John Paul II’s Secret

By Maria Zboralska,
Love One Another 12/2009→ The main topic

“The Eucharist is a priceless treasure:
by celebrating it, and also by praying before it outside of Mass,
we draw from the very wellspring of grace”
(John Paul II)

Throughout his life, John Paul II was never one to pass up what is called a “teaching moment.” When asked by the youth of Krakow during his last pilgrimage to Poland in 2002, how he managed to remain so young and strong in spirit, he gave the following singular piece of advice: “The answer lies in Jesus. ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life.’ This means that despite old age, despite death, youth flows from God. And this is what I wish for the youth…of the whole world.” That this was an expression of a conviction that Karol Wojtyla lived out on a daily basis we know from the man who spent forty years at his side — Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz. “When people ask me what his greatest strength and deepest secret was, I can only answer that it was prayer and union with God” (Pilgrim of Love, Krakow, 2006).

Prayer is the common denominator of all believers. Whatever our age, place of origin, family, or occupation, we cannot disregard the practice of conversing with God. It is from prayer that we derive the greatest graces. “Regardless of the state of the soul,” Saint Faustina teaches us, “it ought to pray. A soul that is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a soul that strives after this purity must pray, or else it will never attain it; a soul that is newly converted must pray, or it will fall again; a sinful soul, immersed in sin, must pray, or it may not rise again. There is no soul that is not bound to pray, for every grace flows to the soul through prayer” (Diary, 146).

A priceless treasure

For John Paul II, whose entire life was marked by a deep union with God in prayer, the supreme prayer was the Eucharist — this and the form of prayer that is most closely akin to it; namely, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. “‘Of all devotions,’” he cites from St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, “‘that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the Sacraments, the one dearest to God, and the one most helpful to us.’ The Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by celebrating it, and also by praying before it outside of Mass, we draw from the very wellspring of grace ” By way of a personal note John Paul II adds: “What a pleasure to spend time with Him, to lie close to His breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and feel the infinite love present in His heart….How often, dears brother and sisters, have I experienced this, and drawn strength, consolation, and support from it!” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 25).

The Servant of God invites all of us to “spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament?” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 25). Here was the secret of John Paul II’s uncanny strength. Here too is the antidote to our own frailties, problems, and sufferings. We may object that we have no time for contemplation, or that it is an old-fashioned and unavailing practice. But these are mere temptations that can be removed by appealing to God’s grace. It is important that we not wait until we feel like praying. We simply need to decide when (which day of the week) we will go for adoration, how much time we will devote to it (perhaps fifteen minutes or half an hour to start with), and where we will do it (in which church or chapel), and then persevere in it.

“I gaze at Him, and He gazes at Me”

When kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, we need to be aware that we are having an encounter with the living God. “He is there,” the Curé of Ars reminds us, “He who loves us so much.” What does this encounter consist in? John Paul II answered this question in another teaching moment at Tarnow in 1987: “No doubt you are thinking what this Pope up to? He arrived, climbed this hill, and now he stands looking at us. But that is precisely why I came here — to look at you. How else can we meet? In order to meet, we must look at each other. And more than just look! We must gaze intently at each other….And that is exactly what I wish you to do: to gaze not only with your eyes — your physical eyes — but also with the eyes of the heart…to gaze with the eyes of faith.”

Adoration, then, means gazing upon Jesus hidden in the Host. For John Paul II, the model of such an attitude was Mary. “Mary’s gaze,” he observed was “ever filled with adoration and wonder” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 10). From the Mother of God we learn that adoration is akin to contemplating the mystery of the living Christ. Through contemplation we receive the grace of coming to know Jesus ever more deeply, which in turn enables us better to love and imitate Him. A great deal depends on our faith. “When I immersed myself in prayer,” writes Saint Faustina, “I was transported in spirit to the chapel, where I saw Jesus exposed in the monstrance. In the place of the monstrance, I saw the glorious face of the Lord, and He said to me: ‘What you see here in reality, these souls see through the eyes of faith. How pleasing to Me is their great faith! For although it might appear that there is no life in Me, in reality it is fully present in each Host. But in order that I may act upon the soul, the soul must have faith. Living faith! How pleasing it is to Me!” (Diary, 1420).

In adoration we penetrate more deeply not only into God’s personhood but also into our own. We come to know our place in God’s saving plan. “I gaze at Him, and He gazes at me.” Such was the beautiful testimony of one of the parishioners of the Cure d’Ars, who promoted the practice of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2715). Jesus desires to gaze upon us. He wants us to approach Him with our daily cares. He wishes to embrace us and tell us about His love for us. He desires to make us happy, to strengthen us, to show us the way.

Perseverance in prayer

When we first begin to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we immediately experience the beauty of this form of prayer and receive many graces. But all too often, with the passage of time, our resolve to continue this practice begins to flag. This happens because God desires to purify us, to strengthen our faith, hope, and love. He does this in order to purify us of the sense of self-satisfaction that we derive from praying. It is then all the more important that we persevere in our practice. At such times it is especially important to keep the appointed hour and place of adoration, despite our difficulties and inner resistance. Saint Faustina’s counsel in this connection, is particularly apt and profound: “Jesus gave me to understand that a soul must persevere in prayer, despite torments, dryness, and various temptations; for oftentimes it is precisely on such prayer that the realization of God’s great plans depends. If we do not persevere in such prayer, we thwart what God wants to achieve through us or within us. Let every soul remember these words: ‘And being in anguish, He prayed longer’” (Diary, 872).

When overcome by discouragement and doubts, let us remember the wisdom contained in the words of our Servant of God, John Paul II: “Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships, and indeed our whole life, may become more profoundly human” (Dies Domini, 7).

Maria Zboralska

Published in February 2012.

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