Frightening is the final question that Jesus asks His disciples in today’s Gospel, and therefore asks each one of us: But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
How strong is our faith, yours and mine? Someone will say: strong as Polish oaks. And, someone else whispers: weak, weak, like a smoldering wick.
Okay, not important; Let’s put the question a little differently: do you have any faith at all, or do I have, at least, a little of faith? Such a childish, trusting; such that will bring tears to my eyes when I will screw up and make a mess; and, such that would like to move mountains and jump for joy when I leave the confessional. Is there faith in me?
The evangelical widow is the heroine of this Sunday. How great must have been her problems and misfortunes, what great poverty in life she must had, that she asked even this unjust judge for help and did not fear God and did not count with people. Others probably moved away, because her problems were too complicated, or the poor widow was without money at all, she had nothing to pay. So she went to the worst, the unjust, and pleaded and begged. She believed that he could help her, her faith gave birth to a request, insistent, stubborn, a request full of hope; she believed that he could pull her out of the bottom of misfortune.
And, the Lord Jesus makes her a heroine. As the Evangelist Luke notes, Christ told this parable to His disciples that they should always pray and never stop.
Faith begets petition, supplication, begets prayer.
If I believe that God is, then I believe that He can help me, that He can pull me out of the greatest trouble, that He just can, that’s why I fall on my knees and pray to Him, confessing my faith.
Like Moses, who believed that the hands raised to pray on the top of the mountain will defeat the stronger and more numerous Amalekitov by the power of God. Like those of his helpers: Aaron and Chur, who supported Moses’ hands when they weakened because they believed in the extraordinary power of this prayer of the Moses’ hands raised up to heaven.
We are standing here in prayer this Sunday morning. We are standing at the Tomb of the Greatest of the Polish Family, Saint John Paul II. 44 years ago, when white smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel, he announced to the world the fulfillment of the prophetic announcement of the Polish bard, Słowacki, that: In the midst of dissensions, God strikes a huge bell, for the Slavic Pope.
Now, there is not enough time and words to describe this extraordinary Pontificate of St. John Paul II, just a few of his sentences that play in the heart and in memory:
– Man cannot be fully understood without Christ.
– Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!
– Totus tuus, all Yours.
– Poles got used to coming to Jasna Gora with everything. Here we have always been free.
– May your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, of this earth!
– And that is why, before I leave, I ask you to accept all this spiritual heritage, whose name is Poland, once again with faith, hope and love.
– This is my Mother this land, this is my mother this Homeland, these are my brothers and sisters.
– I belong to the generation that experienced the nightmare of World War II and who managed to survive. To all young people today I have a duty to say: “No more war!”
Dear friends from the St. John Paul II Foundation, thanks for all that you are doing to keep his memory alive, so that his teachings are known by young people. Keep it up! Be praised and greeted!
And, we are sure that today in the Father’s House he can do much more than he once did. That he can ask for a miracle. In my family, we are still sure that today in the Father’s House he can do much more than he used to. That he can ask for a miracle. In my family, still during the lifetime of John Paul II, thanks to his prayers, we experienced the miracle of saving my brother’s life.
My younger colleague, the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, when asked what solution he sees for the current conflict, said that it is necessary to pray for a miracle, because only a miracle can end this war. Well, let us ask for a miracle, listening to the words of the already quoted poet Słowacki, that this Slavic Pope will give away love, just as the mighty give away weapons. How much love John Paul II gave away during his lifetime, love which had various names: forgiveness, travel, solidarity, suffering, dying before the eyes of the world. But, have we accepted, do we accept this love, do we believe that it is stronger than weapons, which is also given away by modern mightiest?
And, that is why we cry out to St. John Paul II, our Polish Moses, about whom the Golec brothers sing:
Seeing in us hunger for freedom,
By the power of God the Father caused a miracle,
With a dry leg through the “red sea”
Carried out Polish people.
Let us cry out to Saint John Paul II to ask us for the grace of faith in Christ, without whom man cannot understand himself; faith in God’s Mercy, which is greater than any sin; faith so simple like in a child and so strong, as that evangelical widow had and which Marianna, Mother of Priest Jerzy Popiełuszko had and the faith of Mary the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross and the faith of Peter, the weeping one who never doubted forgiveness.
John Paul II, our Holy Father, Polish Moses of this new Millennium, hold your hands high in prayer so that we may never doubt and proclaim the Gospel of love and mercy to others. Hold your hands high and bless us, the Church of Christ, our Poland and the whole world, so that when the Son of Man comes he may find faith in the world and in our souls. Amen.
Abp Jan Pawłowski
