When I was in Kamloops, I used to visit a particular widow. She had a son who was a healthy, vibrant, youngish man but he never seemed to work. One day I asked him what he did. He said that he was retired from being a deep sea diver. He said he started as a young man and worked his way up and made a lot of money until one day he had an experience that sent him to retirement. He said that he and his partner were down doing some repair work on a drilling rig when they received a communication that there was a storm on the surface and it was too dangerous to bring them up, and that they would have to stay down there until the storm passed. He said that it was fine but suddenly the communication went out and he could not talk to his partner or to those up above. Next the power went out and they were in shear darkness. He said that he hung on to his partner because they were deep and could see nothing. The air kept coming he said but he knew if it stopped they were done. They could not swim to the surface because they were so deep. He thought if it happened and the air was cut off, he would pull his helmet off and drown. It didn’t happen though and eventually the power and communication came back and they went to the surface. He said when he got to the surface, he handed his helmet to his assistant and said, “This is yours and you are now a diver,” and he quit on the spot.
I was thinking how this relates to the Gospel where Jesus said, “I am the vine. You are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing.” Like the diver is to air, so we are to needing Jesus. Many times we feel that we can do without Jesus, that we can get through a day without Him, but that is not true because we will not be bearing fruit. We have to learn to abide in God and treat Him like the diver treats his airline.
I was recently thinking about the life of St John Paul II and how in his life it seems miracles were common. I recently read a story about the Vatican butler and how he and his wife were having complications in a pregnancy and JPII said to him, “I will remember you at Mass,” and a miracle happened and the baby and mother were saved. The butler also mentioned times during audiences when people who were possessed by demons would come out and JPII would simply pray and the people would be delivered. I have read about many miracles around him. Imagine, Mary used him to take out the threat of Russian Communism. One story was about a crippled little boy who was in the Vatican hospital. The Pope’s room was also in the children’s ward. The little boy asked the priest at the door whose room that was and the answer was the Pope’s. The little boy said, “I want to see the Pope.” The priest said that the Pope was sick but that he would ask him. The Pope agreed and the little crippled boy went in. When he came out, he was no longer crippled.
Pope John Paul was someone who truly abided in Jesus. It is said that he would make as many as twenty visits to the Blessed Sacrament each day and he loved being there. The man in charge of making sure the Pope kept his appointments said that if he went there (to the Blessed Sacrament) he was sure to be late. Often when he would travel, the secretary would get the place where the Pope was staying to hide the Blessed Sacrament Chapel so the Pope wouldn’t be late. He was never fooled though; he always knew where Jesus was. He abided in Jesus and did many great works. Now I know that most of us do not have a Blessed Sacrament Chapel in our house, however, our church is open most every day from 7:00 am until 9:00 pm. We must learn and pray for the art to abide in Christ, to treat Him like our air supply. We must also pray for the grace to abide in Christ, for the hunger to abide in Christ. Yes, the Lord wants to do great things in each of our lives and He is inviting us to abide in Him.