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“…for love is stronger than death, passion fiercer than the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” — Song of Songs, 8:6-7

THESE DAYS, THE WORDS “Love is stronger than Death” keep coming to mind. Four reasons: (1) Two very moving movies recently, (2) Our bible group is currently studying the Acts of the Apostles, (3) Four days of prayers and meditations during Holy Week retreat (March 19-23), and (4) Today is the third death aniversary of Pope John Paul II (also known as Karol Wojtyla before he became pope).

One of the two movies is famous: “The Passion of Christ”. The other is not well-known but its message is just as touching and powerful. It is “Karol, a man who became Pope”, showing in many concrete ways how love can conquer hatred, violence and even death. Here’re two 10-minute video clips and the English transcripts (click the “Read the rest of this entry” link below) for some of its most moving moments:

Karol, a man who became pope - Part 1 of 5

Karol, a man who became pope - Part 2 of 5

All, have a happy and blessed Easter! JPII, unum corde et anima una!

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT for Part 1 of 5:

Note: The original dialog is in Polish. The subtitles are in badly translated English. I’ve edited them a little. Words in brackets are the replaced subtitles.

@6:45 - 8:06 min of video
Karol: Why don’t I know how to answer her? Why do men force other men (similar) to live in absolute pain and without hope? How can we answer that? How many million of monsters inhabit this earth, Tomasz? Why are the innocent the ones who pay? How many people have to be born only to fall into an abyss (”be boundless”)?
Fr Tomasz Zaleski: I can only tell you that I have looked at that Nazi in the eyes. The evil I saw was so absolute, so incomprehensibile, obscene, that I’ve felt the desire to kill him. And I am a priest! I’ve felt deeply guilty. We don’t need to hate as they do. Love… only love can prevent men from falling in the abyss.

@9:06 min of video
Girl 1: You are late.
Karol: I’m sorry.
Girl 2: We have decided to enlist in the armed groups. Everyone.
Man 1: Not I. You fight with weapons, I want to fight with the word. We have the theater and the theater has to continue.
Girl 1: And where? For which spectators?
Man 1: It will keep on living in secret (clandestine) in our houses, in the cellars. We needs to save the word.
Girl 2: Poland is prey of terror and chaos, and you talk about the theater? How do you manage not to be ashamed?
Girl 3: There is no alternative. We need to take up fire-arms.
Another voice: Correct!
Man 1: The word is stronger than bullets!
Man 2: Show it with a gun aimed at the head!
Girl 1: What do you think, Karol?
Men: We have decided! Armed resistence!
Girl 1: Karol!
Karol: Stop, wait! I understand and respect those who want to take up [aim] arms. The Nazis are exterminating our people. They also want to exterminate the culture, to cancel the Polish language. The only way to have still a future is to save our past. He who wants to choose the way of the arms, I think, it’s correct that he does it. But he [Man 1] is right, we need to keep our culture alive. We will make theater too, and we will do it secretly (clandestine). Remember: the theater is the conscience of life.
Man 3: You’ll have your theater and we’ll have our arms.
Karol: Ok, let’s fight the same battle… same hope and same enemy. [Embraces man 3]
Man 3: Let’s go!
[All embraces one another, saying] Unum corde et anima una!

FULL TRANSCRIPT for Part 2 of 5:

[Scene: Gunshot rings out. Woman screams. A man pulls Karol into a room.]
Man: Where do you think you’re going? Where do you run? Do you want to be killed like a dog in the middle of the road?
Karol: Who are you?
Man: Ian Tiranoski and who are you?
Karol: Ian, you will burn your fingers…
Ian: A match is ignited and it’s extinguished. It’s not the flame of a match that burns inside me. [Lights a candle.] You have not told me yet what your name is.
Karol: Karol. I have to go. I am looking for a friend, a priest, for a mass.
Ian: A corpse mass?
Karol: Yes.
Ian: We’ll win with love, not with fire.
Karol: Can you say that with the Nazis just outside your door?
Ian: Nazism will end, evil will devour itself, but…
Karol: But… if love doesn’t triumph, Nazism will return even with another name. Do you mean that?
Ian: Exactly! [Gives Karol a book] St John of the Cross, you’ll be surprised by it. It’ll become your preferred reading. Pick it up.
Karol: Thanks.

[New Scene: Karol talking to a priest in a church.]
Karol: I want to look for the same reasons that you have, of hope and of faith, I want to close myself up in a monastery…
Fr Tomasz: Karol, in such times the people need to have priests nearby and not confined in a monastery.
Karol: I have thought a lot about what I want to leave, and I keep thinking about the importance of the choice that I am about to make. I wonder if it’s because I want to hide myself, or because I feel me in a guilt for all the pain that I see, or if there is something deeper… God is calling me.
Fr Tomasz: John has written in his Gospel that Jesus said: “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you”. The door is open, Karol. Now it depends only on you.

[New Scene: Fr Tomasz and Karol get out of a car.]
Fr Tomasz: Let’s go. [The two enter a building and meets a Cardinal.]
Karol: I have seen all the horror around us, and I have been drawn with strength toward a good, the priesthood. In the name of every human being, of his dignity… to know myself through the knowledge of God, to live God in the depths, I want to become priest…
Cardinal: In the darkness of this evil, we have to give testimony that the divine sense of life is more important than life itself.
Karol: I am here for this.
Cardinal: The Nazis have closed our seminary, you are risking your life. Therefore your mother must not even know that you study here. You’ll lead your usual life, but you’ll study and meditate secretly with us every time it’s possible for you.

[New Scene: Soldiers marching forward.]
Commander: Arm! [ Soldiers ready rifles to shoot. Fr Tomasz standing near the wall, talking to a German captain who has earlier saved Karol's life against the wishes of a Nazi leader.] Come back, father! Come back, father!
German captain: Thanks, Father, to have helped me to die. I’m safe now. I can’t see the Germany of my childhood, those white houses along the river…
Commander: Father, come back!
German captain: Go away, father. He has ordered you to walk away from me.
Fr Tomasz: Brother!
German captain: Go away, I beg you. Don’t get yourself killed.
Fr Tomasz: A new day will come when your children will see on the river those same white houses.
Commander: Aim! [ Soldiers raised rifles.]
Fr Tomasz: [Embraces the captain] God bless you.
[Nazi leader gets out of car and waves to commander.]
Commander: Fire!
[German captain dies. Nazi leader points gun at Fr Tomasz.]
Nazi leader: Who has killed him? You or me? You have killed him, Polish priest. And now, I’m going to kill you.
Fr Tomasz: [Controlling anger and grief] May God forgive you!
Nazi leader: According to my god, the world must be governed by honor.
Fr Tomasz: The world must be governed by love!
Nazi leader: [Walks away and tells commander] Kill him.
Commander: Aim! [Fr Tomasz pulls his priestly stole down from his neck and kisses it.]
Commander: Fire! [Fr Tomasz dies.]

[New Scene: Karol walking along a road, turns sharply around and sees the name of Fr Tomasz on a list of executed people. Weeps bitterly.]

[New Scene: Student priests studying in church. An explosion.]
A student [running and shouting]: They have exploded the bridge of Demlikj! the Russians are near! The Germans are going away, Poland is free! Thanks be to God. [The students embraced one another happily.] Poland is free! [Karol smiles and prays with relief.]

[New Scene: Ordination of Karol Wojtyla as priest. In a church, Karol (face flat) lying on the floor. Cardinal in front of him. Choir singing and praying.]
Karol: Come, Creative Spirit, I’ll be on the floor where others walk to arrive where you drive their footsteps.

[New Scene: Grim-looking man walking towards Russian leader.]
Russian leader: Welcome. Julian Cordec, correct? They have told me of you a thing that I judge impossible for a Polish.
Julian Cordec: That I don’t hate the Russians? My best years have been at the university of Moscow.
Russian leader: They say that you are not Catholic. What is it, a joke? An excuse (expedient) to have a career with us?
Julian Cordec: The joke for the socialist revolution would be to let the Catholics act unmolested, don’t you think?
Russian leader: Is there a reason why this should become your desk?
Julian Cordec: [Hands a file to the leader.] The list of the Polish clergy. The Nazis have eliminated one third of the priests, but they are still many, too many. I won’t let them act, think, or breathe. One day, they won’t even have the time to dream about their God.
[Russian leader raises cup and toasts Julian Cordec.]

[INTRO SCENE for the next part of the movie: In a church. Karol turns around and camera zooms in to show a closeup of his face.]
[Voiceover] I am a young face carved on the rocks of the Tatrs. May a grain field grow from my youth, mature in the hopes and the pain so that our joy may glorify You… great mystery.