'They were buoyant messengers of the Gospel'
Bishop Jaime Soto reflects on young people from around the world at World Youth Day
The following reflection from Bishop Jaime Soto about World Youth Day2008 was sent via e-mail on July 20. Bishop Soto traveled to Australia as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ liaison to the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry and as a member of the U.S. bishops’ Committee and on the Laity and its Subcommittee for Youth and Young Adults.
I caught one of the first vans out of Royal Randwick Racecourse, the site of the closing Mass for World Youth Day 2008 on July 20. I was able to get back to the hotel by 2:30 p.m. This was not bad, considering that the Mass ended at about 1 p.m. and none of the bishops were allowed the leave the Mass site until the papal entourage had departed under heavy security.
I returned to a quiet Sydney. This was in stark contrast to the days of the previous week. Since Monday the city has resonated with the boundless exuberance of Catholic youth from around the world, strumming guitars and clapping their hands to the diverse melodies of religious songs from around the world.
Sydney is a very sophisticated secular society, a global center of commerce and culture. I would have expected them to be quite perturbed by all the public display of religiosity. In fact, the city press had been rather skeptical about the whole event and had prepared the city's citizens for the worse. Well, the folks in Sydney were very surprised to see youth that they could like. There were not the expected scenes of carousing hooligans or angry militant protests. The police that I spoke with around the city said that they cannot remember having it so easy.
At the closing liturgy, police estimated there were more than 350,000 people while World Youth Day officials estimated the crowd at 400,000. The Mass was cited as the largest human gathering ever in Australia. Bishops, along with the Holy Father, were afforded a bird's eye view of the spectacular display of youthful faith. It was "awesome," as the youth are accustomed to say. The racetrack is located on a high plateau overlooking the skyline of Sydney. From where I sat, it was as if the city of Sydney had its arms around this big boisterous band of disciples.
I will give some comment to the presence and words of the Holy Father but I want to highlight how much the joyful and hopeful hearts of the Catholic youth captured the city and the world. They were buoyant messengers of the Gospel. In every encounter during my stay in Sydney, Catholics and non-Catholics, believers and unbelievers were uplifted by the determined energy and untiring jubilance of the young Catholics gathered from around the globe. It was clear that they enjoyed each other's company. As was said over and over again, they were encouraged to see so many other young men and women who shared their same faith in Jesus Christ.
A religious brother from Melbourne, Australia shared the story of an elderly woman who worked at a volunteer at the airport to help receive the young pilgrims. After that experience, she told her children that when she died, at her funeral they were to say that one of the most uplifting moments in her life was meeting the Catholic youth arriving in Australia from around the world. These kinds of stories were repeated to me over the week.
I had the privilege of serving as a catechist so on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I gathered in front of the hotel with the other bishops chosen to be catechists. We were grouped into vans and driven out to the various catechetical sites around Sydney. During the course of the three-day catechesis I spoke to groups as small as 200 and as large as 900. The catecheses were organized into language groups -- mostly Italian, French, German, Spanish and English. The groups to whom I spoke were quite diverse. In many cases, English was not their first language but they knew enough to join. For example, in one session there was a group of Koreans.
I was always pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic hospitality the pilgrims and I received in each of the parishes that served as a catechetical site. Over and over again the Australians thanked us for coming. This may have reflected some of the public wariness and doubts about whether anyone would come such a long way for the sake of religion. Well, we did, and the Australian Catholic community was a delighted host.
The catechesis usually started every day at 9 a.m. with prayer and song. I spoke for 30 minutes. There was time for adoration and reflection followed by an opportunity to ask me questions. We ended each session with Mass and then lunch. By this time our van drivers would appear and begin to collect the bishops from the various sites, returning us back to the hotel.
All this went on amid a constant and pervasive presence of young Catholic pilgrims. Everywhere were the pilgrims, identified by their bright orange, yellow and red backpacks. Each group would usually carry its national flag. There was also some other kind of distinctive brand: a bright colored sweatshirt, a hat that may simply be practical, or others that were more comical, such as a badge or a jacket.
The young people came to be with one another and the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. His formal arrival in Sydney catalyzed the whole gathering. While his presence produced crescendos of affection from the youth, it was clear that he was not the focal point. Even in his own remarks he kept the focus on them, the young people, and their relationship to Christ. He wanted them to know and receive the power of the Holy Spirit, the beauty and the grace of Christ's Spirit, in their hearts and minds.
Pope Benedict does not carry the charisma of his predecessor, John Paul II, nor does he try to force an imitation of the beloved founder of World Youth Day. He was very much himself, but he also came as the successor of Peter, the primary apostolic witness to the person of Jesus. This was the deep, religious touchstone, the rock, which drew the young people around him. This was the charge, the spark that ignited the fervor of affection and faith between the Holy Father, the bishops gathered around him, and the young people who at all hours of the day and night surrounded us and embraced us with their love for Christ.
Perhaps the most magnetic moment among the various papal discourses during the course of World Youth Day came on Sunday morning during the closing Mass. Pope Benedict spoke in the manner of a teacher -- a kind and wise teacher. Then in an unexpected moment his voice took on an even more tender tone when he probed the hearts of the 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?"
The words of the Holy Father turned the gaze of all of us toward our own hearts, where the Holy Spirit does his work. More than these words, there were key moments when the Holy Father said nothing. He remained silent. His silence took hold of the whole vast assembly during eucharistic adoration on the night before. Then again, there was a prolonged period of silence after Communion.
In each instance this silence was not empty nor did anyone rush to fill it with noisy chants or cheers. It was a time of communion with the Lord Jesus. Together with the Holy Father, the whole vast assembly became the temple of God's Holy Spirit. In that silence the words of the Holy Father surely echoed in their minds and souls: "Let me now ask you a question.”
I would like to think that this was the kind of stillness and silence that I found when I returned to Sydney after the Mass at Randwick Racecourse. If not, it is most certainly what Sydney, Sacramento and the world most need, that silence where we discover we stand on the sacred, saving ground of God's wisdom and love.
