By Cameron Ryan
After our week spent amongst the festivities of World Youth Day, receiving catechesis from many different bishops, meeting Catholic youth from the world over, amid the charming backdrop of Lisbon, we were reaching the culmination of our pilgrimage: the final vigil and sleep-out on Saturday evening, followed by Mass with Pope Francis on the Sunday morning.
The Melbourne group of more than 500 pilgrims gathered for Mass together on the Saturday morning at Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima parish. From there we set out on our final walk to Parque Tejo, the site of the vigil. It was the hottest day of the week, but this would not deter us from the ten kilometre walk ahead of us. We pulled together and trekked through the streets of Lisbon with joyful anticipation, surrounded by more and more fellow pilgrims from around the world the closer we got to our common destination.
By late afternoon we had picked up our food packs, reached the park, claimed our spaces, and were settling in. There we were among 1.5 million people who had all gathered together on the banks of the Tagus River to spend a night of prayer, adoration, and celebration, before the final Mass the next morning. As exhausted as we all were, the sense of excitement was palpable.
As the sun was setting, and everyone was winding down for the evening, Pope Francis arrived to greet us, and to lead us in prayer before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Soon, the sea of pilgrims, which had not long before been abuzz with parties, chatter, and singing, was in total silence.
At this moment, seeing the youth of the world kneeling together in devotion before the Eucharist, the great catholicity of Christ's Church was impressed upon me in a tangible way. Our Lord bridges all linguistic and cultural barriers: He speaks to all, and calls all to Himself. And there were the youth of the world, listening and adoring.
As our time of prayer closed with a triumphant rendition of the ‘Magnificat’, I finished my Office for the day, and then wound down to get some rest. The hard, stony ground beneath provided little comfort, but after such a long and exhausting day, we were grateful to sleep anywhere.
All too soon, morning came, and we were stirred from sleep by the sound echoing out from the stage of Handel’s Messiah sampled as a techno beat – a daring combination. The sun was soon up, and Pope Francis joined us again for the final Mass – the summit of the pilgrimage. In his homily to the youth (which we heard translated into English on our radios), the Pope took up the iconic call that appears so frequently throughout scripture, and which defined the life of St John Paul II — “Do not be afraid!”
The great Fr Ronald Knox once described a pilgrim as “a sightseer endowed with a kind of second sight”. On one level, the pilgrim is led by ordinary human curiosity; the instinctive attraction of the unknown. But on another, the pilgrim is driven by a holy desire to see the things of God; gifted with the ability to see the adventure through the eyes of faith, and to go forth with trust in God’s providence.
Our pilgrimage at World Youth Day was busy, physically demanding, and at times challenging. But we weren’t to be deterred, because we were led by the Holy Spirit, and supported by one another. And at the end of our adventure, we were blessed with a sight that words cannot capture: the joyful witness of countless young people who are on fire with love for Christ, and who are contagiously happy in proclaiming it.
In Lisbon, we saw the Church’s future rising up to be the Church’s present. And we have come back home to Australia with the Holy Father’s encouragement still resounding in our hearts: “Have no fear: do not be afraid!”
Photos: Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne/World Youth Day Facebook Page