Bishop's letters: June 05 +Graham

The Legacy of John Paul II

At the beginning of April we saw the most extraordinary scenes as we witnessed the death of John Paul II.

Media reporters reflected the feelings of hundreds of thousands in admiration for this widely travelled apostle, whose radiant faith evoked faith in others everywhere he went. He was praised for his unflinching, if controversial, stand for truth. So public was his dying that we were assured that he was 'touching the Lord'; we saw that a faith firmly built on Christ can face infirmity with courage and has no fear of death. It was a most moving few days.

So it seems that deep down in many of us, in our highly secularised and consumer choice society, where God is largely ignored, there is a wistfulness for the joy and peace and confidence which faith in Christ brings, and even for its authority. The events around the Pope's death simply revealed that we are spiritual beings; consumer materialism is spiritually completely empty. John Paul's faith was not unique to a Pope; it is the faith that all of us may have, if only we will choose to follow Christ and reach out to him in constant prayer and worship.

It was firmly on the authority of Jesus Christ and the witness of the Bible that the Pope's faith was built. Listening to his witness, then, leads us to reconsider many things. For example, if all human life is God-given and created in his image, does not its sanctity from the womb far outweigh the convenience with which most abortions are sought? And with the Pope, should we not see sexual relations as a precious expression and symbol of the life-long marriage bond between a man and a woman? Would not family life be far more stable if we kept to that?

The Anglican Church worldwide sees some issues very differently from the Roman Church. Anglicans do not see contraception as a denial of the creative potential of marriage. They do not see celibacy as necessary for the clergy nor do they see that women should be barred from being teachers and preachers of the faith. Nevertheless, we learn from John Paul II that those with faith in Christ will hold to radically different principles than the choices of our present Western society. He reminds us that to be Christian is increasingly to have to stand in a place that is contrary to our own culture.

The questions posed to us by the Pope's death are far reaching. Will we seek to recover in our land the centrality of the worship of God and the faith of Jesus? Or will we ignore the witness of the Pope and continue the folly of trusting in our own self-sufficiency? To neglect Christ Jesus is not only to miss out individually on the blessings of faith; but, of far greater significance, our whole nation loses the protection and favour which God has bestowed on us in the past. God will no longer guide us but will leave us to the follies of our choices. The consequences of our disregard of God are serious.

May the events around the death of John Paul II turn us away from the tide of secularism to rediscover the wisdom and peace which come from the worship of Jesus Christ.

+Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle