The letter to Priests signed in the Upper Room was very personal. More than others. John Paul II wrote in it: “Spiritually, I see Jesus and the Apostles seated at table with Him. I think of Peter especially: it is as if I can see him, with the other disciples, watching in amazement the Lord’s actions, listening with deep emotion to his words and, for all the burden of his frailty, opening himself to the mystery proclaimed here and soon to be accomplished.” And immediately afterwards he writes: “In this holy room I naturally find myself imagining you in all the various parts of the world, with your myriad faces, some younger, some more advanced in years, in all the different emotional states which you are experiencing: for many, thank God, joy and enthusiasm, for others perhaps suffering or weariness or discouragement. In all of you I honor the image of Christ.” I remember well that time when we were in the Upper Room – recalls Archbishop Mokrzycki. This feeling cannot be compared to anything else. I saw his emotion, his thoughtfulness. He was sunk in prayer. And, I am convinced that he took priests from all over the world with him; also sinful ones. John Paul II asked: over here, in the Upper Room, can one be surprised that among stewards there are also those who are blocking the face of Christ with human weakness. And he said, “Not only did the betrayal of Judas reach its climax here, but Peter himself had to reckon with his weakness as he heard the bitter prediction of his denial.” The Holy Father explained that “when choosing people like apostles, Christ had no illusion. On such a human weakness He laid the sacramental seal of His presence.”
With the permission of Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki – “A place for everybody”
“Znak” Publishing House, Krakow 2013
