By Fr Rafal Rucinski
PACKING my bags and getting ready to go to Rome as the chaplain for the Australian pilgrims to the canonisation of Blesed pope’s John XXIII and John Paul II, I reflect about the significance of the event for me and for the people going with me.
Due to my age John XXIII is a great saint but without personal connection to my life. John Paul II is someone much closer.
I was 12 when Cardinal Karol Wojtyla from Krakow was elected as pope.
It was a great joy in my homeland of Poland and many local churches around the world.
After that, we experienced so much joy and so many happy moments when the pope started his very extensive travels to the very ends of the world.
Every appearance was an occasion to almost endless cheering for hundreds of thousands of faithful Catholics.
Private meetings with John Paul II are not my experience.
Four times I travelled to participate in big Masses at Czestochowa, Poznan, Szczecin and Koszalin.
The smallest crowd was 400,000 and the closest distance I got near the Pope was about three hundred metres.
I guess they can’t be considered as close and intimate meetings with a much-loved pope, but this might be the shared experience of the majority of ordinary Catholics around the globe.
The experience which stays in my memory as significant was John Paul II’s homily about the family in Szczecin, not that I remember the topic or some particular details.
What I remember wasn’t published in the official collection of the Pope’s teachings on that particular trip to Poland.
During his homily, people cheered and clapped and shouted, almost constantly.
Pope John Paul II at once addressed the crowd plainly, asking people to stop making noises and start listening to his message.
He made a simple statement: “I have a very important message for you, so please listen, reflect and put it into practice.”
After repeating it a few times he finally persevered to finish his teaching.
People didn’t listen to the Pope’s petition at all.
Since that experience, I have the image of John Paul II as the great magnet for crowds with an important message from God who was cheered and admired by so many, but listened by only a few.
People used to talk about nice meetings with the Pope, but very seldom able to quote his teaching.
He was known by all but at the same time, unknown to all.
His teaching is a treasure still waiting to be discovered by ordinary people.
Generally, even today, people are connected to John Paul II on an emotional level, reducing him to just a nice man.
The picture of a great teacher is the one to be discovered and admired.
I hope that the canonisation will be the occasion to rediscover the legacy of Saint John Paul II.
Fr Rafal Rucinski is the parish priest of Nerang.
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