All around, believers raised banners and chanted: “Subito santo!” (“Saint immediately”). Here, I couldn’t help but laugh: the man who had canonized more saints in his pontificate than were canonized in the past 500 years was, as he was lifted to the saints in heaven, raised by the people on earth to that same level of greatness. And I wouldn’t doubt it if it was Padre Pio, St. Faustina, and Maximilian Kolbe who started the chants in the first place.

As the hundreds of Polish flags waved red and white in the crowd, their colors wrapped me in one last idyllic thought: if Mary had offered him the crown of purity and the crown of martyrdom, I’m certain John Paul II would have chosen both. And in his life, I think he did.

Thanks, John Paul II. We love you.