World Youth Day is over. The musings are over. What now? Well, there were some mishaps, of course. There was the pagan invocation, there were the altar girls, the jazz interludes during moments of silence from the electric organ, a few bad music from the choir that massacred some Gregorian songs, the three kings two of which were women and that nun dancing acrobatic with her legs around a missionary… the delegates heard speeches in German which sounded Greek to them. One commentator sighed: “what a waste of time.” That was from his point of view.
But there is God’s point of view. The WYD showed the glory of the Catholic Church in general and of the Papacy in particular. No religious leader can gather such a crowd. And make them come on their own free will; and from all over the world. That was a spectacle for the world to see.
And the delegates saw Catholic Europe…. I mean the shell with little meat left…. but still impressive.
God’s ways are not man’s ways. There are many things, really, happening that are outside the scope of man’s vision but very much within God’s vision. And what is happening and will happen after the WYD will be outside man’s vision.
The Holy Father outlined what he was hoping to happen during WYD using the figure of the Magi who left Persia in search for the new born king, who found and worshipped the king and went back to their homeland to preach the wonder they have seen. In some way, Pope Benedict’s hopes were echoed in the parable of the prodigal son.
A few left their country to go to Cologne. They saw Christ through His Vicar, the Pope. Gladdened by the sight they will go back to their own countries to proclaim what they saw with their eyes of faith. The parable of the prodigal son shows a more complete picture of a son who had left his father’s house and is now returning to the same after an experience of conversion. Many of the youth were never in the father’s house.
The youth who made the journey were few, just like the Magi. What did they do to deserve to find the Christ? They were sitting in darkness and looking for the star. They knew they were in darkness and were yearning for the promised star. G. K. Chesterton mentioned something similar; in that he rejoiced he was in darkness because he saw the light. And the Magi were reported to have rejoiced in seeing the star. The prodigal son, too, realized his misery and in the darkness of his humiliation saw the joy in his father’s house.
The first step towards conversion is for the young to discover that they are in darkness (of relativism and consumerism). This is not yet obvious and takes time to sink deep. It will occur quietly. Right now they would be enjoying this darkness.
But when conversion begins, by a pure act of grace, it will go all the way, usually, towards the desire to live a monastic-contemplative life. Some will desire to become priests. Other young girls will desire to enter convents, usually the strict and conservative kind. Indeed, a laboratory for vocation! Conversion leads to giving up all to follow Christ – like Edith Stein, John Newman, and Ronald Knox. Graham Greene muttered in his old age that he would had been happier if he became a priest.
And by a pure revelation from God, the young will see that their present life is like living in a pig sty, as the prodigal son realized. This is the first step of conversion towards the Catholic Faith and is seen among those undergoing conversions in that they noticed everything around was going wrong. That’s fine as long as they know that it is the pigsty.
G. K. Chesterton warned us of rash judment, or better still erroneous judgment in “The call to the Barbarians.” The example he gave was some Nordics who claimed that the Catholic Church was to be blamed for the dark ages. That was a totally erroneous judgment. The Church was accused of being the cause of the dark ages; when the only light during those dark times were in the monasteries while the darkness was caused by the Nordic Vikings who plundered the land. The youth must see who caused the darkness and where is the light.
Never mind the mishaps and the speeches in foreign tongues. The spiritual benefits from the WYD will be purely the acts of God. And He does not need anytbody to accomplish these though ordinarily he uses His Popes as instruments.
The desire to return to the father’s house “treat me as one of your hired servant,” is a desire for the contemplative life and to live in poverty. This will rise in their hearts but not in those exact words
Pope Benedict XVI wanted to reinvigorate Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe. He hopes to kick start the wave of new faith among young people. WYD was formerly a private invitation from the Pope to the youth to come to Rome for a personal dialogue. It would be nice for him to restore the idea to its original. This way he can complete or perfect what had been gained in this meeting in Cologne minus the undesirable extras.