VATICAN - To John Paul II: Peter, the “Rock” of our day!

Vatican City (Fides Service) - It is true that the Pope John Paul II would prefer to celebrate the day of his Baptism and even more the day of his ordination to the priesthood rather than his birthday, but because we love him we cannot let today pass without saying “many happy returns of the day Holy Father!”
His birthday makes us thank God for calling this man to be Supreme Pontiff, guiding him step by step, year after year to bear the weightiest responsibility in Christ’s Church, to the same vocation as Saint Peter: “You are Peter, the rock and upon this rock I will build my Church”.
The fact that John Paul II is indeed a rock, not by will of man but by will of God, is, in a sense, perceived even by people who do not share his faith in Christ. This is due not to some special human charm or because he is photogenic, it is due to something about him, something which is the charm of Christ, God made Man, the One who called him.
In all history, in all our human civilisations past or present, there has never been a figure to compare with “Christ’s Vicar on earth”, Peter the Rock. The Pope is the only Rock. For two thousands years the Pope stands as the Rock willed by Christ when He called the humble fisherman from Galilee to be his first Vicar on earth in Rome, the very city where Peter was later put to death for the faith and buried where St Peter’s Basilica now towers. No human super-power, past or present, can be a Rock to stand till the end of time! The only “Rock” is Christ himself who chooses the Pope to be his vicar through time, to prolong in time the vocation of being a “Rock” of faith, love, truth and unity. Built on this Rock, for two thousand years the Catholic Church has kept the faith through tempests and trials, intact as it was in the early Church down to this day.
There has been and is much talk about the Church, some for her, some against, depending on points of view, but there has never been anyone like Peter the “Rock”, Peter the first of the Apostles. This vocation to be the “Rock”, to be the Church built on “Peter the Rock”, travels through the centuries and as Christ promised “the gates of hell will not prevail against her”!
When on May 13, 1981, in St Peter’s Square, in the very place where Simon Peter, first Bishop of Rome, gave his life for the faith, another pope was struck, the blood of the Rock was shed but the Pope did not die, he was needed by the Church on the threshold of the new Millennium.
May we never forget that May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima: someone wanted to see the Pope dead, but he lived! Since that day even the most distracted seem to sense that this Pope who came from far away, the Polish Pope, is much closer to the men and women of today than might be imagined; he is truly different, because of his calling to be the “Rock”!
Auguri to Peter, the “Rock” of our day: John Paul II!
(L.A.) (Agenzia Fides 18/5/2004; Righe 37; Parole 538)