Sunday, 21 August in Madrid, the Pope closed WYD with a High Mass
During the three days of WYD, Benedict XVI reminded the massive gathering of young people from all countries of the importance of the spiritual life.
It was amidst the roar of world events that WYD opened: falling stock markets; attacks in Iraq and Israel. A roar whose echoes are especially evident in Spain: a profound economic crisis, growing austerity, and controversies over the organization and cost of WYD. Then, in a memorable tempest, Benedict XVI delivered his message to the young.
Scalded by the scorching heat of Madrid, the million and a half youth present, forming the largest gathering of its kind in the world, a phenomenon never before seen in Spain, held fast. As did the pope. Modest and sober, his personality does not lend itself to the commanding presence one expects at such events. As well, contrary to media expectations, there was virtually no mention, before this audience of young adults, of sexual morality. Even so, this WYD was not insubstantial, far from it. Benedict XVI took aim at the weak spots of modernity.
First he addressed the economic crisis. Before even putting his feet on Spanish soil, the pope, in his plane, emphasized the necessity for each young person to be able to find "decent work". "Man must be the center of the economy and the economy is not to be measured solely according to achieving maximum profits. Its true measure is according to how it serves the good of everyone." Similarly, speaking to young university professors, Benedict XVI stressed the need for this generation to have "authentic teachers: persons open to the fullness of truth in the various branches of knowledge, persons who listen to and experience in their own hearts that interdisciplinary dialogue." In a word, "persons who, above all, are convinced of our human capacity to advance along the path of truth."
When man thinks he is God
Finally, the Stations of the Cross, an improbable fusion of dolorous Spanish religious art and the exuberance of modern youth, permitted him to evoke the sufferings of the world: the Middle East, Iraq, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Haiti, Japan. But also the migrants, addicts, those afflicted with AIDS... not forgetting the victims of sexual abuse, who were explicitly cited.
Benedict XVI, a theologian, never fails to intersect the two planks of the Cross. The horizontal, incarnated in the world, is insufficient. The faith also requires the vertical plank, pointing to God. Confronting a "liquid society", which he again critiqued as lacking, wherein "man thinks he is God," Benedict XVI practices the pedagogy of silence, turning to God and the Son. On the occasion of the Stations of the Cross, where we heard an incredible calm sweep over the city of Madrid, then during the vigil, in the magnificent moments of silent Eucharistic Adoration which are for the young a practice of great power and strength: silence favored not only to examine oneself, but to listen to others and God.
No incidents
Future priests are found, for the pope, at exactly this intersection between the two planks of the Cross. Before 6,000 of them, gathered at the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, he set the highest of bars: "We have to be saints so as not to create a contradiction between the sign that we are and the reality that we wish to signify." Certainly, as during each WYD, false notes were inevitable: a huge downpour during Saturday's prayer vigil, logistical improvisations, obtrusive security, not to forget the internet attacks which did not ease the task of the organizers. But the Madrid police noted an absence of incidents, always remarkable given such a quantity of energetic young people. This generation is peaceful in its quest for meaning. They deplore all discord, even when faced with "anti-Pope" Spaniards.
And now? "We cannot say that from tomorrow there will begin a large growth of the Church," confided the pope to journalists on the flight to Madrid. But "the seed of God is always silent, it does not immediately make itself known in statistics," he continued. He will likely bear in mind a long time the confessions he heard from four young people in the coolness of Retiro Park. It was, says Fr. Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, "a sign of personal participation by the pope to manifest the essential importance of this sacrament."
Throughout this WYD, the opportunities have not been lacking for this man of the 20th century to take challenging questions from these "children" of the 21st. As, for example, that of the young woman from Berlin, who asked, during the prayer vigil: " I do not know if I really want to be a Christian. I do not feel that Christ is really interested in me. I would ask you what I should do."
FRÉDÉRIC MOUNIER in Madrid
The article, in the original French, can be found here
No comments:
Post a Comment