Unburned letters of John Paul II reveal richness of Trinity
by Elise Harris
Pope John Paul II Visits the United Nations Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
Entitled “I am so much in God’s hands: Personal records 1962-2003,” the book was published by Krakow-based publisher Znak on Feb. 12, and contains 639 pages of meditations and some photos and scans of the pages from two of the late Pope's notebooks, one beginning in 1962 and the other in 1985, which were both published in Italy by the Archdiocese of Milan.
Coming from one of the notebooks, the pontiff writes on the identity of the Trinity in three separate meditations, one focusing on God the Father, one on the Son, and another on the Holy Spirit.
“The analogy of the fatherhood which is given to us in the created world, is variously reached and at the same time is very poor and out of proportion in comparison with that reality of the 'Father' in God,” the soon-to-be Saint wrote.
“God in some ways identifies with the Father, and at the same time He exceeds all that we can think of regarding the subject of 'father' in the dimension of the creature, especially in the dimension of a human reality.”
A father, he continued, “is one who gives life, who hands down humanity and who conditions its development, who is a point of reference for a child, and a correlator of the certainty of existence and good.”
Explaining how God is “mysterious” in both the world and in Creation, the pontiff reflected that this mystery “is beyond everything” and that it “is cleared up with one reference: it is the reference of Christ.”
“In Christ’s consciousness as well as in His mission and the world, the Father completely obscures 'the Absolute,' although at the same time it absorbs Him in a certain way.”
He then highlighted that if a person is able to think about God in terms of “the Absolute” and the “height of existence,” it is only possible “on the condition that they accept, after Christ, the truth about Love.”
“Outside the 'mystery of the Father,'” the Blessed emphasized, “there is no evolution of man in truth and love.”
Referring to the figure of God the Son in another personal note, Bl. John Paul II recalled Jesus' words when he said that “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” and that “the Father and I are one.”
“These words are the key of the meditation,” he affirmed, observing that “the Son appears as a 'visibility' of the Father, not only His invisible Image that is the Consubstantial Word, but also his 'revelation' in the history of mankind, which enters in becoming a Man.”
“In this ultimate closeness to a man, to mankind, to history, Jesus” acts “above all as Consubstantial to the Father (Consubstantialis),” the Pope reflected, drawing attention to the “thorough way” in which the Person of Jesus enters into human history.
Noting how this closeness enters firstly “in the event of the Cross, a fulfilling sacrifice which has salvific power,” he emphasized that the Father is still becoming visible, and that “the ‘mystery of bearing the Son’ is ‘unfathomable.’”
“The Son is eternally Consubstantial – and as eternally the Son, He is bearing by the father. There is dependence, giving birth is a sign of consubstantial-ness between the Son and the Father – and also between the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Divine.”
Reflecting on the Holy Spirit in a third meditation, Pope John Paul II noted how “God is a spirit,” and that all who worship him do so “in spirit and in truth.”
“This reality is at the same time ‘purely’ spiritual and ‘purely’ personal,” he reflected, observing how “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are a spirit.”
Highlighting how “the Spirit permeates everything,” including “the depths of God,” the Blessed explained that “we know He is Holy, that He is a Person, as are the Father and the Son. We know that He ‘proceeds’ from the Father and the Son as Love. God is love.”
“The Holy Spirit is love of the Father and the Son. Therefore He is ‘Holy,’ as holiness is love.”
In his meditation, Bl. John Paul II went on to explain that the “mutual giving of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father in the Holy Spirit…is a complete mystery of faith.”
Observing how “the Holy Spirit is a ‘hidden God’ (Deus absconditus),” the pontiff wrote that “If He is an internal gift with whom the Father and the Son are united – He especially has been revealed to man as a Gift.”
“At the cost of the Son’s Passion and Death” the Holy Spirit becomes “a gift for souls” he noted, emphasizing that “‘God’s Love is spilled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us’” as a gift, and reveals to us both truth and love.
“As long as the Son, Christ, consists of the ‘visibility’ of God and His ‘historicity’ – the Holy Spirit re-introduces us to His ‘invisibility.’”
Explaining that that the Holy Spirit “is above all an Action,” the pontiff emphasized that “He is Effectiveness and Bearing fruit – not entering into the sphere of our sight. His action in the soul, however effective and basic, is always action of the Invisible in the invisible.”
Read it all: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/unburned-letters-of-jpii-reveal-richness-of-trinity/
Imprisoned more than half his life for a rape and murder conviction, 53-year-old Edward Lee Elmore, center, celebrates his 2012 release in Greenwood, South Carolina. Appellate lawyers Diana Holt and John Blume uncovered information suggesting that evidence was planted or hidden from defense attorneys. Elmore had been sentenced to death three times for the 1982 rape and murder of 75-year-old Dorothy Edwards, a wealthy Greenwood widow. Elmore had no alibi at the time of the killing. 
In January 1982, Edwards' longtime friend and neighbor Jimmy Holloway let himself into her house after noticing newspapers piling up in the driveway. Holloway, a Greenwood city councilman, called police and told them he had found Edwards' body. He also pointed out Elmore, a semi-literate handyman, as a possible suspect.
Edwards, who was living alone at the time, had hired Elmore the month before her death for odd jobs around the house. Prosecutors accused Elmore of raping Edwards and beating her to death.
Holloway said he found her bloodied and battered body stuffed in this bedroom closet. Prosecutors said Elmore forced his way into the house through the back door to commit a robbery. An attack occurred in the kitchen, where Edwards suffered a blow so powerful that a denture plate flew out of her mouth, according to testimony.
Holloway said this coffee pot was on when he entered the house. It was set to turn on at 6 a.m., suggesting that Edwards was killed after the clock was set and before it turned on. An expert for the defense later testified that Edwards was more likely killed in the afternoon.
The most damning evidence, according to prosecutors, were these hairs found in Edwards' bed. But Elmore's team found the evidence suspicious because it was not packaged and labeled in the same way as other evidence in the home.
Police collected head and pubic hairs from Elmore and stored them in this evidence bag. Elmore's team conceded that they belonged to him but said they were collected from him after his arrest and not from the crime scene. To bolster their theory, they pointed out that investigators did not take crime scene photos of the hairs on the bed or package the hairs like the rest of the evidence found at the crime scene.
Elmore's team says this photo of the bed where Edwards was raped supports the claim that pubic hairs were never there. They said investigators would not place equipment on the bed, and they would have taken evidence pictures.
This police list suggests that key evidence was lost or hidden. Item "T" included "fibers" and "hairs" collected from Edwards' body but never introduced as trial evidence. More than a decade later, a state investigator found item "T" in the back of a desk drawer. New analysis showed that item T included a "Caucasian hair" that did not belong to Edwards or Elmore.
These are the jeans Elmore was wearing the night prosecutors said Edwards was killed. A state expert told jurors that blood stains matched the victim's blood type. But Elmore's team said a law enforcement agent took them from the crime lab, exposing them to tampering. The scant amount of blood also suggested that they were not worn during the bloody attack, according to defense experts.
Elmore's fellow inmate James Gilliam said jail officials offered to "look after" Gilliam in exchange for incriminating testimony. Gilliam told jurors that Elmore confessed to killing Edwards. He later told Elmore's lawyers that he had lied.
Diana Holt was a law student in her mid-30s when she joined the case in 1993, 11 years after the first trial. When Holt first met Elmore in prison, she was surprised that a convicted killer on death row could be "so docile and gentle." As she started reading the trial testimony, Holt couldn't believe her eyes. "All the forensic evidence evaporated under the smallest measure of scrutiny," she said.
Elmore has maintained his innocence since his arrest. He was locked up for a total of 11,000 days before his release. A plea deal with South Carolina prosecutors allowed him to "maintain his innocence" while pleading guilty to murder. He had a choice, Holt said: potentially spend years awaiting another trial or go free. "Immediate freedom stymied ongoing justice
