"Everything is there!"

A passage in Pope John Paul II's last encyclical on the Eucharist reads: "The Son of God became man in order to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise, to the One who made it from nothing."

While one might cavil about the often awkward syntax of Pople John Paul's writings, at least in English translation, one can't deny that nearly every sentence of his, like this one, is packed with explosive significance. Whether that is because he was a philosopher, I cannot say, but I am sure that as a Catholic phenomenologist he was adept at probing beneath the surface of things for their deeper essential and sacramental meanings.

The reaction of James V. Schall is not surprising, who comments on John Paul's sentence above, saying: "Such words have haunted me -- 'Everything is there!' Karol Wojtyla could explain things tersely." (Source: James V. Schall, "The Philosopher Pope," Crisis, May 2005. Emphasis added.)