Originally published at National Catholic Register
COMMENTARY:John Paul II spoke to the world as one who, over a lifetime of reflection, had found the truth that makes other truths make sense in Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of God’s self-revelation to the world.
On October 20, 1994, something unprecedented in the modern history of the papacy took place: the reigning pope published a book that was not an act of the papal magisterium but rather a personal reflection on Christian faith, prayer, the divinity of Jesus, the problem of evil, salvation and eternal life, world religions, Christian ecumenism, the necessity of Vatican II, the right to life, Mary, and other subjects. It was entitled Crossing the Threshold of Hope, and in four years, it had sold millions of copies in forty languages. Given what the magazine’s editors wrote about it, Threshold was likely instrumental in making John Paul II Time’s 1994 Man of the Year: “In a year when so many people lamented the decline in moral values or made excuses for bad behavior, Pope John Paul II forcefully set forth his vision of the good life and urged the world to follow it.”
Curiously (or, as John Paul would have insisted, providentially), Threshold was
