This week Pope Francis participates in the World Youth Day, with over a million young people. It is an overwhelming and powerful event. The event is much different from the days of John Paul II, whereas the Pontiff was widely received with joy and high expectations. Our cultural shift has left much cynicism and irreverent responses. But Pope Francis is undaunted.
During this year, the Year of Faith, an the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II, he Pope's words calling the young people to holiness is most appropriate. For most young people, for most all people, the concept of holiness involves kneeling, folded hands, and eyes gazing heavenward. First of all that is not even most of the Saints. Secondly a life of holiness entails a higher way of being, of finding joy in the world around us, and the expectation of goodness and truth in the response to daily encounters.
As expected Francis reiterates the Church's call to live faithfully, working for justice and peace, and living simply and humbly. In some of the holy people of the twentieth century, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and Oscar Romero, we have seen models of this sort of faithfulness. Our Church teachings on justice and peace are some of the best kept secrets in our Church today. But it is these elements that makes our Church relevant and attractive. I have met some young people in a former parish that understood that going to Church is not about sitting in a church for an hour, but a springboard to do Church in the world around us.
Pope Francis can be quite radical in his invitation to be Church. To be sure he has looked out over these young people and discovered sheep without a shepherd. While he calls people to respond to the more traditional vocations, more importantly he is summoning people to a life of holiness.
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