Discovering My Role Model In Life..

I have been thinking really hard these days. I’m trying to rationalize, who is my ultimate role model in life. And it was a difficult thing to understand, because there are so many people who came and left my life, leaving different kinds of impacts.

Just last night I watched a Polish movie about a person named Karol Wojtyla, the man who became Pope John Paul. He led a very difficult life, lost his family at an early age and lost most of his best friends during the war. He was an artist, a philosopher, an actor. He has so much love for his country and thought that continuously practicing Polish culture, using the Polish language, will keep the Polish nation alive.

He was the one who said that Nazis should be fought with love, because it is through love that these people will learn to surrender. If love is not used, Nazis will come in some other forms, in some other form of evil, but it is through love that a certain nation becomes strong and unified and able to survive challenges.

He entered priesthood because he realized that he loves God more than anything else in the world. He considers himself lucky for being able to discover his passion at an early age.
He taught me that there is nothing more important in the world but preservation of human dignity. And only those people who have so much faith can understand why there is suffering in the world. He says lucky are those who see the point of taking care of the sick, helping the weak and protecting life, because these are people who have so much faith in them that they learn to understand what human dignity is.

I see him as an amazing leader. It was not only because of his Catholic teachings, but his humility to accept things he cannot change, his courage to change the things he can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

His call to universal prayer of peace, which called all the religions to pray for peace and belief that no religion abhors peace is a perfect example of taking love of humanity to a higher level. His humility to ask for forgiveness for all the sins committed by Christians to the world, the faults of the Church is another form of humility. His different visits to different countries is a concrete gesture of the Church’s willingness to reach out to people. His forgiving heart especially to the one who tried to assassinate him is the kind of heart I would like to have.

He was also very vocal in his positions towards forms of government that disrespect human dignity and does not protect women and children.

Indeed, it was through him that I realized that love is both patient and kind. I would like to learn to love like him. The kind of love not bound by borders, not bound by time. The kind of love that does not discriminate and does not ask for anything in return.

His love for his vocation makes him a very effective Pope, at least in my eyes. His acceptance of his own sickness of Parkinsons, was taken with so much grace and humility. His passion and intellect make him a prolific philosophical writer. Through his articles I learned to accept human suffering and ultimate protection of human dignity. Human dignity is not measured through your competence, for what you are or even who you are. Human dignity is something DUE to every human, for the very simple fact that God is present in each and everyone of us. We are all made in his image and likeness, and every person has the potential of being Christ-like to others.

I didn’t mean to make this entry sound so “religious”. It just so happened that the person I adore the most happens to be the former leader of my Church.

I would like to be a leader like John Paul. Someone with so much passion and humility in his heart. He lived a life which had meaning in its every second spent. He lived a life not for himself but for things that mattered to him.

I would like to summarize into 5 points the things that I remember John Paul with:

To live with so much passion is so amazing.
Love is stronger than death
To fight a certain evil, you need to fill yourself with love, because evil comes in different forms, but with love you become unified with your inner being.
Human dignity is beyond measure, every person is due of it.And only with so much faith, that you will understand the reason behind human suffering