bat­tle between two sides: the cul­ture of life and the cul­ture of death. Amidst the dark­ness of a grow­ing accep­tance of abor­tion,  euthana­sia, embry­onic stem-​​cell research, and other forces that threat­ened human life, he stood strong for the cul­ture of life. 

He believed in true love. He spoke to us of the true beauty of mar­riage and sex­u­al­ity in a cul­ture that often tries to make us slaves to our pas­sions. He taught us to value these trea­sures and pro­mote them in the world around us.  

He encour­aged oth­ers to fight on his side, because he knew that the Church is more than just the Pope and that lay peo­ple are nec­es­sary so as to win he war for Christ. “Fail­ures to reverse the cul­ture of death are the fail­ures of all the peo­ple of the Church who have an oppor­tu­nity to build a cul­ture of life-​​and don’t,” explained Weigel. It is for this rea­son that John Paul II urged gov­ern­ment lead­ers and all Chris­tians to “be not afraid” in stand­ing up for their values.

Pres­i­dent George W. Bush, on his return from the funeral of the Pope, com­mented on his reflec­tions dur­ing the cer­e­mony: “I thought a lot about Pope John Paul II. I mean, here’s a 

per­son who has shown that a sin­gle indi­vid­ual can make a big dif­fer­ence in his­tory and that, in my judg­ment, he received his great power and strength from the Almighty. And tides of moral rel­a­tivism kind of washed around him, but he stood strong as a rock. And that’s why mil­lions came to admire and love him.”

A show of gratitude

 On Sat­ur­day, April 2, at 6:50 p.m. the bells in down­town Rome began peal­ing wildly. The crowds raced to cabs while pulling out their cell phones to find out what was hap­pen­ing. Rivers of peo­ple flooded towards St. Peter’s Square for one last good­bye and thank you to the dying Pope. Unlike the silence of the night before, this night was filled with singing and cheer­ing of a last show of  grat­i­tude. At 9:00 a car­di­nal came out to lead the rosary, and at 9:37 Pope John Paul II went “back to the Father’s house”.

 The next few days  saw a mirac­u­lous move­ment of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of over 3 mil­lion peo­ple who trav­eled to Rome for the funeral of the Holy Father. Some were not even Catholic, but felt that they “just had to be there.” They came with­out a place to stay, nor food to eat, and waited in line for 24 hours to see the body of John Paul II laid out. They car­ried signs that said “We’re not afraid.” They were not com­ing for a spec­ta­cle, but to say thank you to the man who changed their lives.

Our chance to say thank you

 Many priests call them­selves “JP2 priests” because it was the exam­ple of this man who inspired them to embrace their voca­tion. 

In the same way, we are “JP2 youth,” called to embrace our Catholic faith and live up to the hope the Holy Father placed in us. It is a hope that Christ has in us. We have our own way to say thank you, by liv­ing out the legacy the John Paul II has left us. 

Some of us will go to World Youth Day this sum­mer in Ger­many, gath­er­ing with other young peo­ple to renew our enthu­si­asm for the faith and com­mit more deeply to the cul­ture of life. The mes­sage of the World Youth Days rings in our hearts, to be evan­ge­liz­ers who are not afraid to teach the Gospel. Christ is the answer to the ques­tion of every human heart, and we are the ones who can give this answer to them.

 John Paul II was a wit­ness to hope, and so we are called to be the same for those around us, a sign of con­fi­dence that God is with us and cares for us. We are called to live life fully and enthu­si­as­ti­cally, not dis­cour­aged by the bad things that hap­pen around us. He inspires us to be coura­geous and gen­er­ous in find­ing our per­sonal voca­tions and fol­low­ing what God has cre­ated us for, know­ing that with our sur­ren­der God can do mar­velous things as he did with John Paul. 

In this way we can carry on what Pope John Paul II has started, and be all that he hoped we could be. He has left a strong legacy, and now after his death we will prove how much he has given with his life.

Bible Blurbs

• Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burn­ing within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scrip­tures to us?”  (Luke 24:32)

• “I address you, young peo­ple, for you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have con­quered the evil one.” (1 John 2:14)

• “Let no one have con­tempt for your youth, but set an exam­ple for those who believe, in speech, con­duct, love, faith, and purity.” (1 Tim­o­thy 4:12) 

Pope Quotes

• “Dear young peo­ple, your jour­ney does not end here… Con­tinue to con­tem­plate God’s glory and God’s love, and you will receive the enlight­en­ment needed to build the civ­i­liza­tion of love …to see the world trans­fig­ured by God’s eter­nal wis­dom and love.” 
• ” Dear young peo­ple, do not doubt God’s love for you! He has reserved for you a place in his heart and a mis­sion in the world …the Church needs you, she needs your com­mit­ment and gen­eros­ity; the Pope needs you and… he is ask­ing you to take the Gospel on the paths of the world.” 

Saints and Heroes:

Saint John Bosco -  (1815-​​1888) Don Bosco was a priest who lived in north­ern Italy dur­ing the time of the indus­trial rev­o­lu­tion, when much child labor was used. Boys often suf­fered the most from the hard work, slum con­di­tions, and lack of edu­ca­tion. Many boys lived lit­er­ally on the streets and many turned to crime. Don Bosco ded­i­cated him­self untir­ingly to offer­ing friend­ship, a healthy atmos­phere, pro­fes­sional edu­ca­tion, and spir­i­tual for­ma­tion to the boys who lived in these dif­fi­cult con­di­tions. He formed a reli­gious com­mu­nity of men who are ded­i­cated to the for­ma­tion of youth around the world. It is one of the biggest reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions in the Church.

Cilla Gal­leazo  : (1961-​​1976) Cilla (pro­nounced “Cheela”) was a teenager in Italy dur­ing the mid-1970’s, a moment when many young peo­ple in soci­ety rebelled against the Chris­t­ian faith and val­ues. She was a pretty girl who was known for her smile and her kind­ness. When most of her class­mates declared them­selves unbe­liev­ers, she declared her­self a Chris­t­ian with courage and humil­ity, but in her diary she often wrote that she did not feel like her faith was strong. Dur­ing her first year of high school she met a group of Catholic young peo­ple called “Com­mu­nion and Lib­er­a­tion.”  With these new friends she found she was not alone. Her faith and love grew tremen­dously that year, and she helped bring many peo­ple closer to Christ. That sum­mer, rid­ing with a friend on their way back from a dis­cus­sion group, the car swerved to avoid a head-​​on col­li­sion with a truck. She was killed when the car went off the road. Her funeral was packed with young peo­ple who came to pay trib­ute to her exam­ple and love. 

Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church

(On the mys­tery of the Church)

• 816  The sole Church of Christ is that which our Sav­ior, after his Res­ur­rec­tion, entrusted to Peter’s pas­toral care, com­mis­sion­ing him and the other apos­tles to extend and rule it.… 
• 830  The word “catholic” means “uni­ver­sal,” in the sense of “accord­ing to the total­ity” or “in keep­ing with the whole.” The Church is catholic in a dou­ble sense: First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her…
• 831 Sec­ondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mis­sion to the whole of the human race: All men are called to belong to the new Peo­ple of God…
• 776 As sacra­ment, the Church is Christ’s instru­ment. ..The Church “is the vis­i­ble plan of God’s love for human­ity,” because God desires “that the whole human race may become one Peo­ple of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one tem­ple of the Holy Spirit.”

Vocab­u­lary

Authenticity-​​  “walk­ing the talk”, being gen­uine, with­out false­ness, being what you show your­self to be.

Super­nat­ural char­ity: Love for God. Love of oth­ers from God’s point of view.

Human char­ity: Kind­ness, respect, and gen­eros­ity towards others.

Com­pas­sion  - Feel­ing of sym­pa­thy for the dis­tress of oth­ers, with the desire to help them

Courage - The capac­ity to meet dan­ger with­out giv­ing way to fear; to have the courage of one’s con­vic­tions; to be will­ing to put one’s opin­ions into practice.

Enthu­si­asm - Pos­i­tive inten­sity, zeal, pas­sion. In Greek this word means being “in God”, being pos­sessed by God

Faith -  belief and trust in God 

 Faith­ful­ness - stead­fast adher­ence to the per­son or value to which one is commited.

Gen­eros­ity -  Giv­ing freely of our own pos­ses­sions, time and or tal­ent to some­one else

Hope - Super­nat­ural hope:  Con­fi­dence in God’s gift of heaven. Con­fi­dence in God’s mercy.

Human hope:  Con­fi­dence that good will hap­pen. Con­fi­dence that things will work out well

 Integrity  -  Stead­fast adher­ence to a strict moral or eth­i­cal code.  The state of being unim­paired; sound­ness.  The qual­ity or con­di­tion of being whole or undi­vided; completeness.

 Loy­alty  -  Stead­fast alle­giance.  Faith­ful to a per­son, ideal, cus­tom, cause, or duty.

Sac­ri­fice -  Giv­ing up or for­go­ing some­thing val­ued for the sake of some­one else or some­thing important

Self­less­ness -  Devo­tion to another person’s wel­fare or inter­ests and not one’s own

Sur­ren­der -  Giv­ing our­selves com­pletely over to God, to another per­son, or to a mission

Wit­ness -  Stand­ing for the per­son we believe in, pro­vid­ing evi­dence with our lives, tes­ti­fy­ing to our reli­gious beliefs

Dis­cus­sion Ques­tion Options

1. Who was John Paul II in your eyes? A great leader? A far­away fig­ure­head? A father who truly looked out for all those in his care? A saint who changed the world?
2. Let’s think of all the ways that Pope John Paul II has impacted us per­son­ally. In what ways has he touched us, all the way from Rome (per­sonal expe­ri­ences, teach­ings, inspi­ra­tional quotes, youth pro­grams, etc.)?
3. How could you show that the Pope was really the Vicar of Christ, another Christ on earth? In what ways did he imi­tate Christ in his own life?
4. How can you be strong in your Catholic faith, and at the same time kind to any­one who you meet on the streets? Does stand­ing up for what you believe in mean cut­ting off cer­tain types of peo­ple? Or does being open to other peo­ple mean water­ing down what you believe in? How did the Pope bal­ance these two things? How did Christ do it?
5. If John Paul II were can­on­ized, what would you make him the patron of? What do you think was the most impor­tant out­reach of his life?

Jour­nal Writ­ing Options

1. Do you believe that your life can change the world like John Paul’s did? Is it hard to believe that he was once an ordi­nary stu­dent like you are now?  Read the story of Karol Wojtyla, and find at least three sim­i­lar­i­ties between his life and yours. Write about these sim­i­lar­i­ties, and one thing you can do to fol­low the exam­ple of his life.
2. What do you admire most about the Pope? What is the great­est les­son you have learned from his life? Write about your own thoughts on the occa­sion of his funeral, and how he has inspired you to be a bet­ter person.

Res­o­lu­tion Ideas

1. Divide stu­dents into four groups. Each group writes an expla­na­tion with rea­sons of why we fol­low the Pope as the Vicar of Christ and head of the Catholic Church. Assign each group a dif­fer­ent audi­ence to direct their expla­na­tions to: a group of Catholics who do not agree with the Pope, a group of non-​​Catholic Chris­tians who do not want to be under the head­ship of the Pope, a group of Jews who do not believe in Christ, and a group of athe­ists who do not believe in God.
2. Orga­nize a trib­ute for Pope John Paul II for your school. Stu­dents can choose the for­mat: video, slide pre­sen­ta­tion of pho­tos, read­ing some of his speeches or poetry, hang­ing up posters and quotes around the school, etc.
3. Make a time­line of the papacy and accom­plish­ments of John Paul II. Assign each stu­dent a year from his papacy, and have them make a report and visual piece for the timeline.
4. Divide the Pope’s Let­ter to Young Peo­ple, Dilecti Amici, into sec­tions. In groups, stu­dents read the sec­tions, and pick out the 3 most impor­tant points to report back to the rest of the class.
5. Go on a field trip in honor of the Holy Father. Read the excerpt from his let­ter to young peo­ple: ” And so my hope for you young peo­ple is that your “growth in stature and in wis­dom” will come about through con­tact with nature. Make time for this! Do not miss it! Accept too the fatigue and effort that this con­tact some­times involves, espe­cially when we wish to attain par­tic­u­larly chal­leng­ing goals. Such fatigue is cre­ative, and also con­sti­tutes the ele­ment of healthy relax­ation which is as nec­es­sary as study and work.”  Also ref­er­ence his biog­ra­phy, Wit­ness to Hope, for sto­ries of how he used to orga­nize trips with young people.

Resources & Links: 

Events from the papacy of John Paul II: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/hf_jp_ii_xxv_en.htm  

 Doc­u­ments of the Holy Father on the Youth: http://www.vatican.va/gmg/documents/gmg_docs_en.html 

 John Paul II’s Let­ter to Young Peo­ple, Dilecti Amici:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_31031985_dilecti-amici_en.html