The Ambassador of the Light of the World

It is 8:30 p.m. on October 21, and all the seminarians at St. John Paul II Seminary gather together in the darkened chapel to celebrate the vigil of the feast of their beloved patron through a liturgy of solemn adoration of Our Blessed Lord. The chapel is veiled in complete darkness save but one illumination. The Holy Eucharist, exposed on the altar is the sole focus of the eyes of every man in the chapel. It is a moment of intense solitude between the soul and God and it is the perfect image to come to an understanding of the spiritual depths of our Blessed Patron: St. John Paul II; a man radically abandoned to Christ, the Light of the World.

By entering into the heart of St. John Paul II and seeing how Christ reached into his innermost soul and conformed him to Himself, we will understand how the same process happens within the walls of this seminary to each seminarian.

The young Karol Wojtyla would seem to have been a boy who was burdened by immense darkness, losing all of his family before he reached the age of 21. It would be a mistake to draw such a conclusion. The darkness of his childhood, rather than being a cause of misery, led him to an intense longing for the Light. From the moment of his birth, his parents fixed the attention of his soul on Christ the Light of the World. In their house, situated immediately adjacent to the Wadowice Basilica, the sole window in the room of young Karol looked out to a sundial engraved in the side of the Basilica wall which read: Time Flies, Eternity Awaits. For Karol, it became clear that the events of time can only be seen through the lens of eternity and time’s longing for fulfillment in Eternal Life. So really, the darkness of Karol’s adolescence drew him to desire, with great intensity, the Light of the World.

This longing led him to the depths of Carmelite spirituality because of its emphasis on God who is manifested as the all-consuming fire. Karol’s time in college and seminary was a time in which he allowed the fire of God to consume his soul.

As pope, John Paul II expressed that not only had he been drawn by the Light but that he had become one with it. The 20th century was a tumultuous period riddled with war and death. Life was needed in the world and John Paul, embodying Christ as Light, led the Church into the new life of the third millennium. He was a witness that in Christ “was life and the life was the light of the world” (John 1:4). John Paul not only received the light of Christ, but in being conformed to it, he became an ambassador of Christ to the world.

Inaugurating his papacy, he proclaimed that Christ would be the guide of the Church as he always was and always would remain. He uttered in his first homily to the faithful the heart-piercing words: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!” John Paul’s heart was one with the Light of the World. He knew that the Lord God is the Light that casts out all darkness. With this Light illuminating the world, what was there to fear?

The pope preached a message of absolute confidence in the power of God to cast away the darkness of war, famine, and hate. Above all, he preached a resounding Gospel of life that is only lived by letting the abundant life of Christ pierce through the darkest recesses of the human heart. This is why Christ became man, so that he could consecrate the world to the Father. Pope St. John Paul II, who was the visible head of Christ on earth and is our beloved patron heeded this message of Christ to be illumined by His Spirit and radiate His light, pointing the church towards its fulfillment in the Eternal Kingdom.

It is this spirit of our patron that the men of this seminary embody. Under his patronage, we seek, in the stillness of our small chapel, to be pierced by the radiating Light of Christ. We seek this not simply so that we may experience the joy of holy illumination. We do it so that we may become of one heart and one mind with Him whom we love, so that, in our lives, we may radiate the light of Christ which is not something foreign to us, but which is present within our own souls!

Mr. Anderson is a College IV seminarian for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.