JOHN DEMPSTER: 'Rise up!' call heeded at World Catholic Youth Day as steps become longer and more confident
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Vincent Jude-Eze told me: “You take small steps, and then take bigger and bigger steps.”
I spoke to some of the some young people from St Ninian’s Church in Inverness about their recent visit to Lisbon for World Catholic Youth Day (WYD). Around 1.5 million people (‘pilgrims’), including a contingent from Scotland attended a week-long series of events in Portugal.
WYD aimed to encourage young Catholics to ‘rise up… and make haste’ to express their faith in word and action. Pope Francis, who was present, said that young people ‘seek faith, not something artificial’. They ‘seek an encounter with Jesus’. And, he assured the crowds, ‘Jesus’s love is the greatest love of all’.
Vincent told me about the small steps he resolved to take after WYD: to be better motivated, and to pray frequently.
He described walking late at night with about 20 other pilgrims through a part of Lisbon which felt threatening. He was apprehensive, but as they prayed together he sensed both a one-ness with the group, and a whisper of God’s presence. ‘Seeing the others praying showed me the importance of that.’
He spoke about times he was aware of the presence of Jesus: at one of the great open-air masses, and as he watched the crowds of kneeling pilgrims at Fatima near Lisbon. The whole experience of WYD, he says ‘made my faith stronger’.
Leona Fernandes spoke of her reaction to seeing so many young Catholics from around the world, and getting to know some of them. ‘It’s not just me! It’s tons of people!’ This vision, of being part of something big, an international family of Christians inspired her. ‘You just feel so much community, so much love.’ She especially bonded with the group of Scottish young people she was part of.
Attending WYD, Leona told me, has increased her confidence, and the call to ‘rise up!’ has impressed on her the need to seize every opportunity which presents itself.
The sense of international connection inspired George Mccaig too. He told me of his ‘close and strong relationship with God’, and spoke eloquently about the significance of events like WYD: “It has so much potential to help people get better in their faith, get better socially, and understand their place in the world.” He added: “I saw this change in each and every person I was with at Lisbon.”
I loved Vincent’s honest comment that before going to Lisbon he feared he wasn’t going to be Christian enough, but in the end ‘just felt welcome’.
Not just our fellow Christians, but God too welcomes us, and is with us as our steps grow both in length and in confidence.
