The Mystery of Sacrificial Love, More Beautiful Than France

Chartres Cathedral, France

This past week I had the opportunity to pilgrimage to France with 35 seminarians and 2 priests. It was a life changing experience. We visited Paris, Chartres, Normandy, Ars, etc. However, this morning at Mundelein Seminary we had the dedication of the Saint John Paul II Chapel. The beauty I saw there was more beautiful than all of the saints I saw in France because I saw
a saint who is living in deep deep pain from his battle with cancer.



Francis Cardinal George dedicated the seminary chapel with a mysteriously deep sense of Christ. He processed in on crutches. He walked to the ambo on crutches to give his homily. He walked from the presiders chair to dedicate the atlar on crutches. It was obvious that he was in pain, but he was loving his bride (the Church) with everything he had. He didn't complain, rather he seemed aware that his agonizing pain was not the focus and he needed to show the seminarians how to suffer with composure. How does someone who has cancer not complain? I was deeply moved by how he desires to love his bride to the end of his life as Christ did. Cardinal George spoke about how the time may be near for him to pass from this life and enter into the next with a calm and confident disposition. It was hard to hear at first and the apostles of the time of Jesus had a similar reaction when Jesus predicted his death (Mark 8:31-38). It seemed to me as if Cardinal George has now entered into the mystery of suffering that witnesses to a beauty that cathedrals and saints cannot bring.

Cardinal Francis George

Saint JPII with Parkinson's Disease

The witness (martyria) of the living saint never ceases to move the heart to an interior experience of God. To know that Saint John Paul II battled Parkinson's Disease while loving his bride to the end gave witness to thousands of people who now love Jesus because of that authentic witness. Cardinal George is following a very similar path. It is apparent his health is fading, but that doesn't change his desire to love his bride while he's in pain. To love one's spouse while in deep agonizing pain is what Christ did and continues to do.  To witness the most incomprehensible pain of a son being tortured, hated, scourged, mocked, spat upon, embarrassed, and ultimately crucified is what Mary did. Through power of the Holy Spirit God continues to witness through his beloved saints. The mystery of witnessing to a love that surpasses all loves is incredibly inspiring and simply beautiful. The witness of sacrificial love inspires other saints to the same thing.  That is how I hope we all want to live and to love: Till the end, without complaining, and accepting God's will with a firm confidence that we served Jesus to the best of our ability to give all the glory to God the Father.

Picture of Saint John Paul II in the Chapel

Living in the Mystery,

Zach Weber