Still Sunday morning

i woke up on sunday to a hot and humid morning. but something heavier was going to wrap around the still of the day. it was the news that Pope John Paul was gone.

it was an unexplainable sadness. almost bizarre, really. i guess everyone seemed to feel a personal connection with this man. i am not devoutly catholic--in fact i snicker at some of the Church's "rules" and traditions, but when talk turns to the Pope, my skepticism always fades away.

i realized it was because more than the vestments or symbols he wore on his person, he was a real person. leaders of the world call him the greatest humanist who ever lived. i just call him one of the greatest humans who ever lived. he was simply a man who respected life, and wanted the rest of the world to do that for each other. he remembered the names of long lost childhood friends he had not seen in fifty years and would weep for their families who died in the Holocaust. He remembered countries and places so small...even calling them his favorites. He actually said mass in Baclaran when he was only a Bishop and would go on to call it his favorite church.

he saw the light in everyone and their power to spread that light. i'd like to believe he saw this in extraordianry amounts in young people and children, that's why he loved them extraordinarily as well. throughout sunday while i watched the coverage and tribute to him on the bbc and cnn, i was always moved with the way he would gently cup a child's head or face, whisper a blessing and plant a kiss. the remarkable thing i noticed was: in all the video and photos i saw, no one child shed a tear in fear or fright at him. they were all smiling, laughing even. it was as if he did have a special power. a peacefulness that emanated from him. and it's a quiet, solemn peace that blankets the world now and the bilions he has touched.

i still feel sad, and i shed a tear remembering and reading about him in the papers. i was moved by the images of so many people around the world who were weeping, beating their breasts, beating the ground, stifling the sobs racking their hearts at the news of his passing. i thought, that's how i feel too. though i am looking at strangers, i know we all feel the same loss.

i thought, i hope he knows how much he is loved. look all of this: it's his doing. what other man in this crooked old world can claim to have captured the admiration and adoration of races, religions, renegades? it will take another century, i think before we see one as brilliant as the People's Pope.

Or maybe we never will. Maybe no one will ever be able to fill his shoes. Maybe someone may come and overtake his Papal achievements. But I don't think there'll be another quite like Pope John Paul II. I'm glad I got to see him in Rome when I did. To have been in the Square to receive his blessing is a treasure I will hold on to for the rest of my life.

The real challenge now I guess is, to spread the light he shared. "Do not be afraid," he said. And look what's he's done because of that.