Emily’s reflection
World Youth Day was exhausting, hot, and loud. It was also hopeful, encouraging, and joy-filled. The metro and streets were filled with chanting and the repeated cry “Ésta es la juventud del Papa” or roughly, “These are the Pope’s youth.”
Each day we had the opportunity to attend Mass at different churches and listen to reflections from bishops and priests from around the world, most notably Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester and Pope Francis.
As I’ve reflected on World Youth Day, I’ve found that some of Pope Francis’ remarks frame my experience well.
In his homily at the Closing Mass, Pope Francis asked the question: What will we take back with us? He answered: To shine, to listen, and to be unafraid.
I take these three things back with the aspiration to live them out but also as memories of how I saw other pilgrims, priests, and my host families live during my two weeks in Portugal.
To shine: My husband and I stayed with two host families during our time in Portugal.
Both welcomed us into their humble homes with love. They did not hide their daily lives from us, but instead let us join in. We ate dinner with them after 10 p.m. when they had finally finished their day’s work.
We witnessed them take in other pilgrims besides those they were assigned, wash our dirty clothes, wrap injured ankles, and freely give away their personal belongings.
We saw our host mothers rise early in the morning to make us breakfast.
One of them bought extra croissants when she saw that they were our favorite.
In his homily, Pope Francis said, “Whenever you do works of love, you become light.”
These Portuguese families were light. They served us with love, authenticity, and without complaint.
They gave me an example of how to live out hospitality lovingly and how to shine as I seek to live for Christ.
To listen and to be unafraid: I struggled with the lack of silence throughout World Youth Day, but I was struck by the “loudness” of the people of faith in their proclaiming of Christ’s love and sacrifice.
There were many intimate moments in small churches, when the priest traveling with us shared deep insights from prayer, including glimpses he had been given of the darkness and loneliness many of us would face in the years to come.
Yet, he shared this with a message of hope. It was a sanctifying reminder to love as Christ did.
He blessed us and reminded us to not be afraid, even when what he shared felt deeply personal. His insights along with the Gospel readings led me to reflect on what is temporal versus eternal.
I found myself often thinking of the Wedding Feast and how much I desired to be there.
In the churches of Portugal, it truly felt that all were invited to the Supper of the Lamb.
As the priest raised the consecrated host, the church bells in the steeple would ring and echo throughout the freguesias, at times, followed by the sound of bottle rockets exploding in the air.
The people were unafraid to announce their belief in Christ and the Eucharist to believers and non-believers alike.
All of these experiences left me with a sense of hope, knowing that discouragement, darkness, and loneliness will come, but that the Lord triumphs over all of these things.
I left feeling more aware of what I have to lose and what I have to gain, more aware of what I have to fear yet less afraid.
Graham’s reflection
After attending World Youth Day in 2016 as a high school student, I knew what I was in for when I decided to attend World Youth Day again in 2023.
Specifically, I was ready for another big, busy, crazy Catholic experience.
For reference, the final Mass in Lisbon held roughly 1.5 million Catholics, all coming together to celebrate the Eucharist.
Truly, this shows off the universality of the Church — 1.5 million Catholics, who have different customs and cultures, speak different languages, and travel from all across the globe, are united by each pilgrim’s participation in the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.
It’s what makes World Youth Day unlike any other large human gathering.
During World Youth Day, Catholics unite to celebrate the same God using the same Liturgy shared around the world.
It’s an eye-opening experience when you attend Mass spoken in a foreign language.
Simultaneously, you don’t understand the spoken tongue, but you do understand the Liturgy and, therefore, understand where you are in the Mass and are able to participate.
I have always loved this about the Church, and World Youth Day highlights the universal Church so well.
Besides being an amazingly massive Catholic gathering, World Youth Day is about evangelization.
Evangelization was the focus of the keynote speech Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester gave at a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Benediction service.
In his speech, Bishop Barron talked about the Road to Emmaus episode that appears in Luke 24.
In this passage, two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem after Jesus’ Resurrection.
In the bishop’s words, “They were walking the wrong way.”
These disciples may have known the facts and data about Jesus but they didn’t understand the deeper meaning of his ministry. So, they were headed in the opposite direction of where they should be going.
However, Jesus appears to them, walks with them, and, ultimately, evangelizes them.
In the face of certain danger, the disciples turn around and go back to Jerusalem to proclaim Jesus’ Resurrection.
Bishop Barron, to the 12,000 Americans in the crowd, made the point that we are called to do the same as Jesus.
Everyone has sinned and everyone has walked the wrong way like those two disciples, but we are called to follow Christ’s example in evangelization. First, to walk with and listen, and, second, to speak the truth — imitating “Christ in the hidden form.”
After returning from World Youth Day, I walked away with a renewed zeal for the faith, and also, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, an inward reflection on whether I am traveling in the right direction.
In the face of certain danger, it is ever more important to stand up for the faith, to stand up for the unborn and marginalized, and to proclaim God’s goodness to the world.
Bishop Barron put it very frankly when he said, “Though our culture is obsessed with safety, a religion that places before our eyes on a regular basis the image of a man nailed to a cross is not a religion that puts a high premium on safety! The Church is not interested so much in keeping us safe as preparing us for spiritual adventure and the embrace of our mission.”
Personally, I am so excited to be back in Madison, to participate in the wonderful Catholic community here, and to let God work in my life.
Emily Hagmann and Graham Mueller are members of St. Paul Catholic Student Center in Madison.