The canonizations of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II this weekend are dual reasons for celebration. Both men, of happy memory for many of our readers, were essential to the fulfillment of the mission of the Second Vatican Council.

It was Pope John XXIII who called for an “aggiornamento,” a reawakening of the Church to the world around it. He stunned the Church by asking us all to open a window and let in some fresh air, and things have not been the same since.

John XXIII, a pastoral pope with extensive experience in foreign service, came to the papacy late in life. He was 77 years old when he was elected. He opened the first session of Vatican II, widely referred to at the time as the Ecumenical Council, but did not live to see it through fruition.

Much of the hope and the fulfillment of the Council came to life years later by the peripatetic pope, John Paul II, who gave new meaning to the role of the papacy and the evangelization called for by the Second Vatican Council.

If we say that John XXIII was the man who called for a Council, in many ways we can say the ideals of the Council were put into effect by John Paul II.

John XXIII’s Council called for a new openness of the Church to the modern world. It was John Paul II who breathed meaning into that proclamation with his travels around the world and his undeniable effort to embrace everyone in his or her own habitat.

John XXIII urged Catholics to put their faith to work in their everyday living, and John Paul II showed them in real ways how to do so. He embraced one and all, regardless of religion. He went out to meet people on their own terms. He preached a Theology of the Body that talked about the goodness of creation rather than emphasizing it as a source of temptation.

One obvious difference in the two great popes is the time served on the Chair of Peter. John XXIII lived through a relatively short term of five years. John Paul II was in office for 27 years – so long that for some people growing up into their adulthood, he was the only pope they could remember.

Yet, each had his own long-lasting impact on how we see ourselves as Catholics and how we practice that faith in our relationships with one another.

Both popes enabled the Church to see life as something to be embraced and not simply endured. Both radiated the joy of existence. Both championed the cause of life and shunned what we have come to see as the culture of death. John Paul II even saw the practice of abortion as the primordial evil in the world.

Prior to John XXIII, the Vatican was a closed entity, protecting the deposit of faith, suspicious of those around us. He was having none of that, and John Paul II’s openness to the world around him was the epitome of John XXIII’s vision.

No longer could a pontiff stay in place in Rome. John XXIII proclaimed the pope as the servant of the servants of God. John Paul II took that to heart and was endless in searching for new ways to serve his fellow human beings.

But more than anything else, both these great popes were holy men. They were driven by divine inspiration and made no attempt to hide their complete devotion to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. John XXIII would include prayers and his rules for an ascetic life in his autobiography, “Journal of a Soul.” Being at a Mass in the private chapel of John Paul II was said to be something of a mystical experience, with him almost lost in a spiritual trance.

Now the official Church has officially said that these men belong to the official Communion of Saints. We, the Church Militant, look to their lives as examples to be imitated. We pray that they will continue to keep us open to the promptings of the Spirit, who guided them along their own saintly ways.