World Youth Day 2002 ReflectionsHenry ShuJust another summer camp I guess since it was my last summer, I felt obligated to myself to plan something, to do something. Something that would mark the end of my being a student and entering upon another section on my life. At first, WYD seems like a good excuse to go and travel. A week in Canada was not as great as a good three months in Spain, but it was better than a week back home cleaning the mess that I had carried home from moving out of my apartment. As the time drew near, I started getting the feelings that I usually get before major plans start turning. The first thing was the feelings of being overwhelmed with the amount of forms and red tape that had to be taken care of so that we could go. There was more than one time when I gave myself the option of just throwing it all down and turning my back on the whole trip. I was telling myself how easy it would be to just let it go. And it would have been easier. I could have sat at home, comfortably cleaning up my mess, organizing myself and applied and started on a job search. I wouldn’t have had to deal with living with host families, or feeling awkward at meeting new people. I could have started to focus on my “future.” Because a job search was supposed to be the most important thing after graduating, isn’t it? Like college, only for less than a week. Looking back on the week spent at WYD, I think the best experience that I can compare it to would be my experience of college. In one phrase, everything was there if you want it. People from all over the world were open to meeting, and smiling, even if they spoke a different language. It’s funny, but language isn’t that big of a deal when both sides are trying to communicate to each other. Face to face anyway. You could meet as many people as you wanted to, or could fit the contact information of in your booklet if you had one. People from all cultures and nationality and ethnicity. Not only was there many people, but also many types of people. Yet, despite the different types of people and cultures, it seems to be true that a smile is universal. It was strange to make inadvertent eye contact and find a smile on the other person’s face as opposed to the awkward quick glance away-because-I-don’t-know-why-I-was-looking-at-you-in-the-first-place reaction. Or the response of a smile was another genuine smile and not the queer look that people usually give me. The other aspect of why it was so much like college for me was that you get what you want out of it. There were so many activities and opportunities that you can do and learn what you wanted to. After the Saturday night vigil, I felt like I needed to be confessed. I was walking with a friend and saw a priest walking in the crowd. We tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to hear our confessions. He was a monk from France but knew enough English to know what sins we were talking about. Yeah, that’s a good thing. We went to the museums, talked with clergy from different orders and learned a lot about how they were started and what they were about. It was frightening in an odd way when a Carmelite priest kept motioning with his hands and arms like he was putting vestments over my head when he talked about what happens when you are ordained a Carmelite priest. Maybe he was just kidding. We learned a lot about the Church as a whole as well as the different parts. And yet, I learned much about the people of the Church from different parts of the world just from sitting around, relaxing and chatting with people in the square, on the sidewalks, and in the streetcars and subways. A slight glimpse of the whole ChurchMaybe my glimpse wasn’t even of the whole Church, perhaps it was just a slight glimpse of a part of it. Whatever it was, I felt that it was larger than the view of the Church that I had, or could have ever had if I didn’t go. It is a view that challenges me in a way, and now my attitude towards the Church can never be comfortable again. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be. For me, my being comfortable in the Church meant that I was stagnant. And as I’ve learned, if I wasn’t growing closer to God, I was drawing away from him. Especially in our current surroundings where people all around us, society and culture itself pulls us from God. People of faith or no, whether consciously or no. I saw the fervent spirit of the youth for our God. It was something that I had only experienced or seen like tiny wisps of smoke in a strong breeze before. Here, it was a firestorm, blazing in the hearts and could be seen clearly in the faces of everyone around. It’s what we’ve read about, what we heard about, and yet could hardly imagine it. It was something like world peace. Something we dream about, think about, but could it really happen? Could it ever? At the first moment I saw the masses of people there, I believed it could as I always have. But there, for the first time, I was convicted that it was the will of God and one day it will happen. Despite the inequities of humans, it seems that good can come about. I guess it all came down to being awed there and overwhelmed to the sudden realization that God indeed was omnipotent in the truest and fullest sense of the word. Now, everything and anything is possible, with absolutely no doubts. Like college, something was learnedIt’s the same. If you asked me what I learned academically in college, I’d be able to name off a few things off the top of my head, but those that I would have stated would have only been the things that I could remember at that point in time. The most important of the subjects and lessons learned that were I held in the highest esteem would have been those things that I believed and lived by. And if you asked me what did I learn, those would not be the first to come to mind because by living by them, they would be to me, common sense and knowledge. So I would have told you the interesting, random, and usually useless facts that I had learned in some class that I had taken for fun. But the subjects that I was excited about and took the lessons to be true would have been so close to me, that I would need much more time to think about, as well as time to convey. I find that to be true for me. The point is, I can’t really tell you in any sort of summary what I had learned. In contrast to what I learned academically in college, I learned spiritually there in Toronto in the midst of almost a million Catholic pilgrims. These pilgrims were in just as many levels and complications of personal spirituality. The only evidence to what I learned can only be observed in my actions in the deeds of my life. I can say that having observed the actions and words of our Pope, and his affects on people, whether of faith or no, I’m convinced that he is the true Vicar of Christ himself. It’s strange to see how true Christ’s words actually are nomatter how oxymoronic they seem. To be first is to be the last?? It must be true. It is as true as seeing the greatest humility in the greatest of people all in one man. A man that has so much power and yet, is the most humble about himself proves to me the validity of what the Church teaches. And this great man told us, we are the future, that we were to be the light of the world. In my mind, I was screaming, “you’ve got to be kidding!” And yet, it can’t be denied. Effects of summer campAfter every retreat or summer camp type experience, there’s always a few themes that stick out. Those themes that we vow we’d live by. We’d say, “that’s the way for me.” And then, two weeks later, we go back to the hum-drum routine and live out our boring lives. Worrying about the things that shouldn’t worried about. Things that we know are “vanity, vanity, all is vanity!” For me, I was humbled. To be taught some of the most important aspects of the Churches teachings by those who were two to four years younger than me, and seeing them with greater faith really cut down my pride. I was humbled. I want to remain humble. This is only one aspect that I have chose to try to live after experiencing this event, among many. Will I be able to stick with them all? Realistically, probably not. But remember, all things are possible with an omnipotent God, right? There’s my hope. Being back for some weeks now, I guess it’s clear that the old routine is much to easy to fall into. It’s so easy to go through life. Especially here where we are. I’ve heard some of my friends tell me, “life is boring.” I see people around me looking to live one weekend to another, chasing one adrenaline rush after another. But it’s what we’re meant to do and meant to be that makes it so difficult and at the same time, interesting and with flavor. Kind of like the flavor salt gives to boring food. The Pope said we’re all called to greatness. We’re all meant to be great. The Saints were great. They started out as normal people like us. What does that make us? <
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