Posted On 2018-01-24 In Church - Francis - Movements, Francis - Initiatives and Gestures, Francis - Message

How I experienced the Pope’s meeting with the Chilean Youth at the Maipú Shrine

FRANCIS IN CHILE, by Sophie Berthet E. •

Approaching the Shrine – Photo: Sophie Berthet

“Faith is lived in community.” This is one of the expressions that has most marked my life because I have always thought of myself as being very sociable and because I believe that it is very true. I won’t share the reasons here because that is not what this article is about, but I hope that through this account, you’ll see what I mean.

I worked as a volunteer for the Pope’s visit. I love to sing. I belonged to the Misión País Choir for several years. I helped in the production of the Spanish Heavenwards CD and I normally sing in Mass. This time, I sensed that there were enough voices, but there was a need for more hands. This is why I chose to be a volunteer.

Francis knows I exist

I hardly sleep and was VERY cold in the O’Higgins Park (as were the more than 20.000 youth and adults with youthful hearts who were at the service of Christ during those days). Afterwards, I was able to see the Holy Father very close at the residence of the Apostolic Nuncio. I was so excited that I screamed out: “Papita!” [an affectionate expression for the Pope]. That’s why he looked at me from the window of the car. “Francis knows that I exist,” I thought. “And he will pray for me.”

They were exhausting days, during which I even complained about my role because I was so tired that I fell asleep not once, but three times during the Holy Mass for Peace and Justice (I later changed my mind and was sorry that I had complained about being a volunteer/having an apostolate, for reasons I’ll share just now).

Wow, there are lots of Catholics in Chile

I work for a TV program that broadcasts live every day and because of that, I unfortunately wasn’t able to go to the meeting with the youth in Maipú.  They invited me to sing and I had to decline. Finally, because the channel had to cover the events with the Holy Father, there was no show that Wednesday. It was a real blessing that I was able to go with my little sister (14). There, I really felt what community meant.  Conie commented: “Wow, there are lots of Catholics in Chile.” I met up with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. I felt as if I was part of a group of people that are united by something as essential as the reason for existing: Christ. My sister somehow guessed the Pope’s message. Perhaps it is because she was looking for it, but she was impressed and shaken by something that is happening in Chile, in her country, in her homeland. And that was exactly how Pope Francis began: “If we don’t love our motherland, we cannot love Jesus. If we don’t love our motherland, we are nothing.” If we love Chile, we must share the most beautiful thing we know, which is to love God above all things, and his mother, our Thrice Admirable Queen of Schoenstatt and to crown her as often as it is necessary.

Get off the sofa

At the Shrine – Photo: Sophie Berthet

In today’s world it’s difficult to fit in if you go to Mass every Sunday, if you listen to religious music, if you’re the one who answers, “I’m well, thanks be to God,” or if you go through life saying “God loves me.” People don’t understand why you want to get married without first living together, why you have saints’ cards in your office, why you go to the shrine. But this time I felt I wasn’t the only one, but one of thousands of people who were there. Among the thousands who shouted loudly:

“Viva Our Lady of Carmel!”

“Viva!!”

“Viva Pope Francis!”

“Viva!!”

“We are the Pope’s youth!”

The Holy Father addressed the youth who were on the grounds of the Maipú Shrine — made up of a large number of, I repeat, those who are young at heart. They were able to, as Francis said, to get off the sofa, get sunburnt, feel sick under the burning sun and the hot earth, to have nowhere to sit for hours, just to spend 30 minutes with him — and he spoke about maturity: “Maturing means growing and letting dreams grow and letting aspirations grow.” He called us to be protagonists “so that we can help the Church have a young face.” He invited us to participate in the upcoming Synod, questioning the Church, showing the courage to say what we feel and think.

 

The password is everything: What would Jesus do in my place?

The connecting thread was technology, using the analogy between faith and a cell phone battery. When our battery is flat, we become moody because we become disconnected from the world. Let us not be without faith or a wifi connection so that we don’t disconnect from Jesus. Here he referred to the lyrics of a song by one of Chile’s best-known bands, La Ley: “The background noise and the loneliness of the city cut us off from everything.  The world turns backwards, tries to overwhelm me and drown all my thoughts and ideas.” And he made a joke [Translator’s note: link to a Spanish language article that explains the joke in relation to the La Ley song].

 

He asked us never to think that we have nothing to offer and that no one will miss us. He used the words of our Saint Alberto Hurtado: that “is the voice of the devil”, “no one needs me”. And now we arrive at the most important part of his address. He gave us the wifi password and asked us to write it down in a book: “What would Jesus do in my place?” He told us to ask this at school, at work, in the stadium, at the gym. Asking ourselves this question makes us protagonists of history. It should be our desire to ignite this spark in many poor hearts that are waiting for something to happen that will be worth it. In order to do this, we need to live as Jesus did. This is how to make our phones and our hearts vibrate.

Be open to the Blessed Mother, the first disciple, to sing for joy and do God’s will

“Dear friends, dear young people, I ask you please, “Be young Samaritans, who never walk past anyone lying on the roadside.  In your heart, another question: “Have I ever left someone lying on the roadside?  A relative, a friend?  Be Samaritans, never abandon the person left lying on the roadside.  Be young Simons of Cyrene who help Christ carry his cross and help alleviate the sufferings of your brothers and sisters.  Be like Zacchaeus, who turned his dwarfed spirituality into greatness and allowed Jesus to transform his materialistic heart into one of solidarity.  Be like young Mary Magdalene, passionately seeking love, who finds in Jesus alone the answers she needs.  Have the heart of Peter, so that you can abandon your nets beside the lake.  Have the love of John, so that you can rest all your concerns in him.  Have the openness of our Mother, the first disciple, so that you can sing for joy and do God’s will.”

He asked us to remember our wifi password and only then did we break the deathly silence with which we had listened attentively to him – a silence that surprised me because it doesn’t even exist in Mass — “What would Jesus do in my place?”

 

Full text of the homily
All the texts of the visit to Chile

 

Original: Spanish, 20 January 2018. Translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa

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