Till It Shines--pope John Paul Ii Rides Into Chicago

By Author: Roger Wright
Total Articles: 12
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Till It Shines

Connecting Pope John Paul II and Bob Seger

No one ever asked the Pope, back when he visited us here in Chicago first in 1979, to climb on a motorcycle and with white robes flying, ruddy face beaming, waving and genuflecting to the crowd; chug proud, loud and smiling on up Milwaukee Avenue.

Bob Seger in the background as The Pope climbs up on Harley:

Took a look down a westbound road
Right away I made my choice

No one asked the Pope. But if they had, and if it would have helped the church: I am betting that this smiling Polish holy man, back in 1979 bounding off the plane at O'Hare, bending down to kiss the ground, this flowing bundle of good will who visited more countries than any other Pope in history---I'm betting he would have hopped right on that Harley.

Bob Seger taking off into the high plains and the Pope taking the same kind of journey, but his is straight into the hearts of the city. Straight northwest up Milwaukee Avenue, as the people start gathering and the cheers start cascading across the sidewalks on a warm summer afternoon. ...
... Folks streaming out of the shops to see that beaming man on the motorcycle come to say hello.

If you're young, if you're poor, if you are struggling: you understand.

An actor on the world stage they'd call him when he passed. But back in Chicago in 1979 he was still the Priest from Poland who made the Communist party functionaries tremble---not from the politics: but from his faith. At the beginning of his time as Pope, he came to Chicago. There could not have been a more stark contrast to the imperial nature of Chicago's John Cardinal Cody. 1979, the Pope from Poland, well he just might have got on that motorcycle. Maybe have some pirogue? Maybe some kielbasa, some ham and some sausage? There would be friends who knew him in from South Bend and St. Louis, back when he was just Karol. There would always be friends. The community. To keep the church going we would eat together.

Such hopeful times. And here he was! Not just with the millions in Grant Park, but here he was on the back of that motorcycle. Right here on Milwaukee Avenue! Giving voice to so many who were different. So many who were confused:

Roll, roll me away,
Won't you roll me away tonight!
I too am lost, I feel double-crossed
I'm sick of what's wrong and what's right.

A Pope who gave shape and color to the words social justice. Giving voice to the poor, the sick, the folks on the outskirts---way, way far from that million dollar Cardinal's mansion in by the Lake. A peoples Pope! And that was new.

Like Bob Seger sang:

Take away my inhibitions
Take away my solitude
Fire me up with your resistance
Put me in the mood
Storm the walls around this prison
Leave the inmates
Free the guards
Deal me up another future
From some brand new deck of cards.

Right there on Milwaukee Avenue, with the scent of fresh baked Polish rye bread sweetening the air and giving all those inside this Christian colony of proud people a way to say: Ok. . .maybe after a few years we are making it---maybe we are not so poor-- maybe God has given us this day our daily bread!

See the rich man lost and lonely
Watch him as he dines
Sitting there just testing all the wines

Sure, even then there were money changers camped out in the temple. But they had yet to set up shop on the steps outside, charging corporate membership rates backed up by the rendition campaigns of American secret police, wars for oil and power, trampling of human rights, ignoring the earth that we steward and finally bowing our heads to the all powerful talking points of the propaganda machine that twisted a moral fundamentalism into a market fundamentalism.

In the serenity and clarity of his faith---even when you didn't agree with him---he could cut right through the walls of the machine and touch you.

Take the chip off of my shoulder
Smooth out all the lines
Take me out among the rustling pines
Till it shines.

Years and years later, a Catholic friend tells of a Catholic Church where the priest holds up Pope John Paul's picture and says: We don't agree with him about this, that or the other and you marvel that there is a church like that. Questioning believers of Catholicism. That exists.

On his watch.

Then sitting around a tale in a Catholic Church basement next to an expressway in St. Louis. The tired eyes of the Priests attending yet another meeting.

Till you mention Dorothy Day.

And THAT is when the eyes come alive.

On his watch.

From there the conversation shifts to Flannery O'Connor. The unspoken thought: Reading Flannery O'Connor makes the whole idea of women's issues fade. Because there is only that talent. Graced by her God. That person's talent.

Then---in the aftermath of his passing: a Priest on TV does something amazing. He reels off every single issue reason you've ever thought of to disagree with this Pope. And then he says: Of course. There will be women Priests. Of COURSE we'll figure out that they way the church treats gays and lesbians is flat out wrong. Of COURSE we'll come to terms with the way we face birth control and a woman's control of her own body rather than the state's control. These are: flyspecks on the wall of human history. Our call is much, much, much larger than that: this Pope's call was much, much larger than all of that.

Sharing more than we differed with those of us whose ancestors tramped out of the German forests with John Hus and Martin Luther and then fueled by Bach's holy music went on to become what we now call Protestant.

None of us strangers to the centuries of atrocity brought on by all the bad managers who also carried the banner of Christianity. All the lives ruined by the abuse still ringing in the halls of history. Set against visionary leadership, all that abuse offering a chance to forgive way beyond most of us mortals---yet all of it: flyspecks on the walls of human history---when it is set against this:

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:1

His call was Love.

Kids knew it. Young adults knew it. And In the summertime throng of the Milwaukee Avenue sidewalk back in 1979, that call of love and social justice was just electric in the air. We all knew it.

So back to right here and right now. On a warm spring night in Chicago as we remember him as that charismatic iron man of sprit and strength; a very different kind of service at Holy Name cathedral comes to a close.

This week in Chicago, there will be lots of memories on Milwaukee Avenue. Families inside and outside the colony sharing sausage, bread and wine. But at this different kind of service tonight, I can hear a Buddhist:

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
Udana-Varga 5,1

I can hear a young Hindu woman:

This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do
unto you.
Mahabharata 5,1517

A Muslim:

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Sunnah

A Jew:

What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the
rest is commentary.
Talmud, Shabbat 3id

All the rest is commentary. I think he would have liked that last one a lot.

So I wave goodbye to the white robed man on the back of that motorcycle.

And hear Bob Seger sing:

Still if we can make the effort
If we take the time
Maybe we can leave this much behind
Till it shines

And I answer back:

Amen.


About the Author Roger Wright can be found on the blog Church Food Chicago
http://blogs.salon.com/0004257/