Totus Tuus: A Good Pope

[Music] the father and of the son of the holy spirit as a priest whenever someone comes and asks for spiritual direction and spiritual direction really when it is an established rapport between the priest and the person seeking direction usually takes a lot of time which is why i can only give direction to a few normally i choose those who are called to some type of ministry in the church to leadership which are those who might be discerning a vocation to religious life or to the priesthood whenever someone comes and begins a relationship of spiritual direction the first thing i begin to look for are the indications of a dominant defect what is the main sin that this person's struggling with and one of the ways that i'm able to discern that as the priest who's given direction is by recognizing where this person is in disagreement with the immutable teachings of christ in the church because where is the heart wayward in this person they begin to indicate what might be the dominant defect which of the seven deadly sins is the one that is most trying to take over this soul because any time we disagree with christ of the church it indicates a spiritual immaturity there's something juvenile in our soul that makes us think that our opinion or our perspective is better than the immutable teachings of christ in the church guided by the power of the holy spirit i know once we put in that context we think my goodness how arrogant right to think that i know better than the church so you begin to look what what in this soul is in rebellion so for some people it's sexual things for some people it's questions of justice for some people it's questions of mercy and so on but where is the heart and rebellion because discipleship is marked by a total surrender to christ i remember years ago one young man saying to me when i was vocations director well father i've come to the conclusion i have my conditions for surrender and i said well you need to go away right because if you're thinking about you're going to enter the seminary with conditions you've stopped you started with the wrong foot forward because discipleship and certainly a call to the seminary is about unconditional surrender a total vulnerability before the mercy and the justice of god i accept all things in christ and my call is to model my life on christ and the teachings of his church that is a docility and an obedience of faith that god the holy spirit can work with and make even the weakest of instruments the greatest of saints isn't this what padre pio taught us or faustina of poland faustina tells us god is so desperate he will make even the smallest great saints because so many people are trying to tell god how to be god and for the small souls that are willing to say whatever you want lord what do you want such openness is flooded with grace and they are made great saints and isn't that what pope saint john paul ii modeled for us from the time he was a boy and he lost his mother and his father took him to chester hova the queen of poland and there under that title of our lady he consecrated himself completely to the lord jesus through the recession of mary taking for himself even at a tender age that powerful motto told us tools all yours think about trying to live that all yours i will forgive those who have hurt me i will go the extra mile for those that ask for help i will forgive those who have caused harm i will be generous with what i have been given the entire christian way of life all yours just tell me what you want lord and i will do it yes lord whatever you want told us to us dear dear friends it's because of that tortuous tools that god was able to raise a shy goalie at soccer an awkward child we are told into a leader among his peers a young man who didn't think about the priesthood but then was overwhelmed by a call to the priesthood and thought that he wanted to become a carmelite pope saint john paul ii originally just wanted to be a carmelite friar alone in prayer with god for the rest of his life and the local archbishop said no way no no you have talents that the church needs in the battle the archbishop refused to give him permission it said no if you're called to the priesthood you'll be the diocesan priesthood and he said yes and then we have the nazi occupation and he goes into an underground seminary working at assault mine during the day one point getting hit by a truck and almost losing his life lying on the side of the road not sure whether or not he's going to live or die and he tells us all he could say throughout the night was told his tools if this is it lord is this if this is how i am to die all yours whatever you want will be found the next morning and recover working in assault mines during the day and then studying at night in hiding and then he's made a priest and poland had no resources after the nazis it was taken over by the communists those liars and what is it with the young people today being so obsessed with communism do they know how many believers have died at the hands of communists but the communists they come in the liars as if they're the liberators no they were just another set of oppressors occupiers and what is the response of the young father watiba we can work around this he starts studying the writings of communism and karl marx in order to beat them at their own game in order to raise up the laborer and the worker to out communist the communists and show them the power of the christian faith and poland had no resources but john paul ii is sent to rome to study he tells us that he would prefer have preferred to stay with his people in the midst of the post-war reconstruction to be a priest in a parish to help families but he was told no you're going to rome told us and he goes to rome and he begins to study he comes back and all he wants to do is be in a parish and they sent him to college chaplaincies because he's very good with young people then they begin to give other additional duties he's a professor even as a bishop he's running a diocese and he's running to lublin by train he said he was always late and he always seemed to be in a hurry because everyone anyone tried to talk to him he'd stop and the person in front of him was the most important person because that was the face of christ to him a sacrament and he'd stop very frustrating to his assistants that as a young bishop he would do this why are you keep doing this why are you running down to lublin to teach philosophy he would say because we have to beat the communists at their own game we have to argue for the dignity of the human person we have to get in and conquer from the inside out and that's the long game and that's a lot of hard work and the cardinal primate disagreed with him the chief cardinal of poland cardinal wazinski a young cardinal wartima told us to use you're the primate whatever you prefer the primate wanted to stick it in the face of the communists so he wanted to do public processions and he wanted to hold the communist hands to the fire internally cardinal disagreed with that approach but the primate was the superior tortoise tools whatever you want later when he would become pope carter wassinsky would try to kiss the papal ring john paul ii breaking from papal customs stood up and kissed cardinal waczynski's ring because he was a champion one who suffered under the communists and faithful people believers we don't forget our heroes and we show them the deference that is due to them told us to us the comical story is told that at the end of september 1978 young exhausted cardinal t was sitting down for lunch sister brings him his lunch and says your eminence i'm sorry to tell you but the holy father has died the cardinal starts laughing and says sister you're a month late we just elected a new pope and she said no no your eminence the new pope has died john paul the first the september pope and he had to get up and he had to request more permissions from the communist government to go back in rome they didn't want to give the permission told us to us they gave permission it was late he had to hurry he almost didn't get into the conclave told us in his hands as he's walking into the papal conclave is a copy of karl marx manifesto because he was working on a philosophical article on why communism was wrong he thought he'd just sit there get some reading done vote go back to poland and keep working fighting against the communists told us to us he's elected pope 58 years old the first non-italian 450 years told us twos do you know he wanted to take the name pope stanislaus in honor of the apostle of poland but they told him you don't do that you don't just break from the tradition that's not a papal name he showed deference to the tradition and said told us to us then i'll take john paul ii told us to us dear friends we could go on and on with the entire life of this man the things he would have preferred the things that he wanted but in every aspect and every decision in every twist and turn of his life told us tools he showed that unconditional total radical surrender to jesus christ and the church we never had to worry that the pope's opinion would be different from church teaching we never had to worry about that we never had to worry that the pope was completely and totally committed to the gospel of jesus christ and to the universal call to holiness holiness that is found through the soul mediator jesus christ and the church founded by him the roman catholic church you never had to question those things some time ago i was up at the saint john paul ii shrine in washington dc with some friends if you've ever been there you know as soon as you walk in they have you sit down you watch this video it's the whole wall like multiple videos it's just like this overflowing of visions right images that's all john paul the second and you hear the homily in nicaragua with the sandinistas the communists tried to silence them and the crowd began to yell we want god we want god for 1979 when he visited poland his homeland communists tried to block it and as he began to preach he couldn't even preach because began to interrupt his speech crying and screaming and yelling and singing christ is risen christ will come again christ rules christ conquers you see all these images and then you hear this voice that familiar voice that jesus christ is the way the truth and the life i remember sitting there watching this and kind of being moved i couldn't understand why i was being moved why is i've seen these images before i remember the consolation of hearing the vicar of christ speak so boldly about jesus christ the way the truth and the life and to hear that powerful message of the gospel proclaimed by a witness someone whose entire life was an oblation to jesus christ and there was a power of force given by his words because of his witness so today dear friends i think we need the witness of pope saint john paul ii i wondered why they made him a saint so fast i was happy but i think that the holy spirit raised him to the altar so quickly because the holy spirit knew that we would need his intercession so quickly and say we especially ask popes and john paul a second to guide the church our task is to announce boldly the gospel of jesus christ to provide the means of salvation to all men and women that we might be saved in christ and dwell forever with him in heaven that's what this is all about we're not called to be political activists or environmentalists social reformers these things come and they go we speak words of truth we care for our neighbors we stand up for what is right but at the end of the day this is all about salvation the desire to accept the grace of god to allow to transform us and to be made fit to one day dwell with the lord forever in heaven popes popeson john paul ii knew that which is why his entire life could be told us to us all yours because one day he will be all ours and the great hope of that paradise of that union forever with god makes every suffering every sacrifice worth it every docility every act of obedience worth it pope saint john paul ii did that we the baptized we're not off the hook because as he did it so are we called to do it taught us to us what in your life has the lord asked that you have not given where is the lord been directing you and you have refused to go today on this feast day in honor of this powerful saint whisper in your heart and show by your actions told us tools all yours lord jesus told his tools

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Keywords: pope francis, catholic, christian, god, jesus christ, lord, prayer, devotion, religion, virtue, gospel, john paul ii, vatican, church, papacy, pope

Id: AbM_csqWNcM

Length: 17min 0sec (1020 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 26 2020