The day started very early on May 4 for the nearly 900 people who filled the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Vancouver. For the Archdiocese of Vancouver team that had been planning Rescue Live Vancouver for months, adrenaline was running high.
The Damascus worship music band was testing sound and warming up their vocal chord while checklists were being reviewed, in-ear communications tested, and volunteers with welcome signs deployed not only throughout the hotel but also out in the street as far as the neighbouring SkyTrain station.
Greeting and ushering people from blocks away was an intentional sign of radical hospitality (a Rescue Project principle) and an early indication to all arriving that by name they had been invited, and by name they were being happily received. For the Acts XXIX apostolate from Detroit led by Father John Riccardo that powers Rescue Live there was a notable sense of peace as they focused on prayer. While the doors would not open until 8 a.m., parish coordinators arrived early, praying by name for each person who would be sitting with them at their table.
The day was organized as a series of talks, delivered by Father Riccardo, nested with praise music, good food, table discussions, and other activities at creating a deeper connection between the explosive message of the Gospel and everyone present.
Rescue Live Vancouver, a one-day live conference, unpacked in a single day what The Rescue Project typically delivers in an eight-week format as a faith formation study in homes and parishes. Most of the Vancouver attendees had never heard about it until they were personally invited by a parishioner by a very personal invitational model rooted in accompaniment. There were also some who not only knew about Rescue, but had flown in from as far as the Yukon and United States to be part of a Rescue Live.
Rescue was created on the premise that most people in the Catholic Church have never really heard the Gospel, let alone been overwhelmed by it and surrendered their entire lives in trust to Jesus. Considering that 85 per cent of Canadian Catholics don’t go to Sunday Mass, read their Bibles, or offer convincing explanations about what they believe or why they believe in it, they struggle, how can they entrust their lives to someone or something they don’t fully understand?
The first talk focused on “Why stories are important,” the crisis in the world today, and the increasing unhappiness among people, especially the young, as they fail to find meaning or purpose. People are dying much younger, and Father Riccardo advanced a hypothesis about the root cause of today’s deaths of despair: it is simply that God has been gradually pushed off the stage and we have lost the biblical worldview on which societies and cultures were built and centred for nearly 15 centuries. Father Riccardo invited his audience to leave at the door any other lenses through which they might see the world and consider, at least for the day, seeing through a new lens, the biblical story.
The biblical story was then broken down through a series of foundational questions, the first being, “Why is there something, rather than nothing?”
Father Riccardo compared the biblical genesis of God the Father, who created the universe for no other reason than love, with other religious origin stories, highlighting the uniqueness of our story, our God, and his unfathomable power. God created the universe effortlessly and knows each star by name, but the human person is the crown jewel, made in his image and likeness for love and communion with God and one another. Since God knows each of us by name and has the power to create a universe, we should trust he has the power to help us deal with our anxieties and fears.
“The best thing has been talking about how we are created,” said one conference goer, “but not that we are just created, but that God created me.”
The next talk, “Why is everything so obviously messed up?” dove deep into something that seems old-fashioned and out of touch in modern day Catholic conversations: The Enemy. The mood in the room quickly darkened and Father Riccardo led his audience in prayer, asking God to shine light on this fallen creature that moves in darkness, roams the earth, prowls like a lion, and was called by Jesus “the ruler of the world.”
In the hand of Father Riccardo, the identity of Satan was uncovered, along with his true motive for rebellion, his goal for our lives, and the many tactics he uses to lie at every turn, trying to convince us that he is not real, that God is not real, or that if, if real, God is not a good father. It became clear after a discussion on the power of sin and death that if God had not done something about the human condition mankind was in, we would be powerless against Satan, sin, death, and hell.
The third question answered the question, “What has God – if anything – done about it?” The audience learned why Jesus came, of his own will, from heaven down to earth in a spectacular “rescue operation.” As they learned in a fresh and compelling way what Jesus was doing on the cross, there was a visible stirring in the room as people became emotionally invested in the message they were hearing.
What followed was an extremely beautiful and powerful invitation from Jesus to follow him. The hall doors opened and the Blessed Sacrament was processed into the room. Audience members fell to their knees while Damascus accompanied with songs of praise. The procession around the room ended with the monstrance being placed on an altar and a time of adoration. Projected onto the hall screens was an image of Jesus on the cross with the words “I came to rescue you,” as the animated name of each person in the room was absorbed into the cross.
Many in the crowd were visibly moved and brought to tears with the recognition that they had been rescued from death, sin, Satan, and hell by Jesus through his death and resurrection. A prayer of surrender and an oath of allegiance cemented the understanding.
In his final talk, “How Should I respond?” Father Riccardo shared the stories of people, including himself, who responded to Jesus’ rescue operation with conversion, surrender, and active discipleship to change and recreate the world. The audience was invited to commit to both an inner mission (Bible study, Mass, sacraments) to help them grow in virtue, and an external mission to help rescue others and reclaim enemy territory for God. In the words of Father Riccardo, “Rescued people rescue people. That is the mission. So go do it!”
“My biggest take away so far is that we’re made on purpose for a God that is Love, that we have the best news ever, that is the Gospel,” one conference goer said near the end of the event.
Monsignor Gregory Smith, representing Archbishop Miller, closed the conference by commissioning the Rescue Project in the Archdiocese, saying the event was not the end of Vancouver’s rescue but only the beginning.
Rescue Live achieved something remarkable: People got to understand their real story and identity end to end, in a way that makes sense and in a way that the Gospel overwhelms them, many for the first time in their lives.
Parishes are being offered information and encouragement to plan and run the Rescue Project in its eight-week format as a faith formation study. Several have already begun.
To learn more about running The Rescue Project as a faith study in your parish, visit weareproclaim.com/rescue.
To watch a short clip of Rescue Live Vancouver, visit vimeo.com/946234230.
To watch The Rescue Project series at home for free, visit watch.actsxxix.org/therescueproject.
To learn more about Acts XXIX and Father John Riccardo, visit actsxxix.org.
