BROTHERS
This is the story of two men. One was considered by some the "greatest man since Jesus" and the other was considered by his followers the "vicar of Christ on earth".
The first man I speak of I'll call "Bill", the second man "Vicar Johnny".
At first, Bill hated everything any Vicar stood for and "In 1948, he said: 'The three gravest menaces faced by Orthodox Christianity are Communism, Roman Catholicism, and Mohammedanism.'"
By 1973, however, Bill had changed his tune. "He said that Communist Mao Tse-Tung's 'eight precepts are basically the same as the Ten Commandments,' he praised the Roman Catholic mass as a 'very beautiful thing'..., and said Mohammed Ali's beliefs in Islam 'are something we all could believe.'"
Indecisiveness, one might say, shadowed Bill in just about everything he had once stood for. "In 1948, Bill called Roman Catholics 'one of the three gravest menaces facing orthodox Christianity.' But today, he works arm in arm with them, having become an all-out supporter."
What happened? Well, Bill speaks of a meeting with Johnny on a "beautiful day" in 1989. "There was a pause in the conversation; suddenly the Pope's arm shot out and he grabbed the lapels of my coat, he pulled me forward within inches of his own face. He fixed his eyes on me and said, 'Listen Graham, we are brothers'" (6/8/89, Today). Graham said that that was a great happening in his life."
"WE ARE BROTHERS", Johnny had said. But if Bill and Johnny are brothers, the reader must surmise that they surely have the same mother...and WHO is their mother?
"And upon her forehead was a name written,
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints,
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her,
I wondered with great admiration."
(Revelation 17:5-6)
Epilogue
Billy Graham was interviewed by Larry King on CNN the day after pope John Paul II died. The following is a portion of the transcript from this interview:
KING: And we begin by phone with Reverend Billy Graham, chairman of the board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association who, in his statement, said that this pope was the most influential voice for morality and peace in the world in the last 100 years. Reverend Graham, you want to expand on that, "the most important voice"?
GRAHAM: Yes. I had the privilege of seeing the pope on several occasions at the Vatican. And tonight, I have a very strange feeling of loss. I almost feel as though one of my family members has gone. I loved him very much and had the opportunity of discussing so many things with him. And we wrote each other several times during the years.
KING: Did he actually say to you once, "We are brothers"?
GRAHAM: That's correct. He certainly did. He held my hand the first time that I met him about 19-- he'd just been pope for two years when I saw him first. Because when he was elevated to the papacy, I was preaching in his cathedral in Krakow that very day. And we had thousands of people in the streets. And watching the television today of Krakow has brought back many memories.