God Is With Us Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. ~Deuteronomy 6:5 “Come on Peanut,” I shout. “Grab my hand!” I reach out, grasp the tips of Emily’s fingers and manage to fish her out of a sea of teens, all trying to jump on one of the buses headed for downtown Rome — as in Italy. “I’ve got you!” I exclaim with a grin, while pulling her through the door and safely into the bus. But what about the others? I quickly lock eyes with each exhausted, yet still wired, teen to do a head count. “One, two three, four, five,” I count, eyes darting around the bus. “And, six!” Okay. My group is all here. It’s an exciting time, yet as the bus lurches away from the curb, we are so pressed together that I can’t move an inch. For the hundredth time today, I think, “I must be nuts to chaperone teenagers on an overseas trip! I’m getting way too old for this!” As the ancient ruins of the Coliseum and Roman Forum zip past our tinted windows, teens trade trinkets representing their homeland with the other passengers, while singing songs in their native tongue. It’s August 2000; our church youth group flew to Rome to join 2.5 million young people from 157 different countries — six continents — for the 15th annual World Youth Day. That’s one big spiritual family reunion! Yesterday, we hooked up with everyone, in the fields next to the University of Rome Tor Vergata, for the Great Vigil. Then, we crashed for the night in sleeping bags and blankets and awakened to international contemporary choir music followed by a morning worship service. This is the place of the early Church, a land watered with the blood of the first martyrs — the Apostles Peter and Paul and countless others who died rather than compromise their Christian beliefs. We arrived in the Jubilee year to walk in their footsteps. Just last night we were jammed shoulder to shoulder into the Piazza del Popolo singing the World Youth Day theme song, “Emmanuel.” My never-tiring teens, ever present to all the sights, sounds and smells of Rome, sang along, their hungry hearts opening wide to the gift that only “journey” can bring. Five nights ago, as the World Youth Day’s opening Rite of Welcome was about to begin, we stood full of anticipation on the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Piazza de San Pietro. Various AM and FM station frequencies were dedicated to airing the message from our Pope in some twenty different languages. As our group frantically dug through their fanny packs for their radios, Kelly and Mike tugged at my shirt. “Which station for English?” they asked. Scanning the dial, Erin found it first and yelled out, “FM 98.5!” “Untangle the earbuds. Share if you need to,” I yelled. “Okay... good... two kids to a set... that’ll work.” Pressing the headsets to our ears we heard, “May Jesus Christ, Word of God, who has called you from every continent and invites you to be converted, guide your steps, enlighten your minds and make your hearts pure, so that you may joyfully proclaim his Gospel.” “What’s he saying now?” Mike whispered. “Shhhh — listen!” hissed Emily. “This is a time to encounter the ever-living Christ in the city of the martyrs. You are heirs to a great past. Be not afraid! Open your hearts, lives, difficulties, problems and joy to Christ. Jesus knows all that is inside you. To serve Christ is freedom. Jesus desires to enter and live in you. He knocks on the door of your heart. Christ is inviting you on a path of holiness to eternal life. Pray together, young people, with the gift of union. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “What are you here in search of? Who have you come here to find? Search for Jesus Christ, yet understand that Jesus has first gone in search of you. Celebrate the meeting! God works mysteriously in the situations of your life. You are called to light and are a human person being called to glory. Each one of you is precious to Christ, known personally and loved tenderly, even when you don’t realize it.” What beautiful, relevant and profound words, shared by the now eighty-year-old Pope John Paul II. He loves these teens deeply. And the teens could tell. In unison, as with some invisible prompting, the crowd began chanting, “Giovanni due Paolo, Giovanni due Paolo...” At one point, a boy darted past security and into the Pope’s arms. We all watched in wonder as he embraced and consoled the young man. During this tender moment, security knew not to intervene. “Look, he’s talking to him,” Peanut exclaimed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He’s hugging him like a real daddy and, and... I am, he is... I mean we are, each of us, the whole world, you, me, we came all this way and... The Pope loves me too. Right John? Just like Jesus?” “Yes, Peanut,” I whispered. “We are his family, the whole Church and He loves us.” I looked around to see that everyone had tears streaming down their cheeks. We each felt the Pope’s embrace and understood how united we are in this one, holy Church — God is with us. Pressed together with teens grasping for words to encompass their feelings, I shared, “Isn’t it exciting to know that God has chosen you, just like the Pope chose that boy up there, and no matter what has happened up to now, He wants to do many wonderful things in your life?” Now, it’s our last day here. As our bus weaves through the streets of Rome, words shared earlier that day by youth pastor Jim Beckman echo in my heart. Tragically, he had lost three teens from his church’s youth group when they were killed in the Columbine school massacre. That morning he passionately challenged our youth to journey. “You know the truth!” he had cried out. “Stand up and be proud of your faith! Get over yourself and be willing to risk and take the special graces from Christ in this Jubilee year out to the rest of the world.” “Hey, here’s our stop,” I yell as we approach the intersection near our hotel. “C’mon everyone. Kelly, Paul, Peanut — ya got everything?” “We made it!” shouts Erin. “Get ready to get off. The pilgrimage is over.” “Is it really?” I ask. “Or is it just beginning?”
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 04:47:14 +0000
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