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PASTORAL
VISIT TO POLAND
HOLY
MASS FOR THE CANONIZATION
OF BLESSED QUEEN HEDWIG
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
Krakow,
8 June 1997
1. Gaude, mater Polonia! I repeat today this exhortation to joy
which for centuries Poles have sung in memory of Saint Stanislaw. I repeat
it because the place and the occasion are particularly appropriate. For we
must turn again to the hill of Wawel, to the royal Cathedral, and place
ourselves there before the relics of the Queen, the Lady of Wawel. Now the
great day of her canonization has arrived! And so:
Gaude, mater Polonia,
Prole fecunda nobili,
Summi Regis magnalia
Laude frequenta vigili.
Hedwig, you have long awaited this solemn day. Almost six hundred years
have passed since your death at a young age. Loved by the whole Nation, you
who are at the beginning of the era of the Jagiellons, the foundress of the
dynasty, foundress of the Jagiellonian University in the oldest part of
Krakow, have long awaited this day of your canonization - the day on which
the Church would solemnly proclaim that you are the holy Patron of Poland
in its hereditary line - of the Poland by your efforts with Lithuania and
Rus': the Nation of three nations. Now this day has arrived. Many longed to
experience this moment and were not able. Years and centuries passed, and
it seemed that your canonization was even impossible. May this day be a day
of joy not only for us, who are now alive, but also for all those who have
not lived to see it on this earth. May this be a great day of the Communion
of Saints. Gaude, mater Polonia!
2. Today's Gospel turns our thoughts and hearts towards Baptism. Here we
are again in Galilee, from which Christ sends his Apostles out to the whole
world: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. God
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close
of the age" (Mt 28:18-20). This is the missionary mandate which the
Apostles took upon themselves beginning on the day of Pentecost. They took
it up and transmitted it to their successors. Through them, the apostolic
message gradually spread throughout the world. And, towards the end of the
First Millennium, the time came when Christ's apostles reached the lands of
the Piast. Then Mieszko I received Baptism and this - according to the
conviction of the period - was at one and the same time the Baptism of
Poland. In 1966 we celebrated the Millennium of that Baptism.
How happy the Primate of the Millennium, the Servant of God Cardinal
Stefan Wyszynski, would have been today if he had been able to share with
us in this great day of Hedwig's canonization! She was close to his heart,
as she was to the great Metropolitans of Krakow, to the Cardinal Prince
Adam Stefan Sapieha and the whole Polish Episcopate. Everyone thought that
the canonization of Queen Hedwig would have been the culmination of the
Millennium of the Baptism of Poland. Her canonization would also have been
its fulfilment because, through the efforts of Queen Hedwig, the Poles,
baptized in the tenth century, four centuries later undertook the apostolic
mission and contributed to the evangelization and Baptism of their
neighbours. Hedwig knew that her mission was to bring the Gospel to her
Lithuanian brothers and sisters. She accomplished this with the help of her
consort, King Wladyslaw Jagiello. On the Baltic a new Christian country
arose, reborn in the water of Baptism, just as in the tenth century the
same water had brought new life to the sons and daughters of the Polish
Nation.
Sit Trinitati gloria, laus, honor, iubilatio ... Today we thank
the Most Holy Trinity for your wisdom, Hedwig. The author of the Book of
Wisdom asks: "Who has learned your counsel, o Lord, unless you have given
wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from on high?" (cf. Wis 9:7). Let us
therefore give thanks to God the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
for your wisdom, Hedwig; because you recognized God's design regarding not
only your own vocation but also regarding the vocation of the nations: our
own historic vocation and the vocation of Europe which, through your
endeavours, as a continent completed its own evangelization, so that later
it would be able to undertake the evangelization of other countries and
other continents throughout the world. For Christ had said: "Go ...,
make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19). Today we rejoice at your
elevation to the altars. We rejoice in the name of all those nations of
which you became mother in the faith. And we thank God for your holiness,
for the mission which you carried out in our history; for your love of the
Nation and the Church, for your love of Christ Crucified and Risen.
Gaude, mater Polonia!
3. The greatest thing is love. "We know" - writes Saint John -
"that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the
brethren. He who does not love abides in death" (1 Jn 3:14). And,
therefore, he who loves shares in life, in that life which is from God.
"By this we know love" - continues Saint John - "that he
[Christ] laid down his life for us" (1 Jn 3:16). Thus we too should
lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (cf. 1 Jn 3:16). Christ
said that in this way, by giving our lives for the brethren, we show love.
And this is the greatest love (cf. 1 Cor 13:13).
And we today, listening to the words of the Apostles, wish to tell you,
our holy Queen, that you, as few others , had grasped this teaching of
Christ and the Apostles. Often you would kneel at the feet of the Crucified
One at Wawel to learn this generous love from Christ himself. And learn it
you did. You showed by your life that the greatest thing is love. Do we not
sing these words in a very ancient Polish song?
O holy Cross, tree more noble than all else,
no other is your equal in any other forest
except the tree which bears God himself. ...
To die on the Cross for another is unheard-of goodness.
Who can do so today, for whom can one give one's own soul?
Only the Lord Jesus did this, because he loved us to the end"
(cf. Crux Fidelis, 16th century)
It is from him, the Christ of Wawel, the black Crucifix to which the
people of Krakow come every year on pilgrimage on Good Friday, that you
learned, Queen Hedwig, to give your life for the brethren. Your deep wisdom
and your intense activity flowed from contemplation, from your personal
bond with the Crucified One. Here contemplatio et vita activa found
the right balance. Thus you never lost the "better part", the
presence of Christ. Today we wish to kneel with you, Hedwig, at the feet of
the Crucified One of Wawel, to hear the echo of that lesson of love which
you listened to. We wish to learn from you how to put that lesson into
practice in our time.
4. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and
their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you;
but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever
would be first among you must be your slave" (Mt 20:25-26). These
words of Christ deeply penetrated the mind of the young sovereign of the
noble house of the Angevins. The most profound characteristic of her short
life and, at the same time the measure of her greatness, was her spirit of
service. Her social position, her talents, her whole private life she
offered completely to the service of Christ and, when it was her time to
reign, she also devoted her life to the service of the people entrusted to
her.
The spirit of service inspired her social commitment. She zealously
devoted herself to the political life of her time. And she, the daughter of
the King of Hungary, successfully combined faithfulness to Christian
principles with the defence of the common weal of Poland. Undertaking great
works in the national and international sphere, she desired nothing for
herself. Through her generosity she enriched her second homeland with every
material and spiritual good. An expert in the art of diplomacy, she laid
the foundations for Poland's greatness in the 15th century. She inspired
religious and cultural cooperation between the nations and her sensitivity
to social wrongs was often praised by her subjects.
With a clarity that right up to the present day has enlightened all of
Poland she knew that the strength of both State and Church have their
origin in the Nation's careful education; that the path to the State's
welfare, sovereignty and recognition in the world passes by way of thriving
Universities. Hedwig was also well aware that faith seeks rational
understanding, that faith needs culture and forms cultures, that faith
lives in the world of culture. And she spared nothing to enrich Poland with
the whole spiritual heritage both of ancient times and of the middle ages.
She gave to the University even her golden sceptre, using instead one of
gilded wood. This fact, while having a concrete meaning, is above all a
great symbol. Throughout her life her prestige and the esteem which she
enjoyed came not from royal insignia but from her strength of spirit, depth
of mind and sensitivity of heart. After her death, her work continued to
flourish with the wealth of wisdom and the flowering of a culture rooted in
the Gospel. For all this we express our thanks to Queen Hedwig, while we
turn with pride to those six hundred years which separate us from the
establishment of the Faculty of Theology and the renewal of the University
of Cracow, years, one can say, of an uninterrupted splendour of Polish
learning.
And if we could visit the medieval hospitals in Biecz, Sandomierz, Sacz
and Stradom, we would admire the many works of mercy founded by the Polish
Sovereign. In these, perhaps, the exhortation to love with deeds and in the
truth was accomplished (cf. 1 Jn 3:18).
5. Ergo, felix Cracovia,
Sacro dotata corpore,
Deum, qui fecit omnia,
Benedic omni tempore.
"Rejoice today, Krakow!" Be joyful because at last the moment
has come in which all the generations of your inhabitants can pay a homage
of gratitude to the holy Lady of Wawel. You, royal throne, owe to the depth
of her learning the fact that you became in Europe an important centre of
thought, the cradle of Polish culture and the bridge between the Christian
West and the East, making an irreplaceable contribution to the formation of
the European spirit. At the Jagiellonian University people studied and
taught who made the name of Poland and this city famous throughout the
world, taking a skillful part in the most important debates of their age.
It suffices to recall the great Rector of the Krakow Athenaeum, Pawel
Wlodkowic, who already as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century
laid the foundations of the modern theory of human rights, or Nicholas
Copernicus, whose discoveries gave rise to a new vision of the created
world.
Should not Krakow, and with it all Poland, give thanks for that work
which produced such splendid fruits, fruits of the lives of holy students
and professors? Today therefore they pass before us, these great figures of
men and women of God, belonging to every generation, from John of Kety and
Stanislas Kazimierczyk, to Blessed Joseph Sebastian Pelczar and the Servant
of God Joseph Bilczewski, to be given a place in our hymn of praise to God
that, thanks to the generous work of Queen Hedwig, this City became a
cradle of saints.
Rejoice, Krakow! I am happy that I am today able to share your joy by
being here at Blonia Krakowskie, with your Archbishop, Cardinal Franciszek
Macharski, withe the Auxiliary Bishops and Bishops Emeriti, with the Canons
of the Cathedral and of the Collegiate Church of Saint Anne, with the
priests, consecrated persons and the whole People of God. How I have longed
to come here and, in the name of the Church, solemnly assure you, Krakow,
my beloved City, that you were not wrong in venerating Hedwig for centuries
as a saint. I thank Divine Providence that this privilege has been given
me, that I have been allowed to fix my gaze, together with you, on this
figure who reflects the splendour of Christ, and to learn what it means to
say "the greatest thing is love".
6. "Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in
truth", so writes the Apostle (1 Jn 3:18). Brothers and Sisters, let
us learn at the school of Queen Saint Hedwig how to put into practice the
commandment of love. Let us think about this "Polish truth". Let
us think about whether it is respected in our homes, in the means of social
communication, in public offices, in parishes. Does it not sometimes escape
us under the pressure of circumstances? Does it not become distorted,
simplified? Is it always at the service of love?
Let us think about "Polish practice". Let us see whether it is
carried out with prudence. Is it systematic and persevering? Is it
courageous and magnanimous? Does it unite people or divide them? Does it
treat anyone with hatred or contempt? Or is there too little practice of
love, of Christian love? (cf. St. Wyspianski, Wesele [Wedding]).
"Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth"!
Ten years ago, in an Encyclical Letter on the problems of the
contemporary world, I wrote that every Nation "must discover and use
to the best advantage its own area of freedom" (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 44). At that
time we had before us the problem of the "discovery of freedom".
Now Divine Providence is putting a new task before us: to love and to
serve. To love in deed and in truth. Queen Saint Hedwig teaches us that the
fulfilment of freedom is love, thanks to which man is willing to entrust
himself to God and his brothers and sisters, to belong to them. She
therefore entrusted her life and her rule to Christ and to the nations
which she wanted to lead to him. She gave the whole Nation the example of
love of Christ and of man, of man who is hungry for faith and knowledge, as
he is also daily bread and clothing. God grant that this example will also
be drawn from today, so that the joy of the gift of freedom may be
complete.
Our Saint, Queen Hedwig, teach us today, on the threshold of the third
millennium, that wisdom and love which you made your path to holiness. Lead
all of us, Hedwig, to the Crucified One of Wawel, so that, like you, we may
know what it means to love in deed and in truth, what it means to be truly
free. Place under your protection your Nation and the Church which it
serves, and intercede for us with God, that our joy may never end. Rejoice,
Mother Poland! Gaude, mater Polonia!
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