Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Rooted and Built Up in Jesus Christ.... Firm in Faith

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.  See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:6-8)




This was the theme for the recently concluded World Youth Day celebration in Madrid.  This post will be my reflection for the theme.

Young people exert a very important influence in modern society.  The circumstance in their life, their habits of thought, their relations with their families, have been completely transformed.  Often they enter too rapidly a new social and economic development.  While their social and even their political importance is on the increase day by day, they seem unequal to the weight of these new responsibilities. (Vatican II, Apostolicam Actousitatem, 18 November, 1965)  Being the future of the Church and the Society, as young people, we feel the weight of responsibilities.  We respond to the challenges of our time like apprentices and we usually feel our helplessness and confusion when confronted.  We sometimes lose our focus.  We might also feel pressure form the people demanding us to fulfill these responsibilities.  There are also instances when we chose to abandon this responsibilities for an easy life and resort to vices and relationships that give us temporary satisfaction.

That is why the Church, as well as our government, has special ministries for the youth.  These ministries are avenues for the young leaders to be trained and be formed as they build the future.  These ministries are also helpful for them to be more exposed to the realities of this world, for them to learn how to cope up with the various issues around them; for them to meet new friends, acquaintances and other leaders that will be helpful in their growth; for them to be brought closer to God and develop closer relationship with Him. 

These ministries must be effective as they bring Christ to the modern youth.  There is a need to reevaluate their programs and their particular charisms for the benefit of the young.  They might need to re-update their programs basing on their needs.  That is why, constant council meetings and assemblies are essential for these ministries so that they can see and then discuss how they can effectively allow Christ to transform the hearts of the young people.  This is the first step because they can only be rooted in Christ if they know Him and decided to be built up in Him.

The World Youth Day was the opportunity for the pilgrims to reevaluate themselves.  The celebration leads them to see if they really received Christ.  The second question would be, if they are rooted in Christ. Like a tree whose roots penetrate the earth to obtain nourishment, so they are called to be so.  And if they are built up in Him as their foundation so that no matter how strong the storms in their life or how strong the current of the world is, they would still stand firm in faith.



The prayer, parties, pilgrimages and fellowship activities together with the clergy and the Pope held at World Youth Day would be opportunities for the pilgrims to reevaluate and reassess their relationship with Christ.  Being in this world full of materialism, secularism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism, world threatened with violence and chaos,  the Church in crusade against the institutions and factors against family, life and human sexuality, we need to have young people who received Christ, rooted in Him and built up in Him.  And it is only possible when young people know their place and role in the Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ.  Christ instituted the Church built on a solid rock so that it may stood firm amidst the changes, lure and crises present in the world.  With the pope, with some leaders of the Church, youth ministers and other young people, the pilgrims are called to understand more the role Church is playing in their lives as Christians as well as their responsibilities in the Church as they constantly put themselves in Christ.  I believe that building up in Christ is a life-long process but at least, this gathering might serve as inspiration.  And after these gathering, these pilgrims are called to go back to their respective countries and reecho their experience of Christ with the whole Church.  They are called to be evangelizers in a special way.


The late Blessed John Paul the Great always says in each World Youth Day where he is present: Do not be afraid!  We, young people are called to be strong as we uphold and share the ideals of Christ, whom we are rooted and built in.  

May the Triune God and Mary, our Mother continually be with us as we remain rooted in her Son.  Rooted but at the same time, continuing our journey of evangelization!

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