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Jewish World Review
April 7, 2005
/ 27 Adar II, 5765
A spark ignites a new era
By
Bob Tyrrell
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In the spring of 1978, I was in Rome on a
glorious sunny morning, and after my matutinal coffee I strolled up the Via
della Conciliazione to St. Peter's for a visit. As I recorded in "The
Conservative Crack-Up" over a decade later, it was a time of "idiot whirl."
Suggestive of the whirl, that pert ignoramus, Jimmy Carter, was dithering
through the last years of his idiot presidency. Inflation was singeing the
dollars in our pockets. Industries were failing. America was derided around
the world. There were new fanatics everywhere and crazy suicidal cults. The
Rev. Jim Jones had just led 900 or so of his faithful to their poisonings.
The Piazza San Pietro was experiencing the whirl, too. Yes,
there were great schools of pious Christians swimming across the Piazza's
old gray stones and into the great cathedral, but it seemed there were
lunatics everywhere. Seated next to a bored cop was a fat greasy man in his
early 30s dressed only in a T-shirt, a pink diaper and a baby's bonnet. A
demented woman carrying a bird cage was howling to the crowd. There were
many others dirty, tired-looking hippies from earlier in the decade now
burned out and vacant. Several months later an obscure Polish cardinal would
be elected pope. Over the next few years, the chaos of the Piazza receded.
The idiot whirl of the Western world receded, too. True, the narcissistic
contingent of American politicians about to descend on St. Peter's to
exploit John Paul II's funeral will return zaniness to the Vatican for a few
hours, but then it will be back to normal.
After this pope and all the history made since the late 1970s by
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and their confused Marxist-Leninist
accomplice, Mikhail Gorbachev, the world is a saner place, albeit still
troubled. The day Karol Wojtyla became John Paul II, Richard Nixon, still in
disgrace, was visiting London. When informed of the Polish cardinal's
surprising election, Nixon speculated to members of Parliament in the House
of Commons that here might be the "spark" to ignite the forces of freedom
against Soviet domination throughout what was then called Eastern Europe.
Pope John Paul did that and much more, as every obituary has affirmed.
He revived the spiritual vigor of his Church, reinvigorated
ecumenism, acknowledged Christianity's debt to the Jews and the wrongs
committed against them, and raised the dignity of human life for all to
contemplate. Even in his last weeks, he gave the suffering of the very old
meaning. He was a great proponent of freedom, but he insisted it was
meaningless unless it pursued the virtues. He was, after all, at bottom an
Aristotelian and Thomistic philosopher. He championed reason. John Paul II
has been the greatest pope of the last 500 years, as well as one of the
great political figures of the 20th century. Franklin Roosevelt, Winston
Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and of course Hitler, Mao, and Stalin, now have a
silver-haired man of G-d in their ranks.
Most of this has been dilated upon during the worldwide
spectacle of the pope's death, a spectacle unlike anything that might have
been anticipated, we are told. His intellect, goodness, and political acumen
have all been remarked on, but few have noted its provenance. Unlike any of
the other historic figures of the century, the pope was a mystic. Prayer and
contemplation of G-d was the source of all he did in life.
During the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1940 the 20-year-old
Wojtyla came under the spiritual influence of a deeply religious middle-aged
layman, Jan Tyranowski, who presided over something called the "Living
Rosary." It consisted of groups of 15 or so young men devoted to prayer and
contemplation. From this experience, Wojtyla gained his lifelong interest in
the mysticism of the Carmelite order and the teachings of the 16th century
Spanish Carmelite St. John of the Cross. While the Nazis prowled Poland,
Wojtyla meditated and deepened his understanding of St. John's mystical
communion with G-d. All the rest of his life, no matter the demands the
world placed on him, his foremost concern was his own communion with G-d.
This pope would pray four hours a day, sometimes more. He had as
many responsibilities as any head of state, but all his decisions depended
on prayer and contemplation. That is what a mystic is, even when he is the
head of a 2,000-year-old institution comprised of a billion constituents.
Now all the politicians who have hustled off to Rome to bid the pope adieu
surely want to be the best that they can be and do the best job they can,
but would any of them set aside hours every day to pray when other
responsibilities beckoned? That sounds very unprofessional to me. But then,
I have missed things over the years.
Reviewing that memorable 1978 morn in Rome as I wrote it up in
"The Conservative Crack-Up," I noticed that nowhere in the book did I
mention John Paul II. I was writing about the condition of conservatism in
the late 20th century, yet somehow I missed the pope. After the huge
send-off the world has given him, it will be difficult to repeat that
omission.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.
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