The Call to World Youth Day

The Call to World Youth Day
cinops be gone Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008
In a teaching session titled, “Called to live in the Spirit,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput spoke eloquently to the World Youth Day participants. Let us listen to the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit in today’s ‘violent world, as reported by the Catholic News Agency.

“What do we thirst for more than anything else in the world? Life. We want as much life as we can get. We want a long life, a happy life, a healthy life…. So if the Holy Spirit is the giver of life, it means He’s the one that brings us to a full understanding and union with the real Jesus Christ – not with the ‘nice guy’ or interesting teacher that the world would prefer Jesus to be, the true Jesus Christ who is the only Son of the Father, the Savior of the world, and the source of all life and happiness for you, for me, and for all humanity.”

The archbishop went on to say that every day, all people – including the faithful, “drink in a river of bad ideas pushed by marketers who want your money, your approval and your conformity – and they make very sure they get it by using the radio, television, internet, popular songs and peer pressure to wrap you up in; like a spider getting ready for dinner. Today’s popular culture is based on a message that seems liberating, but it actually diminishes your humanity.”

The archbishop then spoke of the irony of when some young people criticize authority “claiming they want to be ‘free’ or that they want to ‘live their own life,’ but then dress exactly “the same way, listen to the same music, follow the same fashions and generally behave not like reformers, but like lemmings.”

“It’s the worst kind of slavery,” he continued, “when corporations and fashion designers and political opinion makers treat people like chumps. They trick a whole generation into doing what the world demands, while at the same time telling young people that they’re ‘free,’ ‘original,’ and even ‘revolutionary’.”

In contrast, “God acts in a completely different way. That’s why the Holy Spirit is shown as dove. He reveals to us the truth, helps us understand who Jesus really is, and calls us to a radically new life in Christ. But he never forces us to deceive us into doing anything we don’t willingly choose to do. That’s real freedom: when we choose, against our shortcomings and temptations from the world, to live the true life brought to us by Jesus Christ.”
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Pope Benedict XVI, World Youth Day Welcoming Address, July 17, 2008, Sydney, Australia:
“The Task of Witness is not easy. There are many today who claim that God should be left on the sidelines, and that religion and faith, while fine for individuals, should either be excluded from the public forum altogether or included only in the pursuit of limited pragmatic goals. This secularist vision seeks to explain life and shape society with little or no reference to the Creator.
It presents itself as neutral, impartial and inclusive for everyone. But in reality, like every ideology, secularism imposes a world-view.”

This Saturday: “The Case against Loretta Sanchez” the first in a series of letters.

George H. Kubeck, Duplicate and translate into Spanish and Vietnamese.