PHOTO BY FIONA BASILE

In some ways it is hard to believe, but World Youth Day 2008 is over. Yes, all those years of planning and hard work in preparation for and presentation of that magnificent demonstration of faith are behind us.

Hopefully, however, that won’t all simply pass into history, merely surviving in our memories alone or in photographic and DVD records. The challenge for those who participated and for those who supported them is to retain the wonderful spirit that was so evident leading up to and during the major events of July, and now give it on-going expression.

Unless that happens, in a real sense what culminated in Sydney will have amounted to little more than a moving spectacle and an exciting demonstration. This means that each of us – those who participated and those who supported them – have to challenge ourselves with the question: “What am I going to do to keep alive the true dynamism so admirably demonstrated during WYD08?”

While you are obviously capable of answering that question yourself, a few thoughts from me may stimulate your ideas, and help spur you into action. Understandably, there are countless things that I could say, so I’ll limit myself to just three. And I’ve framed each one in the form of a question.

Well, the first question that I’d like you to pose to yourself is: “What is the sort of relationship that you now have with Jesus?” I’m interested, for instance, how personally you relate to Jesus, and how well you allow Him to relate to you, in the light of WYD08. From what He is recorded as saying in the Gospel, He regards each of us as His friend. I’m sure He means that in the truest sense of that word. Take a look at John’s Gospel, at 15:14, if you need any reassurance about His friendship.

Friends know where they stand with each other. They share mutual respect and trust, and are genuinely focused on the wellbeing of each other. Appreciating all these features of that sort of relationship, it seems to me that one thing worth striving for, in the aftermath of all that was so evident during World Youth Day, is that you and I ought to make it a fundamental facet of our everyday lives that we behave towards Jesus as our friend.

A second question that I consider worth your consideration is: “How much do you see yourself as a member of the Universal Church?” Properly understood, being a Catholic is not just a personal thing, but something that ought to have social consequences to it.

A follower of Jesus has responsibilities towards others, to see that people are adequately cared for, and that their rights are upheld. A fully rounded Christian person, too, must be ready to embrace all members of the Church with their fascinating mixture of colours, customs and languages, as we were fortunate enough to encounter at first hand in those exciting Days in the Dioceses.

My final question that I suggest you put to yourself is: “To what extent are you committed to preserving the youthful dimension of WYD08?”

It may surprise you to be told that ‘youthfulness’ is a critical issue when it comes to giving living expression to what was best about that great gathering. However, it is, and for two reasons. First, those who participated in the gathering will inevitably lose their youth in a physical sense, but, hopefully, not in a personal sense. And, second, for those who were too old to participate, being young at heart ought to be something that they continually seek, despite the passing of the years.

In a real sense, therefore, all of us ought to strive to be forever young. And, so that such a concept may not remain simply an ideal, let me conclude these reflections on World Youth Day 2008 with the magnificent words of the late US General Douglas MacArthur. He spoke them to the students of West Point on his 75th birthday. They provide a superb and practical contrast between ‘youthfulness’ and ‘elderliness’. You may care to apply them to yourself:

“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young. When the wires are all down, and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old.” 

If you’re youthful, good for you! If you’ve lost that aspect of life, then why not take MacArthur at his word, and grow young again?

As broadcast during the Family Counsellor Program over Radio Sport 927 on Sunday 3 August 2008.