“Joy and pain, thorns and roses, intertwine in our lives. May the Blessed Virgin Mary teach us to turn this lot – which often leads us to the foot of the Cross, along with her – into our merit.”

That is an excerpt from the address Pope John Paul II had prepared for May 13, 1981. The pope’s secretary was holding the text when gunshots echoed throughout Saint Peter’s Square and a bloodied victim fell in his arms.

In my previous post, I shared that I had unexpectedly encountered an astounding relic of Saint John Paul II in a pilgrimage I led to Poland. I also explained that I had been unfolding for the pilgrims throughout the week the profound connections between Fatima, John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (TOB), and the blood he shed in St. Peter’s square when he was gunned down on that fateful day.

May 13, 1981, was not only the annual memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, it was also the day the Pope had planned to establish his Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, his main arm for disseminating the TOB. Could it be that there were forces at work that did not want John Paul II’s teaching to spread?

Part of Mary’s message in Fatima was that “Russia would spread her errors throughout the world.” However, “In the end,” she said, “my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” When we hear of the errors of Russia, we rightly think of the spread of Communism. But Communism has roots that go deeper than our typical understanding of Marxist economic theory.

Those who seek to deconstruct sexuality in the modern world often draw straight from Karl Marx. Christopher West Tweet Quote

As most of us learned in school, Marx considered class struggle to be the defining factor of history. But what many don’t know is that Marx believed the fundamental “class struggle” was found in monogamous marriage and, indeed, in the sexual difference itself. “The first division of labor,” Marx co-wrote with Frederick Engels, “is that between man and woman for the propagation of children.” In turn, Engels affirmed that Marxist theory “demands the abolition of the monogamous family as the economic unit of society” (see The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State).

It seems the deeper revolution – and, I would contend, the deeper “error of Russia” – is the one aimed at destroying marriage and the family. Indeed, those who seek to deconstruct sexuality in the modern world often draw straight from Marx. As feminist author Shulamith Firestone wrote in The Dialectic of Sex: “[J]ust as the end goal of socialist revolution was … the elimination of the … economic class distinction itself, so the end goal of feminist revolution must be … the elimination of … the sex distinction itself [so that] genital differences between human beings would no longer matter culturally.” Welcome to the deep-seated sexual confusion in which we’re now immersed.

But here’s the good news: Just as John Paul II’s vision of the human person inaugurated a new kind of revolution that led to the fall of Communism, his TOB has also inaugurated a new kind of revolution that will eventually lead, I believe, to the collapse of the dominant sexual ideology.

In his book The Last Secret of Fatima, Cardinal Bertone wrote: “The Communist system seemed invincible, and it looked as if it were going to endure for centuries. But then the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards.” Perhaps we can expect the same with the deeper “error of Russia.” Indeed, in the Book of Revelation, the “whore of Babylon” – that mysterious feminine figure who mocks the Bride of the Lamb – is brought to ruin in “one hour.” And as she collapses, all the merchants who “gained their wealth from her” (think the porn industry, sex trafficking, Planned Parenthood, etc.) “weep and mourn” (Rev 18).

And then comes the triumph of the New Jerusalem, the Bride who has “made herself ready” for her Bridegroom. She is dressed in “fine linen, bright and immaculate” (Rev 19:7-8). She is “clothed with the sun” (Rev 12:1). This radiant Bride, of course, is personified in Mary. “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” What does this mean? In short, it means that purity of heart will triumph. Somehow the pornographic lies will be redeemed. All of “Babylon’s” distortions will be untwisted and we will come to see the human body as it really is – as a glorious sign of “the mystery hidden from eternity in God” (TOB 19:4). In other words, the life God intended for our bodies will be restored! (When, we don’t know. How, we don’t know. But that it will happen we do know, for it is God’s promise.)

The victory, however, comes only at the price of blood: “For the life of the body is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls” (Lev 17:11). The Vicar of Christ, Saint John Paul II, gave his blood for us in Saint Peter’s square. I have been fascinated with that blood since the day he shed it, which I remember well. Over the years I have studied whatever I could get my hands on regarding the mystery of that fateful day and I have always sensed that graces in my life are intimately tied to that blood. Hence, you can imagine my utter astonishment when, totally unexpectedly, I encountered this (first and second class) relic at the newly established John Paul II Center outside Krakow…

Red and white: the colors of the Polish flag, the “Christ of nations.” Red and white: the colors of mercy presented to Saint Faustina as signs of the blood and water that gushed from the side of Christ. Red and white: the colors of the crowns presented to Saint Maximilian Kolbe as signs of martyrdom and purity. Red and white: the colors of the blood-stained papal cassock worn by Saint John Paul II on May 13, 1981.

I wasn’t just leading a pilgrimage to Poland, I was a pilgrim myself and my pilgrimage unexpectedly led me here, to this astounding relic. This was no longer something I was reading about in a book. It was before my very eyes. As pilgrimage is meant to do, the physical reality opened me up to deep spiritual mysteries. I prostrated myself and wept. And I prayed for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart – in my own life, and the life of the world.

It may be closer than we realize. Already in 1994, John Paul wrote that Mary’s words spoken in Fatima “seem to be close to their fulfillment” (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 221). Let it be, Lord, according to your word. Amen.

Click here to learn how to bring Christopher West’s powerful talk “The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart: Theology of the Body & Our Lady of Fatima” to your parish.

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Video shot by Christopher West at the John Paul II Center, Krakow, Poland.

Photo: Stained glass window depicting assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Zakopane, Poland. By Bill Howard.

For such a time as this have we been given Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. By taking us beyond the alternatives of prudish repression and damaging indulgence, the Theology of the Body opens the path to the redemption of sexuality and the real healing of our wounds. Learn more by watching my short film, The Cry of the Heart. Watch the trailer below.

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