True Power

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. -- Mahatma Gandhi

I never really thought much about Catholic Popes. They were men who had something to do with Italy and Chicago in my suburban-child brain. I grew to love and respect one in 1981, however. Pope John Paul II came to power in the wake of Peristroika in Poland and became the greatest man of the 20^th Century. Through him, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher, communism died. But he surpassed even that by pardoning the most heinous of acts.

Twenty-three-year-old Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca shot and injured the Pope and two bystanders. Pope John Paul II almost died on the operating table from the three bullets that hit him. The world was horrified, and the Pope was at a loss to understand why he was targeted. Yet, when he recovered, the first thing he did was to go to Agca’s prison cell. He talked at length with his would-be assassin about the power of Christ and forgave him for his misdeed.

Through that singular feat, I came to love the Pope and followed him throughout the rest of his life. I now believe that I must emulate him in order to live a complete life. I am focusing on his simple, yet very complicated, deed to gain the life I was meant to live. I only hope that I may do it well.