He's Not Gone.

During the week in one of the texts of the daily Mass we were reminded of the promise of the Lord "I am with you always to the end of time". It was then that I remembered that the man we were mourning was none other than one who had been chosen to be Christ's Vicar, or representative on earth. Christ knew He was to leave us bodily and go back to the Father. He had prepared.

He had chosen Peter "on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." He gave Peter the keys and He told him that He had prayed for him that his faith fail not, ....so that he could strengthen his brothers and sisters.

There is no mere human explanation for the events we have witnessed this past week ; 200 world leaders leaving the affairs of state to come together in Rome to pay tribute to a man they admired, who had inspired men and women from every nation. Many of these differed from him in so many ways. Yet he awakened in them an admiration for all that is basically good and true in every human being.

How extraordinary that he was able to reach out to so many of his fellow human beings! Christ told Pontius Pilate that He had come to bear witness to the truth - the truth that would make men free. Through his Vicar on earth He would again condemn all that debased the God-given dignity of the human person.

Christ was a man of suffering; so was John Paul in full measure. What an example and inspiration he was for so many who share that same cross with Christ. The ease with which he faced death; it was for him a natural transition from a life lived in and with Christ here to the meeting with the One whom he had so faithfully served.

The name of God in a book is just that; alive in a person who walks with Him it is inspirational. Christ wants to live in each of us too to make this world a better place because we have lived. Pope John Paul's body may await the Resurrection in the soil of St. Peter's in Rome; but his lives to inspire and change people for the better for many days and years to come. We give thanks to God for such a marvellous light to mankind when days were dark.

May God richly reward a truly faithful servant.