And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself (John 12:32).

The Cross of Christ is a magnet.  It’s unique attractive powers come from the one who hung upon it: the God-Man Jesus. Jesus is the Answer to life – that sacrificial love is the heart of the universe – love to the end; a love that holds nothing back.  That’s attractive.  We love one who loves and loves without reserve.  And when we approach and embrace the Cross, we find healing and salvation for it is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

Taking on the Cross, we plunge into the drama of Jesus’ love story and are – bit-by-bit – transformed into similarly self-sacrificial persons.  We took on the Cross at our Baptism, when, marked with the sign that saves, we were exhorted to be others Christs – Anointed Ones – and carry Christ into the world.  We are called to give witness to the fact that the Cross is a sign that Christ takes on every kind of suffering and challenge; that through Christ, these experiences of life can be harnessed – appropriated – and serve a redemptive purpose – our own redemption, and the world’s.

This is our call, and we WYD Pilgrims will be acting on this call with particular intensity this month as we make our way to Rome, Barcelona, and finally Madrid, gathering with fellow Pilgrims from throughout the world.  This WYD Cross – the sign of our victory and not the badge of our defeat – is entrusted to our youth with the commission to carry it throughout the world as a symbol of Christ's love for humanity, and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption. But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:23-25). To human eyes the crucified Christ symbolizes impotence and absurdity.  But true wisdom and power are to be found paradoxically where one would least expect them, in the place of their apparent negation.

Each WYD is a call of the Church and a providential occasion in which God gives us his grace. It is therefore certainly not superfluous.  In our prevailing culture of skepticism, egotism, and relativism, our teens and young adults will gather (realizing they are not alone) to give witness to the paradoxical attraction of the Cross and commit to be witnesses of the transformative power of that Cross in the world.  They will seek and receive the power to be leaven in the dough of society, that is, their relationships, work environments, and recreation – laboring to have these “rise” to the level of an encounter with Christ; light in the darkness of situations of suffering by being present, generous, and peaceful with those who need the loving and healing touch of Christ, and salt in the blandness of intellectual environments – schools of thought – that buy into the lie of a nihilistic or meaningless outlook on life and our ultimate destiny.

We Pilgrims are drawn together by Christ’s Vicar, our Holy Father Pope Benedict…drawn together to ultimately be sent back out into the world…renewed…commissioned…full of zeal to make Christ’s words our own and lead all who are similarly attracted to the Cross so that these too may undergo transformation and conversion: And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself (John 12:32).

          David J. Conrad

          Director of Faith Formation