St. John Paul II: Shepherd to Pastor the World with Love for Peace

 October 22 is the memorial feast of St. John Paul II.

A word that comes to my mind on St. John Paul II is love. His whole papal ministries were to spread God’s love (חֶסֶד/chesed) in the world to all the ends of the earth to set human love on fire with it. This way, we can love God above all and love each other as our neighbors (i.e. Matthew 22:37-39; cf. Deuteronomy 6:4,5; Leviticus 19:18; John 13:34).

What was consistent in St. John Paul II’s papacy was to let our love of God and to love our love of one another come together seamlessly as our Christian virtue to bring peace on earth.

On his mission of love for peace, St. John Paul II called us to use “weapon of love” in our battle against evil, which causes divisions through conflicts with these words in his message for World Day of Peace on January 5, 2005:

No man or woman of good will can renounce the struggle to overcome evil with good. This fight can be fought effectively only with the weapons of love. When good overcomes evil, love prevails and where love prevails, there peace prevails.

In the First Reading of St. John Paul II’s memorial (Isaiah 52:7-10), we read:

The LORD has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; All the ends of the earth can see the salvation of our God (v.10).

Yahweh’s holy arm exposed to all the nations is His love, which His Son has transpired to men and women of good will, through his Good News. And Christ commissioned the first Pope, St. Peter, to pastor his sheep with this love, as reflected in the Gospel Reading (John 21:15-17).

As the 263^rd successor of St. Peter, St. John Paul II was called to pastor Christ’s sheep, the people of the world, out of his love for Christ. And Christ called him to feed his sheep throughout the world, with the love that he has taught – God’s holy arm. So, he called this God’s bared arm (Isaiah 52:10), “weapon of love”, to fight against world’s evil in order to let peace be secured on earth. For this mission, St. John Paul II visited 129 nations during his papacy, from 1978 to 2005.

And we continue to participate in his papal mission to promote love for world peace in honoring and remembering him as Pope who has pastored the world with love for peace