Goodbye Holy Father

Goodbye Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. Though I am Baptist, I held you in the highest of respects. I think, you were second in my list of respected individuals, second only unto our shared Lord, Jesus the Christ.

For the past few days, I have watched the television afraid to miss the moment you left us, and went to Heaven. You were a firm place in my life, a symbol of morality, of peace, of faith, and of unconditional love for those who would cause you harm.



You forgave the assassin who nearly ended your life. You worked tirelessly for nonviolent revolution in your earthly home of Poland, and helped bring down the abomination that was the Soviet Union. You preached tirelessly in over a hundred trips around the world, and you fought tooth and nail against this current war in Iraq.

You were in a wheelchair most of the time I knew of you. But it did not stop you from carrying on a burden of duties that would have killed lesser men long ago. There is a hole in my heart now, not the size of that if I did not have God in my life, but a smaller hole, left by the passing of one of his most devout servants.

I know it isn't something I've often said...but...you were part of what was there, a moral tether. In times where I nearly lost faith, you were one of the examples that reminded me to keep faith, that everything is for Christ's Will, and Christ's Plans. You were a symbol of faith, of peace, of love, and of the plans God has for us all; the young boy who faced the Nazis and then the Soviet Union-the man who lost his family before age 20-but a man who not only kept his faith, but also served so faithfully in the Priesthood.

Not all my tears are of sorrow, some are of joy, for this day you are in Paradise recieving the reward you deserve. In your stay on Earth you were...as you yourself described in a trip to Cuba:


This is all so disjointed, but I thought I'd be able to keep it together better than this, to write some sort of touching tribute to you. But I find, I have shed more tears for you Karol Jozef Wojtyla, than for some of my own blood relatives, albiet distant ones.

What are some of the images I will remember of you? I will remember the man who embraced the Rabbi and entered a Jewish Synagogue for the first time. I will remember the man who reached out to Jews, to Muslims, to Protestants. I will remember the man who genuinely laughed as break dancers danced upon the floors of the Vatican. I will remember the man who loved the children. I will remember the man who went to Auschwitz, and then to Yad Vashem to apologize to Israel. I will remember the man, who brought tears to my eyes, as he tried to speak one last time and could not.

Goodbye, my dear and good role model. Goodbye Karol. May you find your eternal reward wondrous, and may your legacy be one of peace, and of a resurgence of faith, and of saved faiths, as you helped me keep mine.

In Nomine Patris,
Et Fili,
Et Spiritu Sancti,
Amen.

One deeply moved and inspired by your life,
Philip

P.S. May we meet again one day far from now in the presence of the Lord, Jesus Christ. (Pictorial tributes by myself, images found on Google pre-editing.)