It was “touch and go” there
for a bit. You see it takes two confirmed miracles to start on the road to
canonization. The Vatican’s definition of a miracle is the reversal of a medical
condition that is sudden, complete, permanent and inexplicable.
He
was fine on miracle number one, the total cure of a French nun suffering from Parkinson’s.
However finding that second miracle was proving tricky. Then, this past July,
another miracle came to light when a woman in Costa Rica, who was on death’s
door with a brain aneurism, made a complete recovery after praying to the
deceased Pope John Paul. Her recovery was vetted by Vatican physicians and BINGO! Welcome St. Pope John Paul II!
I’m
glad it all worked out in the end, because I have always been extremely fond of
Pope John Paul II. I only wish I could have been on the nominating committee to
help find those “miracles.” Sure, I’m a
rabbi in a small town in Virginia, and I’ve only spent a brief time in a convent,
(an Episcopal convent, at that) but I would have gladly told them that in MY
book, he was a “saint” and an “angel” and most importantly, a MENSCH long
before he put on the White Mitre and moved to Vatican City. He was already a MENSCH as the young man
Karol Wojtyla, a young seminarian in Poland,
How
many acts of MENSCH-HOOD did this man of God do? According to research done by B’nai B’rith,
there are a number of accounts of the young Polish priest intervening on behalf
of Jews in Poland during the war and they believe that we will probably never
know the extent of his decency and courage.
But for now, let me share two brief accounts which, though not the kind
of miracles that count toward Sainthood, they are DEFINITELY the kind of
ethical and morally decisive actions for which we, as members of the Jewish
faith, can do no less than confer MENSCH-HOOD.
A
14-year-old Jewish girl named Edith Zierer, having just escaped from a Nazi
labor camp, collapsed on a railway platform while Wojtyla was at the station.
No one attended to her. Everyone ignored her. But he picked her up and carried
her to the train, gave her food, and stayed with her until they reached Krakow
where she had family. She didn’t see him
again until he became Pope John Paul II. Edith credited the then future Pope with
saving her life.
In
1942 the future Pope rescued a two-year-old Jewish boy by giving him to a
gentile couple to be hidden. The boy’s
parents had died during the Holocaust, and after the war, the Catholic couple
came to Wojtyla to baptize the boy. He
refused, (as he had refused other such requests) stating that the boy should be
raised in the faith of his parents. He then arranged for the child to be sent
to America where he could be raised by Jewish relatives.
Where
did this deep-seated goodness come from? Where did this kindness towards Jews come from
at a time when it would have been so easy to turn away? What allowed his moral
and ethical maturity to shine forth in one so young at the darkest of times?
Perhaps
we can find the answer in the words of The Pirkei Avot, “Sayings of the Fathers,” a tractate of Mishna that deals specifically with
matters of ethical behavior. The Hebrew, found in Pirke Avot 2:6 states: B’makom sh’ayn anasheem, heesh-ta dahl eesh.
“ Where there are no men (persons) of character strive to be a man (person) of
character.” We are more familiar with
the “Yinglish” version of this… “Where there are no MENSCHES, strive to be a
MENSCH!”
Once, a long time ago, the
young Karol Wojytola had a close circle of Jewish friends. He witnessed, first hand, the ever-tightening
noose around the necks of the Jews. He
saw people murdered in the street. He
understood the danger and yet, his actions and deeds proved that he was a
Mensch.
He continued to “strive”
towards Mensch-hood throughout his life, as he rose to higher and higher
positions in the Church, and once he reached the pinnacle of Papal Power, he became
the first Pope to address the ugly shadow that had hung over Catholic-Jewish
relations since the war years, when Pope Pius XII was the Bishop of Rome. The
healing process and apologies were very public and very sincere and included a
pilgrimage to Israel and Yad VaShem,
(The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) accompanied by his Jewish childhood
friend Jerzy Kluger with whom he was reunited in 1965.
As I said earlier, no one at
the Vatican consulted me about either Miracles or Mensch-hood. However, I would like to put in a good word
for another “Saint-on-hold “ – Mother Theresa.
She was in “mensch-mode”
from 1948 until her death in 1997. Don’t
take my word for it, for being a “Total Mensch” they gave her the Nobel Peace Prize.
So, while the Vatican is still looking for that “second miracle” we can give
her the Pirke Avot Award, for being a person of character in a world, and at a
time when there are just not enough Mensches.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rabbi Rose
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