Chatter

I love World Youth Day. I mean, alot. Every third summer I sit at home, glued to my television or computer screen, lamenting the fact that I have neither the time nor the means (or, in my younger days, the parental consent) to be there, wherever "there" may be, with the Holy Father and the youth of the world. This summer is no different.

Again, the youth of the world gather around the Supreme Pontiff, around Cardinal Pell and the bishops of the Universal Church, to proclaim to cynic and skeptic alike that their hope is in Jesus Christ, who sends us His Spirit, giving us power to "be [His] witnesses... to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8, WYD08 theme). One could say that this is, implicitly, the theme of every World Youth Day, a theme that never fails to perplex secular commentators. As many an adolescent has complained of his or her parents (or teachers, or coaches, et cetra), "They just don't get it." In the case of the secular media, such a complaint is usually justified. What's worse, they don't get that they don't get it.

Such was the case with the Australian media commentators charged with covering the opening mass with Cardinal Pell. The mass was, as expected, spectacular. Not in the artificial, commercial sense of "showy". It was spectacular in the sense of awe that only the Catholic Church in all her glory, her unity-in-diversity, gathered in a single place, always inspires. Here in Sydney were gathered youth from every language and nation to worship the Lamb (Revelation 7:9). Now I can understand the tendency to speak of such occasions in political terms, as a sign of international cooperation, fraternity and peace.

In that respect, I do not blame these well-intentioned Aussies for not getting it. They are in good company. I would simply remind them and every other media commentator that these World Youth Days are more than political theatre, more than a jumping on the peace train, with Pope Benedict in the part of Cat Stevens. These youth are gathered with a common purpose, the worship of God, specifically in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is both the sign and sacrament of Christian unity (CCC 1396, 1398).

Just what don't these blissfully oblivious pundits get? They don't get that the incessant chatter they insist on imposing on the ancient ritual of the Mass... just doesn't matter. They don't get that, perhaps thousands of miles away, thousands of Catholics, young and old, are glued to their television or computer screens, lamenting the fact that they can't be there and shouting, "SHUT UP ALREADY!" They didn't get that their chatter is so profoundly different from the gift of the Spirit on Pentecost, the gift that empowered the Apostles to be the witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth.

In His peace.



Coming soon... "The Barque of Peter".