Bill Kristol on John Paul II, 1920-2005

"In the end, however, one returns to what was most simple and most evident about John Paul II: his courage--physical, moral, and intellectual. Aristotle claims that courage is the first of the virtues, because it makes possible all the others. John Paul II demanded that we 'learn not to be afraid,' that we 'rediscover a spirit of hope and a spirit of trust.' He grounded that hope and trust on his faith that man 'is not alone' but lives with the abiding presence of God. His life invites us to admire human excellence--and to reflect on the question of whether or not such excellence depends on a conviction, like John Paul II's, that man is not, in some fundamental sense, alone."