Archbishop calls young adults to be disciples even in hardship
The B.C. Catholic
God calls everyone to reconcile and love one another, especially during the Jubilee of Mercy, said Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB.
“Experiencing God’s love and mercy, and then sharing this with others, are tangible and visible signs that our faith is real and that we are on the road of being disciples,” said the archbishop.
He was saying the seventh annual university students’ Mass Feb. 5, in Holy Rosary Cathedral, for more than 250 post-secondary students.
The archbishop spoke of the need to forgive others their wrongdoings. “The Jubilee of Mercy is the jubilee of Reconciliation,” he said. Everyone should seek to be “loving and forgiving as God loves and forgives.”
The university Mass is also closely linked to evangelization. Father Fernando Mignone, a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei who is the chaplain to Simon Fraser University, said the university Mass should underline the importance of university and college studies, “and what we can do to Christianize society through our university programs.”
Students graduating from universities and colleges often take jobs in business, government, and academia, so “When you evangelize the universities, they will evangelize 100 more people as doctors, or filmmakers,” Father Mignone said. “It’s a shortcut to evangelizing our country.”
The Mass was a reminder of the importance of the faith as well as a socializing platform for young Catholics. “It shows you that there’s a community, and it gives you the strength to live out your faith,” said Patricia Berlanga, a student at St. Mark’s College.
She said the Mass provided chances to get in touch with people. “It’s like a reunion of everybody who’s gone to university!”
Students Jay Cruz and Brenna Maduro volunteered to hand out gifts from the archbishop to all the attending students. The gifts were copies of the book The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic.
“I was hesitant to go (to this Mass) at first because this was my first time,” said Cruz. “I didn’t really know what to expect, but I really enjoyed the Mass. It’s something I’d actually go back and tell people about!”
“It’s great to have everyone come together as a community, having all the young adults together in one particular event,” Maduro said. “It was all very uplifting, and I felt I was very in-the-zone.”
“Universities are very secular, and many young people lose their faith because they hit a brick wall. They stop going to Mass or they take courses where professors, who are very intelligent, are anti-religious and mock core truths and beliefs,” Father Mignone said.
Students who do not grow in their faith tend to lose it, he added. “There is a hunger among university students for the truth, and part of the truth is God.”
