Guided by Two Hands

 

Seeing how God and Mary guided John Paul II

05/13/2026

John 16:12-15 Jesus said to his disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."

Every morning around 5:45 I greet the high school students who attend Ozark Catholic Academy in Tontitown before they depart for school. We say the Our Father in Latin. A few weeks ago I was talking to a senior and her mother as they waited to leave and we discussed Pope Leo XIV and how young he was to be elected pope at age 69.

I made the comment, “But John Paul II was only 58 when he became pope and that’s so young!” And the senior literally laughed out loud – “Ha!” – at my assertion that 58 was “young.” To an 18-year-old who’s fit as a fiddle, being 58 must seem as old as the hills. But it was very providential that the Polish pontiff was so young because his excellent health helped him to survive an assassination attempt three years later on May 13, 1981.

Some of you might remember the sunny afternoon that Pope John Paul II was wheeling around St. Peter’s Square in his popemobile, smiling and greeting pilgrims when Mehemet Ali Agca shot the Holy Father four times. John Paul, of course, because of his deep devotion to Mary, gave the Blessed Mother the credit for saving his life.

May 13 is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima and John Paul insisted Mary’s hand had moved the bullet away from his vital organs. Who is Our Lady of Fatima? Our Lady of Fatima is one of the virtually innumerable titles for the Blessed Virgin Mary. She appeared from May 13 to October 13, 1917 to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal. Mary’s titles often arise from the location where she appears, in this case Fatima, Portugal.

By the way, Mary must be a polyglot, someone who speaks a lot of languages, because she invariably appears to illiterate children or peasants and addresses them in their native tongue. When she appeared before Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, she spoke to them in perfect Portuguese. If Mary appears to you, she will have a soft southern drawl, “Ya’ll come back, hear?”

Now a more subtle connection between Our Lady of Fatima and John Paul revolves around the third secret of Fatima. Mary revealed 3 secrets to Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, and the third one – which the Vatican publicized in 2000 – referred to a bishop dressed in white (the pope) who traveling through a ruined city (ancient Rome) would be killed by soldiers (Mehemet Ali Agca).

But John Paul interpreted that secret to be an advance warning to help him survive the assassination attempt. In other words, John Paul did not believe May 13 was a coincidence but rather a providence: God’s hand guiding history, especially the pope’s own personal history. We might say that as Mary’s motherly hand guided the bullet away from John Paul’s vital organs, God’s fatherly hand had been guiding John Paul’s whole life so that he met that bullet on Mary’s feast day.

Tony Robbins, a popular motivational speaker, holds an annual seminar called “Date with Destiny” to help people improve their lives. John Paul believed May 13 was his “date with destiny” where Mary’s hand and God’s hand worked powerfully together to save his life and to strengthen his faith. The assassination attempt did not discourage the pope; it made his more determined than ever.

My friends, we all have a date with destiny. Oh, I don’t mean you should attend a Tony Robbins motivational tent revival, but to discern carefully how God the Father’s hand through his providence and Mother Mary’s hand through her prayers guide our own lives. People of faith cannot countenance living by luck, or believe in karma, or knocking on wood so something bad does not happen, or avoid talking about a NBA player’s perfect free throw stat as he steps up to take one, or how baseball player wear the same underwear while they are on a winning streak. That is all superstitious bunk.

Rather, we must adopt the attitude of little children, like Jacinto, Francisco, and Lucia, who are docile to the guidance of a father’s and mother’s hand in their life. That is why the standard Catholic prayer is always: one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be. Why? Because we submit ourselves, especially our wills, to the providence of the Father, and to the prayerful protection of our Mother, so we can glorify the Holy Trinity in all we do. Then we will live a truly worthy Christian life.

Praised be Jesus Christ!