In 1979, Saint John Paul II visited Poland, his homeland, for the first time since becoming Pope. The Polish people were being suppressed by communists who hated Catholicism and hated the Polish people.
Despite circumstances, 3 million Poles came out to greet him; their polish boy who had become the pope. Even in the midst of the communists who surrounded them with their machine guns in hand they chanted, “We want God!” There were reports of the communist men shaking in the presence of John Paul II. He shouted out to the crowds, “Holy Spirit, come and renew the face of the Earth, this Earth.” Everywhere he went, he reminded his people, “You’re not who they say you are. Let me remind you who you are.”
Pope John Paul II’s visit sparked the Solidarity Movement, which gave rise to a broad, non-violent, anti-communist social movement that, at its height, claimed some 9.4 million members. Twenty years after his visit, without a shot fired, communism in Eastern Europe failed.
It’s easy when we are living amidst the empires of the world to feel powerless. But we can see in examples like Pope John Paul II that God’s word never comes back void. Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall my word be that goes forth from
