WYD '08 Begins, Pell to Youth: Christ is Calling you Home

(15 July 08 - RV) World Youth Day events officially got under way in Sydney Australia Tuesday with the celebration of Opening Mass presided over by Cardinal George Pell.

Hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims flooded Barangaroo, an open Warf east of Darling Harbour in Sydney Tuesday evening, carrying their national flags and wearing t-shirts with the WYD logo and the name of their diocese.

The mass marked the end of their four year journey to Sydney, the beginning of six days of events, prayer and encounter which make up the World Youth Day experience.

Sydenysiders were also treated to a live broadcast of the Mass on giant screens at a number of other venues across the city, including the Domain, Sydney Opera House and Darling Harbour. These images projected in the heart of the busy city at the end of the working day underlined the central message of today’s Opening Mass, an outstretched hand to secular society, to come take a look and listen.

In fact Cardinal Pell began his homily by welcoming everyone, everywhere who is lost, distressed, exhausted or without hope, to hear Christ welcoming them home:

“Young or old, woman or man, Christ is till calling those who are suffering to come to him for healing, as he has for two thousand years”, he told the candle lit congregation, adding that the causes of those wounds are ‘secondary’ be they “drugs or alcohol, family breakups, the lusts of the flesh, loneliness or death. Perhaps even the emptiness of success”.

Cardinal Pell pushed home the message that Christ’s call reaches out beyond boundaries and above all to those ‘lost sheep’ without a shepherd; “Christ’s call is to all who are suffering, not just to Catholics or Christians, but especially to those without religion. Christ is calling you home; to love healing and community”.

Comparing the drought of hope and faith in today’s overtired society to the devastating drought wracking large parts of Australia Cardinal Pell said we can never be without hope while we can still choose. “While there is life there is always the option of hope and with Christian hope come faith and love”.

“Secular wisdom”, he continued “claims that leopards do not change their spots, but we Christians believe in the power of the Spirit to convert and change persons away from evil to good; from fear and uncertainty to faith and hope”.

As the WYD Cross and Icon, wound their way through the tens of thousands to young boys and girls, the final stage of a four year long journey across continents and oceans, Cardinal Pell appealed to those gathered before him, or listening from their homes, not to “spend their lives sitting on the fence, keeping their options open”, because he said, “happiness comes from meeting our obligations.

“To be a disciple of Christ requires discipline, ” he told them “self control won’t make you perfect but it is necessary to develop and protect the love in our hearts and prevent others from being hurt”.

Cardinal Pell then gave a gentle reminder to the ‘young ones’ as they get caught up in the frenzy of the next five days not to forget to listen and pray. Because the Lord’s prophecy to his apostles that they would be His witness to the ends of the earth will only be fulfilled, he concluded, if they carry the message of Hope home, to the real world of their parish, study and jobs, beyond World Youth Day.