Not Your Usual Sunday Mass

Two weeks ago I concelebrated Sunday Mass with the Holy Father, eight hundred bishops and eight thousand priests. It was not your usual Sunday Mass.  That Mass was at the culmination of the pilgrimage of millions of people, invited to Madrid by Pope Benedict. The reason for the pilgrimage is stated by St Paul as we heard today in the letter to the Romans: “love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour.” This is where World Youth Day starts.  I would like to ask Soleil White to come up and give us her reflections on where this leads.

The experience that most touch me on the pilgrimage was doing the Stations of the Cross in Fatima. While walking the Stations of the Cross we stopped at the Fourth Station (Peter’s Denial), as we walked away a cool breeze swarmed by and I felt at peace and that God was really with me. At that point in my life I really came to believing that God was always with me and that he brought me on this journey to find my faith. Later on that evening I explained my experience to Sabrina from the NATSICC group. She placed her arm around me and gave me a smile and said it was okay to openly believe in God and that we were all there to celebrate our faith with young people from all over the world – Soleil White

It was with experiences such as this that we came to the vigil with the Holy Father at Cuatro Vientos, when the storm hit, everyone shared umbrellas, coats and groundsheets. We tried to stay dry but just got soaked right through. The WYD cross fell over in a gust and hit a bishop, and the Holy Father remained in his chair, ignoring advice for him to move to shelter, in front of us like Peter the Rock. The whole event resulted in bringing the crowd closer together in true solidarity around our Pope. And, in addition, the rain settled the dust and cooled things down, and after the storm had passed, the wind dried the soaked us so that it made for a bearable night. Before he left, the Holy Father, who also got soaked, said:

Dear Young Friends, We have lived together an adventure. Strengthened by your faith in Christ, you have resisted the rain. Before leaving I wish you all good night. Have a good rest. I thank you for the sacrifice that you are making and I have no doubt that you will offer it generously to the Lord. We shall see one another tomorrow, God willing, in the celebration of the Eucharist. I am expecting all of you. I thank you for the fine example that you have given. As happened tonight, you can always, with Christ, endure the trials of life. Do not forget this. I thank you all.

The WYD program was intended to remind us that we are not accidents on this earth, but willed out of the love of God and destined to help each other reach the dizzy heights God has made possible for each one of us. On Sunday morning the Holy Father continued:

Yes, dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful. We are not the product of blind chance or absurdity; instead our life originates as part of a loving plan of God. …If you abide in the love of Christ, rooted in the faith, you will encounter, even amid setbacks and suffering, the source of true happiness and joy. Faith does not run counter to your highest ideals; on the contrary, it elevates and perfects those ideals. Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.

So WYD was a chance to encourage, strengthen and challenge one another. In many ways our Sunday Mass here in Broome is the same. Here we come to put aside the cares of this world and remember that there is something bigger than us of which we are a part. At the time of WYD, Vargas Llosa, a famous Spanish writer and agnostic, wrote that World Youth Day was: a gigantic festival and there are two possible readings of this event: one which sees World Youth Day as more a superficial than a religious festival, and the other which interprets it as proof that the Church of Christ maintains its strength and vitality. I was there both for the event and the testimonies of young people who participated.  I know that there was nothing superficial about WYD, jusdt as there is nothgin superficial about our presence here today.

Pope Benedict always reminds his listeners that his role is to present eternal truths in a way that encourages us think and then act in a positive way. St John Chrysostom provides a perfect conclusion to our reflection on WYD and today’s liturgy, and the necessary action that will result from it:  

             

You will be doing everything for the glory of God if, when you leave this place, you make yourselves responsible for saving a brother or sister, not just by accusing and rebuking him or her, but also by advising and encouraging, and by pointing out the harm done by worldly amusements, and the profit and help that come from our instruction.

In other words, “Whoever tries to save those that are negligent, and to snatch them from the jaws of the devil, is imitating Christ as far as a human being can.” What other work could equal this? Of all good deeds this is the greatest; of all virtue this is the summit.

That is what PopeBenedict aimed for in Madrid. That gift of God, given through the Holy Father and two million young people, is offered to this parish and every Parish in the world today.  May we accept this extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit.

Homily, OLQP Broome 4th September 2011, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A