John Paul II's "Sunflower Field"

How to summarize in just a few words the influence that this great and holy man has had not only on my intellectual formation, but on my whole life?  As a law student, I had the gift of being part of the preparations for World Youth Day in Denver, and so yesterday was just flipping through some precious pictures-including one receiving communion from his hands.

 

Some of my college-age friends who had participated in World Youth Days in Rome (2000) and Toronto (2002) have been putting together a collage of their memories and impressions, and it was through their words that I was able to find my own.  They have been genuinely touched by his deep and personal love for the youth, as manifested by the tears in his eyes when he saw the huge crowds, and responded "John Paul II loves you, too," when they chanted, "John Paul II, we love you!”

One could be ambivalent about the World Youth Day format—fearing that huge and emotional gatherings with a “superstar” figure can easily fizz out in the flatness of ordinary life, and so they may not lend themselves to a deep appreciation of the cultural message that the Church has to deliver.  But what hits you when you read the impressions of these young people is the long-lasting and incredibly profound influence that John Paul II has had on their spiritual lives—how these have been genuine occasions for them to understand, as one put it, “how important we are to the Church and how important we are to him.”  “He managed to leave footprints of God's Love everywhere in the world and even on my heart.”  They have been touched by how concrete and selfless his love for them was—keeping up with exhausting travel schedules, even through driving rains.  “He is so selfless,” one wrote, “he inspires so many of us to think of others and not of ourselves.”  And of the last few years, his “joy through suffering” has been a profound example and lesson.  “He was a true sign of life, a life for God.” 

One young woman, remembering the kiss she received from him as a small child, compared it to the planting of a seed which, as she grew, helped her to be like a sunflower, turned toward God for direction in her life.  She concludes with a prayer, “May God bless you immensely for creating a sunflower field on earth by simply touching the lives of the youth with your life.”

With them, I am part of this JPII-generation “sunflower field”; and with them, the sense of profound loss now overflows with immense gratitude.  As Paul IV wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi, people today “listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”  (n.41).  Thank you, John Paul II, for your witness of selfless love—of sanctity, in and for today’s world.   

Amy