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17th World Youth Day (WYD), Id in Toronto, Canada, in July, this refrain of the WYD's signature song, titled Light of the World, was sung in many languages. It echoed the Gospel words,
"You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world,"
offered by Pope John Paul II as the theme of the celebration. Close to 800,000 young people, aged 16 to 35, from over 90 countries, were there with the Pope. I was not there. I just could not.
But I followed the event closely, because I was at the one held in Rome two years ago. It brought back many good memories of that experience which, though fatiguing, was incredibly powerful and beautiful. So I have been thinking a lot about Salt and about Light, about young people to be Salt and Light… and I’ve had a dream about this.
Recently, one evening, after a party, I got home and fell asleep, and I dreamed I was going to Toronto with some of my friends. (Dreams often overturn reality or reveal one's unconscious.) The day before our departure newspapers carried the headline: "BLACK OUT IN TORONTO: BRING LIGHT". It got me worried.: How to bring light to a city like Toronto? Could it be that the young people of the WYD were being asked to help?
In my dream I begin running all over to collect flashlights, as many as I can fit in my knapsack. God will have to provide for the rest. Once in Toronto, the city is totally in the - dark. People go about by the beams of car headlights. In the youth meetings it is not a serious matter, however: young people are not afraid of the dark... we're used to the night. The darkness, though, brings to mind the twin towers, war, the inconsistencies of us young people, the world's reality, Israel and Palestine, terrorism, Afghanistan and Iraq, the daily news of violence and death, a young Church waiting to be launched in the third millennium, etc.
And I slowly begin to realize that the problem isn't one of electricity, but of another kind.
The light of the world
The Salt of the earth
We scatter the darkness
When love becomes our way.
The light of the World
Christ is our light.
We shine with its brightness,
The reflection of his light
From day to day!
I toss and turn in bed, wake up and fall asleep again. It's a nightmare! The problem won't go away How to turn the city lights on again? Who will light up humanity? It finally dawns on me that this is what this World Youth Day is all about. And, there, the problem of light is resolved. The city is flooded with light, it's beautiful. But my dilemma still is not resolved: what light are we supposed to bring to Toronto, we young people of WYD?
From the very beginning I understood that the story about the blackout was meant to stir me and many others from our apathy This was a call to become light in every corner of a world suffering blackout ...
And the dream continues.
We go to several strange meetings where someone speaks about a cross and, while we listen and his Word sinks in, we all gain a certain radiance. Light has entered into us.
What a strange thing!
We all sing together in the different languages of the world, and the light grows stronger. I go to confession and … in the dream, behold the others look at me as if I shine as a high intensity bulb.
With the thousands and thousands of others, I go to receive the consecrated piece of bread, and all together we seem to glow as a great bonfire.
We visit prisons, we go into hospitals, teach the children..., and charity makes as shine. The city is now pervaded by a human and divine light: there are the Young People - Light!
But the dream goes on.
Even a tiny flame lifts the heavy lid of night. How much more will you make, all together; if you bond as one in the communion of the Church!”
Pope John Paul II
Suddenly, we have become a countless number and are all hard pressed, when a man dressed in white comes running towards us. I seem to know him. Yes! He is the world's fastest man, he has a staff which he beats to our rhythms and speaks to us and smiles, he even plays... We are a sea of humanity thundering with songs, chants applause, cheering, praying, and we become ever more radiant. He speaks, and the immense assembly plunges into an absolute silence to capture his words, at times clear and vibrant, at other times somewhat slurred, but always attended to with inexplicable rapture and anticipation, always followed by a surging of deafening responses. Oh, the magnetism of this holy man of God!
He fires us up ... and then takes us all in his palm (it is a dream!) And tosses us into the middle of the city .. The gesture of a Pope! ... Would you believe it? ... I find myself beneath Niagara Falls taking a huge shower ... and, wonder of wonder, there are numberless people kneeling around me while I scatter water on their heads. I am John the Baptist!
At this point I wake up. Do you want to know the truth? Dreams sometimes help. 1, Daniel, the dreamer, see that, after Toronto, we young people shall all be LIGHT AND SALT.
And that was the Pope’s simple farewell: “Young people, go, be the salt of the earth and the light of the world!” We young people, urged to be “salt and light of the world,” carry hope in our hearts. That hope which must be much more than a mood. It involves a commitment to action. What we hope for should be what we are prepared to work for and so bring about, as far as that power lies in us. That power is Christ’s own. If only we understood this!
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)