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HEADLINE NEWS: RELIGIOUS LEADER OF PLANET EARTH DIES. WORLD MOURNS. WHO CAN FILL THE SHOES OF SUCH A GREAT LEADER? WHO ELSE ON EARTH WORSHIPS MARY LIKE HE DID? WHO COULD EVEN COME CLOSE TO "VENERATING" (I.E. WORSHIPPING) GOD'S VERY OWN MOTHER, LIKE THE HUMBLE PRIEST FROM POLAND? WHO ELSE COULD MAKE SINNERS FEEL SO COMFORTABLE IN THEIR SIN THAN ANOTHER LOST SINNER LIKE THEMSELVES? THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE. SAVED OR LOST - WHICH ARE YOU? DO YOU REALIZE THAT THIS MERE MAN WAS SO DECEIVED THAT EVEN HE THOUGHT HE WAS THE SUPREME RELIGIOUS LEADER OF EARTH? THIS SUPPOSED WORLD RELIGIOUS LEADER DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE TRUE GOSPEL OF SALVATION BY GRACE ALONE BY THE COMPLETED WORK OF CHRIST ALONE FOR GOD'S ELECT CHILDREN, WHO WERE FOREORDAINED TO SALVATION FROM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. WHERE DO YOU STAND? HAVE ALL YOUR SINS BEEN COMPLETELY BLOTTED OUT BY THE LAMB OF GOD? HOW DO YOU KNOW? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE NOT BEEN DECEIVED ABOUT GOD'S ONE AND ONLY PLAN OF SALVATION? A Look At Pope John Paul
II's Will The testament of 6.3.1979 "Keep watch, because you do not know which day when the Lord will come" (a quote from Matthew 4:42) - These words remind me of the final call, which will come the moment that the Lord will choose. I desire to follow Him and desire that all that is part of my earthly life shall prepare me for this moment. I do not know when it will come, but, like all else, this moment too I place into the hands of the Mother of My Master: Totus Tuus (meaning "completely yours"). In the same maternal hands I place All those with whom my life and vocation are bound. Into these Hands I leave above all the Church, and also my Nation and all humanity. I thank everyone. To everyone I ask forgiveness. I also ask prayers, so that the Mercy of God will loom greater than my weakness and unworthiness. During spiritual exercises I reflected upon the testament of the Holy Father Paul VI. This study has led me to write the present testament. I do not leave behind me any property which necessitates disposal. Regarding those items of daily use of which I made use, I ask that they be distributed as may appear opportune. My personal notes are to be burned. I ask that Don Stanislaw (the pope's personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz) oversees this and thank him for the collaboration and help so prolonged over the years and so comprehensive. All other thanks, instead, I leave in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to express them. Regarding the funeral, I repeat the same disposition given by the Holy Father Paul VI. (these were notes in the margin): Burial in the bare earth, not in a tomb, 13.3.92 (i.e. March 13, 1992). "Apud Dominum misericordia et copiosa apud Eum redemptio' (Latin for
"With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful
redemption.") Rome 6.3.1979 (i.e. March 6, 1979) Following my death I ask for Holy Masses and prayers 5.3.1990 (i.e. March 5, 1990) (Undated page): --- Also during these spiritual exercises I have reflected upon the truth of the Priesthood of Christ in the perspective of that Crossing which is for each one of us the moment of death. In taking leave of this world - to be born into the other, the future world, eloquent sign (Vatican notation: "added above 'decisive"') is for us the Resurrection of Christ. I therefore read the copy of my testament of the last year, it also made during spiritual exercises - I compared it with the testament of my great Predecessor and Father Paul VI, with that sublime witness to the death of a Christian and of a pope -- and I renewed in myself consciousness of the questions, to which refers the copy of 6.III.1979 (i.e. March 6, 1979), prepared by me (in a rather provisional way). Today I desire to add to it only this, that each one of us must keep in mind the prospect of death. And must be ready to present himself before the Lord and Judge - and contemporaneously Redeemer and Father. Then I too can take this into consideration continuously, entrusting that decisive moment to the Mother of Christ and of the Church - to the Mother of my hope. The times in which we live are indescribably difficult and troubled. Difficult and tense has become the life of the Church as well, characteristic trial of these times -- as much for the Faithful, as much as for the Pastors. In some Countries (as, e.g. in that one about which I was reading during the spiritual exercises), the Church finds itself in a period of persecution that is not inferior to those of the first centuries; on the contrary, the degree of cruelty and hatred is greater still. Sanguis martyrum - semen christianorum (Latin for "Blood of the martyrs - seeds of Christians"). And beyond this - so many people disappear innocently, even in this Country, in which we live... I desire once more to entrust myself totally to the mercy of the Lord. He himself will decide when and how I must finish my earthly life and pastoral ministry. In life and in death Totus Tuus (meaning "completely yours") through the Immaculate (referring to Mary). Accepting this death already, I hope that Christ will give me grace for my final passage, which is (Vatican notation: "my") Easter. I hope too that it shall be made useful also for this important cause in which I am trying to serve: the salvation of men, the safeguarding of the human family and of all the nations and the peoples (among these I refer in particular to my earthly Country), useful for the persons who in a special way have entrusted to me for the questions of the Church, for the glory of God himself. I do not desire to add anything to that which I wrote a year ago - only express this readiness and at the same time this faith, to which the present spiritual exercises prepared me. Totus Tuus ego sum The attempt on my life of 13.V.1981 (i.e. May 13, 1981) has in some way confirmed the exactness of the words written in the period of the spiritual exercises of 1980 (24.II - 1.III) (i.e. February 24-March 1). All the more profoundly I feel myself totally in the Hands of God -
and I remain continually at the disposition of my Lord, entrusting myself
to Him and to His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus) (i.e.
"completely yours"). --- 5.III.1982 (i.e. March 5, 1982) --- 1.III.1985 (i.e. March 1, 1985) (during spiritual exercises). Again
- concerning the expression "College of Cardinals and the Compatriots":
the "College of Cardinals" has no obligation to consult "the Compatriots"
on this question; it can, in any case, do so, if for some reason it
considers it right to do so. --- The spiritual exercises of the Jubilee year 2000 In this way I was to some degree prepared for the task which was placed before me on Oct. 16, 1978. As I write these words, the Jubilee Year of 2000 is already a reality, and under way. The night of Dec. 24, 1999, the symbolic Door of the Great Jubilee of the Basilica of St. Peter was opened, and successively that of St. John Lateran, then St. Mary Major's on New Year's Eve; and on Jan. 19, the Door of the Basilica of St. Paul "Outside the Walls." This latter event, given its ecumenical character, has remained particularly engraved in memory. 2. To the degree that the Jubilee Year 2000 goes forward, closing behind us day by day is the 20th century, while the 21st century opens. In accordance with the designs of Providence, it was granted to me to live during the difficult century that is passing, and now, in the year during which my age reaches 80 years ("octogesima adveniens"), it is necessary to ask if it is not the time to repeat the words of the Biblical Simeon, "Nunc dimittis." (meaning "Now Master you may let your servant go.") On May 13, 1981, the day of the attempt upon the life of the Pope during the general audience in St. Peter's Square, Divine Providence saved me from death in a miraculous way. He who is the sole Savior of life and of death, Himself prolonged this life, and in a certain way gave it to me anew. From this moment it belongs to Him all the more. I hope that He will help me to recognize the time until when I must continue this service, to which he called me on the day of Oct. 16, 1978. I ask (Him) to call me when He wants. "In life and in death we belong to the Lord ... we are of the Lord" (cf Romans 14, 8). I hope too that throughout the time given me to carry out the service of Peter in the Church, the Mercy of God will lend me the necessary strength for this service. 3. As I do every year during spiritual exercises I read my testament from 6-III-1979 (i.e. March 6, 1979). I continue to maintain the dispositions contained in this text. What then, and even during successive spiritual exercises, has been added constitutes a reflection of the difficult and tense general situation which marked the '80s. From autumn of the year 1989 this situation changed. The last decade of the century was free of the previous tensions; that does not mean that it did not bring with it new problems and difficulties. In a special way may Divine Providence be praised for this, that the period of the so-called "cold war" ended without violent nuclear conflict, the danger of which weighed on the world in the preceding period. 4. Being on the threshold of the third millennium "in medio Ecclesiae" (Latin for "inside the Church") I wish once again to express gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of Vatican Council II, to which, together with the entire Church - and above all the entire episcopacy - I feel indebted. I am convinced that for a long time to come the new generations will draw upon the riches that this Council of the 20th century gave us. As a bishop who participated in this conciliar event from the first to the last day, I wish to entrust this great patrimony to all those who are and who will be called in the future to realize it. For my part I thank the eternal Pastor Who allowed me to serve this very great cause during the course of all the years of my pontificate. "In medio Ecclesiae" ... from the first years of my service as a bishop - precisely thanks to the Council - I was able to experience the fraternal communion of the Episcopacy. As a priest of the Archdiocese of Krakow I experienced the fraternal communion among priests - and the Council opened a new dimension to this experience. 5. How many people should I list! Probably the Lord God has called to Himself the majority of them - as to those who are still on this side, may the words of this testament recall them, everyone and everywhere, wherever they are. During the more than 20 years that I am fulfilling the Petrine service "in medio Ecclesiae" I have experienced the benevolence and even more the fecund collaboration of so many cardinals, archbishops and bishops, so many priests, so many consecrated persons - brothers and sisters - and, lastly, so very, very many lay persons, within the Curia, in the vicariate of the diocese of Rome, as well as outside these milieux. How can I not embrace with grateful memory all the bishops of the world whom I have met in "ad limina Apostolorum" visits! (a reference to required, periodic visits) How can I not recall so many non-Catholic Christian brothers! And the rabbi of Rome and so many representatives of non-Christian religions! And how many representatives of the world of culture, science, politics, and of the means of social communication! 6. As the end of my life approaches I return with my memory to the beginning, to my parents, to my brother, to the sister (I never knew because she died before my birth), to the parish in Wadowice, where I was baptized, to that city I love, to my peers, friends from elementary school, high school and the university, up to the time of the occupation when I was a worker, and then in the parish of Niegowic, then St. Florian's in Krakow, to the pastoral ministry of academics, to the milieu of ... to all milieux ... to Krakow and to Rome ... to the people who were entrusted to me in a special way by the Lord. To all I want to say just one thing: "May God reward you." RELATED ARTICLES:
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