#john paul ii

Ever hear about something called the Cocktail Party Effect?  In principle, it’s what happens when we are a in a crowded room with talkative people and we turn because we hear our name being said from across the room.  We may not be paying attention, but once our ears hear something that is dear to us, like our name, we give it our full attention.  This happened to me today, but not with my name.  While working on stuff for work, I was listening to the NPR One app.  It’s a great place to hear short updates on the news and some longer, in depth reports from national and local NPR stations.  Anyway, I listen to it a lot when I work, because it’s good background noise.  Today, while typing away, my ears perked up because I heard the broadcaster mention World Youth Day.  The State Department issued a travel alert for those headed to Europe this summer.  Besides an European soccer championship and the Tour De France in France, the report also mentions that due to the estimated 2.5 million people attending World Youth Day (including some 40,000 Americans), the event is a target for terrorists.  The State Department, US Embassy in Poland, and the Polish Government has been taking great measures to ensure the safety of all attending, including heavy boarder controls, random identity checks, and stricter screening in venues.  

I would be lying if I said I felt totally and completely safe, that there is absolutely no fear that something bad will happen.  It’s there, that fear.  In the back of my head, that rational part in my mind saying “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”  Having the United States’ State Department give a travel alert about an event you are attending due to possible terrorist attacks is scary.  But I am thankful.  Thankful that there are smart people working to keep us pilgrims safe.  Thankful that security was not an after thought.  Thankful that I live in a country that tries to do everything it can to keep it’s citizens safe.  But that fear is still there, whispering in my ear, casting a shadow over my joy and excitement.

But then, out of that darkness and panic, I hear a voice telling me “do not be afraid!” And I see a smiling face beckoning me to keep going. 

In processing my upcoming pilgrimage I keep finding myself reflecting back on the last World Youth Day I experienced.  It was the summer of 2002.  I had just finished my first year of high school.  That school year will forever be burned into my mind because that’s when September 11th happened.  That’s when the word “terrorist” first entered my vocabulary.  That’s when I first awoke to the wide world around me and it’s heartbreaking brokenness.

I’m sure my parents were scared because we (my sister and I) were traveling the farthest we’ve ever been without their supervision.  They were trusting the chaperons to keep us safe.  Fourteen years later, they still have that fear.  Their way of saying, “I love you” has always been telling us to “Be safe.” Now, they aren’t just trusting our diocesan leaders and tour guides to keep me safe, but that complete strangers will make the choice not to engage in violence.  

The theme in 2002′s WYD was “Salt of the Earth; Light of the World!” based off of Matthew’s Gospel (5:13-16).  While the themes are usually planned years before the actual event, that year, it seemed like a perfect fit.  We were encouraged to celebrate the gifts that God had given us and to use them to change our world.  We gathered in a sense of global community.  I met people from Australia, England, France, Lebanon, Canada, Spain, Portugal, the African Continent, South America,  and other far away lands (and even some people from the USA).  Sometimes we couldn’t speak to each other but we communicated.  I went to a scouting event for Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Guides from all over the world.  I learned that Canadian Smarties are not the same kind of candies as American Smarties.  I participated in Holy Mass with over a million people (including one would be saint) and it felt like it was one of the most intimate experiences of my life.  In a time of fear and hate, the witness of the young Church proved that we were meant to love our neighbor, no matter who they were.  

In his homily at the closing liturgy, St. John Paul II reflected on how the young people before him were called to be light and salt.  Remember, in 2002, we were still living in a very dark and scary time.  The world was giving up hope that there could ever be peace and some were resigned to give into that fear they were experiencing.  John Paul was not stranger to living in darkness.  He witness, in a personal way, the darkness that comes with hate and fear of the other.  He lived through Nazi occupation and came out more hopeful: “Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young. You are our hope, the young are our hope.” 

In reflecting on being salt of the earth, John Paul reminded us that we must “preserve and keep alive the awareness of the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist.”  In doing so, and striving to be Christ’s love to all, we can “change and improve the “taste” of human history.”  He continued: “With your faith, hope and love, with your intelligence, courage and perseverance, you have to humanize the world we live in, in the way that today’s Reading from Isaiah indicates: “loose the bonds of injustice … share your bread with the hungry … remove the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil…. Then your light shall rise in the darkness” (Is 58,6-10).” 

Pope Francis has chosen this year’s theme to be “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).  WYD will be occurring at the end of a jubilee year of mercy, where the entire Church has been called upon to reflect on how we can live the works of Mercy out in everyday life.  Francis reminds us that “God’s mercy is very real and we are all called to experience it firsthand.”  We are reminded that God looks upon us with eyes of love.  No matter our sins, faults, failings, or fears, God loves us.  Like the Merciful Father, God reaches out to embrace us with arms of love and forgiveness.  Because of this love, this everlasting love, we are called to love and forgive others.  “We know that the Lord loved us first.  But we will be truly blessed and happy only when we enter into the divine “logic” of gift and gracious love, when we discover that God has loved us infinitely in order to make us capable of loving like Him, without measure.  Saint John says: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love…  In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1 Jn 4:7-11).

Francis’ message of loving mercy combines beautiful with John Paul’s reminder to not be afraid.  Lord, be my guide as I shine my light of love in the world and give my neighbor the gift of mercy, especially those who might want to do me harm because of my faith in you.  Walk with them as well; let them feel your loving embrace and experience a conversion of their heart due to your beautiful gift of mercy.  Holy Spirit, give me the courage I desperately need when I feel pulled into the pit of fear and despair.  Be my hope and joy as I gather with the global young Church on this pilgrimage of mercy.  Amen. 

Like I mentioned in my previous post, one of the things a person can receive while on a pilgrimage is the gift of community.  The friends and family members who send you off, the people you meet when you arrive at your destination, the kind shop keeper you turn to when you are looking for a meal, the person in front of you in a line, the choir you listen to when you attend a religious service.  They are all part of your community on pilgrimage.  

For World Youth Day, I thankfully get to experience it with a community that means a lot to me: members of the Diocese of Gary, IN.  Gary has been my home diocese forever.  Even when I was attending college in Indianapolis, I was proud to say that I belonged to the Indiana diocese next to Lake Michigan.  For those not familiar with the Diocese of Gary, founded in 1956, we are the smallest diocese in Indiana, comprising of four counties in Northwest Indiana.  In our fifty years of foundation, we’ve had four bishops and have seen the Region, as Northwest Indiana is locally called, experience joys and sorrows.  We’ve seen the growth and prosperity of the steel mills and farming communities, and then the closing of the steel mills, poverty, and racism.  The Church of Gary has attempted to help in each of those situations, attempting to address the sin of racism through reconciliation, supporting Catholic Charities, and being the largest supporter of Habitat for Humanity in the area.   

Patrons of the Diocese of Gary, the Holy Angels.  This icon is located in the Cathedral in Gary.  

If your local parish is like your immediate family, your diocese is your extended family.  At least, that’s how I feel about the good ol’ D. o. G.  I love my home parish deeply and am happy to continue to build up it’s walls.  But I also love the moments when the whole extended family gets together to celebrate.  My love story with the Diocese began when I was in high school.  I attended a diocesan retreat and my eyes were opened to the experience of a larger Catholic church.  

The following year, my sister and I signed up to go to this thing call World Youth Day in Toronto.  We went with two others from my parish and a few bus loads of pilgrims from the diocese.  It was brutal travel (9 hours on a bus while fellow passengers sang songs from Veggie Tales nonstop; It’s enough to make you want to throw the elusive hair brush they were singing about at them), rustic accommodations (sleeping on the floor of a school classroom with only a light sheet as your bed and using a shower a hose over the side of a large wooden box to bath in), and even getting some of our belongings stolen (thieves broke into where we were staying and stole some of our possessions, like cameras).  But even then, we had each other.  During one of the The catechetical sessions at the beginning of the day, Bishop Dale Melczek, now the Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Gary, raffled off a medal that was given by Pope John Paul II to each of the bishops who attended that WYD as a way of trying to give back something that was taken from us.  Other members from the diocese left messages of hope and encouragement on our pillows to try to bring a smile to our faces.  We found each other walking around in a sea of strangers and smiled.  We met new people who became traveling buddies and later dear friends.  We shared pillows and tarps and pizza when we were sleeping outside during the biggest slumber party I’ve ever attended.  We hugged and rejoiced together when we saw, now Saint John Paul II pass us in the Pope mobil on his way to celebrate Mass with over a million people.  We slept on each other’s shoulders on the bus home.  

My sister, Gina (second from the left), expressing the emotion we felt after John Paul II passed us. We we not smiling because we got the picture we wanted, but because we experienced something that’s hard to put into words. 

After that, I was kind of hooked.  I loved being able to go to different masses throughout the diocese and seeing a friendly face.  During my junior and senior year of high school, I served on the diocesan youth council and helped out with a diocesan youth conference.  I became even more familiar with my peers in other parishes and found mentors in the adults who served the youth.  Those people are still some of the people I turn to for advice and wisdom.  I’m still friends with some of those high school peers.  They have been a constant in my life that I am so thankful for.  

This past weekend (5/21/16), some of the pilgrims from the Diocese came together to pray and prepare for the upcoming trip.  We gathered at the beautiful Shrine of Christ’s Passion in St. John, Indiana to walk the Stations of the Cross, an act that will be repeated when we pray the Stations with millions of pilgrims during the last night of WYD in Krakow.  

Praying before entering the empty tomb.

It was a beautiful day with lovely weather.  We walked from station to station, reflecting upon the scene in front of us and adding our prayers to those who had also walked along the way.  

Jesus meeting his mother on the way to Calvary.

Each step we took, we were reminded that we are never alone along our journey.  Jesus was never alone.  Soldiers, guards, his mother, friends, strangers, prisoners were all with him.  Our journey was the same.  We had each other, but we also met strangers along the way.  Nuns, priests, children, elders, couples, single people; their paths colliding with ours along the way.  All there for a reason.  All seeing the same story.  All experiencing it a little but different.

A few final thoughts on community:

The more I keep thinking about it, the more I feel our pilgrimage has the theme of community.  Krakow, the host city, is often called the City of Saints, because so many saints and holy people have their roots in the city (It’s also the title of a great book by George Weigel about JPII’s Krakow).  The USA pilgrims are invited to ask St. James the Apostle (patron of pilgrim travelers), St. Kateri Tekakwitha (a young, faithful, Native American who loved her faith), St. Therese of Lisieux (patroness of missionaries and advocate for youth), Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (man of the beatitudes and patron of young adults), and St. John Paul II (son of Poland and patron of World Youth Day) to pray for us, along with the 8 other saints who have some connection to the city that the international WYD is holding a devotion to.  That’s a lot of people, and I’m so thankful that they have our backs.  

The Gary Delegation is also going to travel to Assisi in Italy, the home of St. Francis and St. Clare.  I’ll write more about that later, but it still has a connection to community.  Both Clare and Francis built communities around helping the poor and relying on the kindness of strangers for their daily needs.  Francis heard his call to “rebuild my Church, for which you see is falling down,” in a little country church.  He was praying in front of an old cross, that is unlike any cross I’ve ever seen before.  If you look at it, you will see something unusual: Jesus isn’t the only person in the picture.  He may be hanging on the cross, but he is surrounded his mother, followers, soldiers, saints, angels, God’s outreaching hand, and even some farm animals.  Francis started his road to sainthood alone, but with a community.  Kind of like a pilgrimage…

Chodźmy! Let’s go! Walk with me?

This is my friend Amanda.  We met when we went to WYD Toronto together.  She’s been a solid rock in my life and I’m so thankful that we are pilgrims together again!