Beatification of Two Servants of God (22 June 1983)

On Wednesday, 22 June 1983, the Holy Father beatified two servants of God, Father Rafael Kalinowski and Brother Alberto (Adam) Chmielowski, and gave a homily at Krakow Park. In his homily, on the final day of his pilgrimage to Poland, the Pope wished “to express the wonderful mystery of the presence of the Good Shepherd in the midst of all the generations who have passed through the Polish land and here, in Kraków, left a particular expression of their Polish and Christian identity.”

1. "The Lord is my shepherd..." ( Ps . 22/23, 1).

My dear compatriots!

Today, I wish, together with you, to give glory to the Lord, who is our Shepherd: He is the Good Shepherd of his flock. He said this of himself in the Gospel. This is also what the Psalm of today’s liturgy tells us.

I would therefore like, on this concluding day of my pilgrimage to my homeland, to profess with you the truth about the Good Shepherd in the context of the Jubilee of Jasna Góra . Are not the six centuries of the wondrous presence of the Mother of God in this image which gathers us all together and unites us spiritually the work of the Good Shepherd? We know, in fact, that he cares above all for the unity of his flock . His great concern is that no one should perish, and he himself seeks out the lost sheep.

We bear witness to this through the Year of Redemption in the entire Church. And in Poland, where the Jubilee of Jasna Góra continues, we ask the question: Does not Christ, the Good Shepherd, accomplish all his works through the special mediation of his Mother , Our Lady of Jasna Góra?

Concerning the Good Shepherd, the Psalmist says:

"... he makes me lie down, / he leads me beside still waters: / he refreshes my soul..." ( ibid . vv. 2, 3).

Is not Jasna Góra for us such a place, where we can rest? where our souls are comforted? Is it not like the spring of living water , from which we have drunk for so many generations? We drink from the inexhaustible resources of Christ's Redemption, to which Mary brings us near!

2. On the final day of my pilgrimage, in connection with the Jubilee of Jasna Góra, I wish here in Kraków, together with you, my dear compatriots, to express the wonderful mystery of the presence of the Good Shepherd in the midst of all the generations who have passed through the Polish land and here, in Kraków, left a particular expression of their Polish and Christian identity.

This is precisely why Krakow is so dear and precious. And it is very necessary to strive to ensure that its historical essence, in which our nation reads with particular emphasis not only its own past but also its own identity , does not deteriorate . I spoke about this four years ago, when we celebrated the nine centuries of Saint Stanislaus in Krakow. I would like to speak again today of this " confirmation of history ", which endures and develops from generation to generation. This "confirmation" has a special meaning for the Poles of 1983 , for you, dear brothers and sisters, my compatriots!

3. I welcome you and greet you with all my heart in the same Krakow , as I did four years ago, from the viewpoint of "Kopiec Kosiuszki" and, on the other hand, from the viewpoint of the towers of the Church dedicated to the Virgin, the building of the Municipal Administration and the University. My Krakow...

I greet my successor, the Metropolitan of Krakow , Cardinal Franciszek, and my Brothers in the Episcopate: Julian, Jan, Stanislaw and Albin, with whom I have been united by years of common service in the Archdiocese of Krakow. I welcome and cordially greet the Bishops of the Metropolises of Krakow, Czestochowa, Katowice, Kielce and Tarnów. I welcome the Cardinal Primate of Poland, Cardinal Wladislaw Rubin, and all those present.

I cordially greet all our guests from outside Poland: Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia, Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin, Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, Cardinal Meisner of Berlin, and also Cardinal Casaroli, Secretary of State, who is accompanying me on this journey, and all the Bishops from outside Poland.

I greet the Metropolitan Chapter of Krakow and all the clergy of the Archdiocese: my brothers in the priesthood, to whom I belong with sacred orders and with my heart , consciously preserving and deepening within myself the bonds of this belonging. I am linked to this ecclesiastical seminary, where I prepared for the priesthood, as well as to this Faculty of Theology , where I studied, partly during the clandestinity of the period of occupation. Today, with particular cordiality, I greet the Pontifical Academy of Theology, which carries within itself the heritage of the Athenaeum, linked to the great name of Blessed Queen Hedwig .

I also greet, in addition to the clergy of the Archdiocese of Krakow, and welcome all the priests both from the ecclesiastical province of Krakow and from all over Poland.

With the representatives of religious families , male and female, I congratulate you in particular on this day.

4. In fact, today I am given the task of carrying out a particular service: the elevation of Servants of God to the honors of the altars through beatification .

Normally, this type of service is held in Rome. However, in ancient times, it was also held outside of Rome . We know, for example, that Saint Stanislaus was canonized in Assisi. I myself had the opportunity to perform beatifications in Manila , during my pastoral visit to the Philippines, and in Spain , in Seville, in November of last year.

I very much hoped that my pilgrimage to the Fatherland, in connection with the Jubilee of Jasna Góra, would also become a special occasion to raise to the honours of the altars Servants of God, whose path to holiness is linked to this land and this Nation, in which the Lady of Jasna Góra reigns.

Their beatification is a special celebration for the Church in Poland: for the entire People of God, which constitutes this Church. Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council recalled, the Church must constantly remind everyone of the vocation to holiness and must also lead her sons and daughters to this holiness.

When this holiness is solemnly affirmed through beatification, and especially canonization, the Church rejoices with a special joy . This constitutes, in a certain sense, the greatest joy she can have in her earthly pilgrimage.

Today, therefore, the Church in the Polish land rejoices, praising the Eternal Shepherd for the work of holiness accomplished through the Holy Spirit in the Servants of God: Father Rafael Kalinowski and Brother Albert (Adam) Chmielowski.

The entire Church in Poland shares in the joy of today's beatification. This is the particular joy of the Carmelite family , not only in Poland, to which Father Raphael belonged, and of the Franciscan family, especially the "Albertine" family, of which Brother Albert was the Founder.

I would like to add that this is also a particular joy for me, because these two wonderful figures have always been very close to me spiritually. They have always shown me the path to that holiness which is the vocation of each one in Jesus Christ.

5. The Lord Jesus says: "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love " ( John 15:9).

Here are two disciples of the Divine Master, who fully discovered the love of Christ on the paths of their earthly pilgrimage, and persevered in this love!

Holiness, in fact, consists in love . It is based on the commandment of love. Christ says: "This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you " ( ibid . v. 12). And he says further: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love" ( ibid . v. 10).

Holiness is therefore a particular likeness to Christ . It is a likeness through love. Through love we abide in Christ, just as He abides in the Father through love . Holiness is the likeness to Christ that attains the mystery of His union with the Father in the Holy Spirit: His union with the Father through love.

Love is the first and eternal content of the commandment , which comes from the Father. Christ says that He Himself "observes" this commandment. And it is also He who gives us this commandment, in which is contained the entire essential content of our likeness to God in Christ.

Father Rafael and Brother Alberto reached in their own lives that pinnacle of holiness, which the Church confirms today, on the path of love . There is no other path that leads to this pinnacle. Today Christ says to them: "You are my friends" ( ibid . v. 14), "I have called you friends, for I have taught you everything that I have heard from my Father" ( ibid . v. 15).

This "whatever" is summed up in the commandment of love.

6. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends " ( ibid . v. 13).

Father Rafael and Brother Alberto, from the earliest years of their lives, understood this truth: that love consists in giving one's soul; that in loving one must give oneself, or rather, one must "give one's life", as Christ said to the apostles.

This sacrifice of one's life for one's friends and compatriots was also demonstrated in 1863 by their participation in the uprising. Joseph Kalinowski was then 28 years old, an engineer and officer in the Tsar's army. Adam Chmielowski was only 17 years old, a student at the Agrarian and Forestry Institute in Pulawy. Both were driven by a heroic love for the Fatherland . For their participation in the uprising, Kalinowski paid with exile to Siberia: his death sentence was commuted in "Siberia"; for Chmielowski, the price was mutilation.

We remembered these two figures in 1963, on the centenary of the January uprising , meeting in front of the Church of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, as attested by the tombstone placed there.

The January uprising was for Józef Kalinowski and Adam Chmielowski a stage on the path to sainthood , which is lifelong heroism.

7. Divine Providence led each of them along their own path. Before entering the Carmelite novitiate after his return from Siberia, Joseph Kalinowski was the teacher of August Czartoryski, one of the first Salesians, who was also a candidate for the honours of the altar. Adam Chmielowski studied painting and devoted himself to artistic activity for several years before following the path of vocation which, after his first attempts in the Society of Jesus, led him to the ranks of the Third Franciscan Order, from which the Albertine vocation began.

Each of them, on their own path, continued to fulfill these words of the Redeemer and Teacher: “Greater love has no one than this, that he give his life.” Father Rafael gave his life in an austere Carmelite convent, serving to the end, especially in the confessional, and his contemporaries called him “the martyr of the confessional.” Brother Albert gave his life in the service of the poorest and the socially disinherited. Both gave their lives to Christ to the end. Both found in Him the fullness of knowledge, love and service.

Both were able to repeat, with Saint Paul: "In all this I see only harm, compared with the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ , my Lord. For His sake I have despised everything..." ( Phil . 3:8).

Father Rafael and Brother Alberto bear witness to this admirable evangelical mystery of "kenosi", of detachment, of dispossession , which opens the door to the fullness of love.

Father Rafael wrote to his sister: "God gave himself entirely for us, as we must sacrifice ourselves to God" ( Letter of July 1, 1866 to the family ).

And Brother Alberto confessed:

"I contemplate Jesus in his Eucharist, could his love accomplish anything more beautiful? If he became bread, we too must become bread...» we give ourselves" (W. Kluz, Adam Chmielowski , p. 199).

In this way each of them was "conquered by Jesus Christ" ( Phil . 3:12).

In this way each of them gained Christ and found in Him... the righteousness that comes from God... With the hope, being made like Him in death, of attaining to the resurrection from the dead" (cf. ibid . vv. 8,91041).

With this hope , Father Rafael ended his life within the walls of the Carmelite convent in Wadowice, my hometown, in 1907; Brother Alberto, in his "home for the homeless" in Krakow, in 1916.

On the threshold of our century, on the eve of Poland's regained independence, these two great sons of the Polish land ended their lives , to whom it was given to trace the paths of holiness for their contemporaries and, at the same time, for future generations.

8. The Jubilee of Jasnà Góra in our Fatherland coincided with the Year of Redemption and merged into it since March 25 of this year.

The extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption directs us all to that first love , with which God the Father "so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" ( Jn 3:16).

Of this love Christ says in today's Gospel: " As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you . Remain in My love."

The Year of Redemption aims especially to revive this "abiding in the love" of the Redeemer. To draw from this love and thus to deepen and renew one's own love by seeking the paths of conversion and reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ.

This particular work of the Church in the Year of Redemption is linked to the reality of the Communion of Saints .

In the Saints, in fact, the inexhaustible power of Christ's Redemption has been and continues to be manifested. It is through the power of the Redemption that they have achieved this special participation in the holiness of God, which is the goal and joy of the Church. In turn, the Saints help us to draw closer to Christ's Redemption and, in a certain way, share with us their joyful participation in this saving power.

A Holy Year is always, in the life of the Church, a special occasion to revive the mediation of the Saints , first of all of the Most Holy Mother of Christ, and of all the Saints.

For this reason, I give special thanks to the Most Holy Trinity because, during my pilgrimage to Poland on the occasion of the Jubilee of Jasna Góra, I was able to enlarge, in a certain sense, in a visible way, this circle of our homeland of the Communion of Saints:

— Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe

— Blessed Rafael Kalinowski

— Blessed Albert Chmielowski (Brother Albert)

— Blessed Ursula Ledóchowska.

9. "Venimus - Vidimus - Deus vicit " We came, we saw, God conquered! The king who spoke these words is buried here in Krakow, in Wawel: John III Sobieski. I remembered them at the beginning of my pilgrimage, in Warsaw. Today, once again, I repeat them .

And I repeat them because it is the Saints and the Blessed who show us the path to victory, which God brings to the history of man .

I therefore wish to repeat once again, as I said in Warsaw, that in Jesus Christ man is called to victory : to that victory which Father Maximilian and Brother Albert, Father Rafael and Mother Ursula achieved to a heroic degree.

However, every man is called to such a victory . And every Pole who fixes his gaze on the example of his Saints and Blesseds is called to it. Their elevation to the honours of the altars in their homeland is a sign of this strength which is stronger than all human weakness and all situations , even the most difficult, not excluding arrogance. I ask you to call these weaknesses, these sins, these vices, these situations by their name . That you fight them constantly. That you do not allow yourselves to be swept away by the wave of immorality and indifference, and that you do not sink into spiritual prostration. Therefore, always keep your eyes fixed on the Good Shepherd: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, / I will fear no evil, for you are with me” ( Ps 22:4).

This is what the responsorial Psalm of this liturgy states.

10. Four years ago, in this same "Blonia Krakowskie", I recalled that " confirmation of history " linked to the tradition of Saint Stanislaus , Patron Saint of Poland.

I wish to repeat today the words I spoke then: "You must be strong with that strength which springs from faith! You must be strong with the strength of faith! You must be faithful! Today, more than at any other time, you need this strength. You must be strong with the strength of hope which brings perfect joy in life and does not allow the Holy Spirit to be saddened!

You must be strong in love, which is stronger than death... All things believe, all things hope, all things endure that love that never ends ( 1 Cor. 13, 4-8)".

Maximiliano, Rafael, Úrsula and Alberto, children of this Nation , were strong in this faith, hope and charity .

They were also given to this Nation as a sign of victory. The Nation, in fact, as a particular community of men, is also called to victory, with the strength of faith, hope and charity, with the strength of truth, freedom and justice.

Jesus Christ! Shepherd of men and peoples! In the name of your Most Holy Mother, on the occasion of her jubilee of Jasna Góra, I ask you for such a victory .

Jesus Christ! Good Shepherd! I commend to You the difficult "today and tomorrow" of my Nation: I commend to You its future !

11. "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me."

You, through Your Mother. Amen.

The Lord is my shepherd...

The Lord is our shepherd! Amen.

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