|
Br Mannes Tellis OP on the fruits of WYD.
I had never been to World Youth Day before and didn’t really know much about it until about the year 2000, when one of the members of my community went with a pilgrim group from Melbourne as a religious chaplain. Furthermore, since 2000 I have been unable to get to a WYD because I am a religious and have been pursuing studies for the priesthood. Combined with that no one had asked me to go nor were they willing to pay for me! All these factors combined to give me virtually no idea what I was to encounter between the 14th and 20th July 2008. The main blessing for me during the week was being with pilgrims from our university chaplaincy. I enjoyed their camaraderie and their desire to know more about the faith. One lad even started talking to me about a possible vocation to the Dominicans (the religious order I belong to). I was also amazed at the amount of people who had come to WYD especially those from poorer countries or countries with small Catholic populations, like the group from Norway who I saw on one occasion during the week. What put the icing on the cake was my involvement with the final mass at Randwick. I was unexpectedly chosen to sing the gospel at the mass in front of the 500,000-strong crowd, not to mention the many thousands watching on TV or the Internet. The experience was surreal, but also quite humbling, especially being so close to ‘the successor of St Peter’. My personal experience, which I shall not forget, was receiving communion from Pope Benedict. For me it was like Peter giving me Christ, the Christ he had denied, yet the same Christ who had forgiven him. Yet, on reflection, my part in the final mass was miniscule compared to the more important aspect of WYD, which was that young Australian Catholics saw people their own age on fire for the faith. I think the witness to the Catholic faith of our overseas brothers and sisters was the most crucial element of the whole week. What the testimony of the overseas pilgrims did for the Australian youth was to show that it is ok to express your Catholicism and be unashamed about it. I truly hope that the mentality of a more expressive and evangelical Catholicism will seep into our young people. Flowing on from this mindset then is the intellectual preparation. Are we who are knowledgeable in the faith ready to hand it on to these young people who have experienced the joy of being Catholic at WYD? The intellectual formation of our young people has to be at the forefront of our efforts to create a new springtime in the Catholic Church here in Australia. We have had 40 years of disastrous catechetical formation in this country and this problem has destroyed a generation of Catholics, the Catholics who are today’s parents. Now if the faith is handed on primarily in the home, how can it possibly happen if the parents don’t know their faith? Fundamentally, you can’t give what you don’t have, and this is the situation we have been in for a long time. WYD, then, allows us to focus once more on the fundamentals of the faith. The fruits of WYD will not be seen for a while, however that is no reason to avoid setting up catechetical groups in parishes, university chaplaincies and even school chaplaincies! The task of today’s young Catholics is twofold. First, a more thorough development of the spiritual life. This can only be done by going back to the sources of the spiritual life – daily prayer (morning and evening), the Rosary, devotions, the reading of scripture, and finally an active and conscious participation in the Holy Mass. Second, all serious minded young Catholics should inform themselves about the Church’s teachings through reading good Catholic books; it is only by imbibing the wisdom of Christ and his Church that one can be an authentic witness to the ends of our continent. Finally, there may be some who went to WYD that are now perhaps experiencing a vocation to the priesthood or the religious life. I would urge those who are thinking of a vocation to act on it. One must say that vocations are a concrete sign that WYD is a work of the Holy Spirit, inspired by the genius of the late John Paul the Great. It is only with good, fervent, local vocations that the Church in Australia can become a powerhouse for good in our society. It is only with fervent priests offering the sacrifice of the mass day in and day out, and the positive testament to God’s love in the hearts of religious men and women, that our Church will become a sign of hope to a society which in some instances has lost its way. So too, WYD may have brought together young men and women called to marriage. This is a good thing too – it is only with strong Catholic marriages open to the creative will of God, that many vocations to priesthood and religious life may come. I leave you with these words from our Holy Father Pope Benedict. They are challenging words but words we must hear as young Catholics, called to bear witness to the faith in our society: “Dear young people, let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?” |
