World Youth Day Madrid 2011 ~ What's the point??

A reflection on World Youth Day by Alan Kavanagh from St. Mark's Parish, Springfield, Tallaght:

WYD – My Reflections by Alan Kavanagh

The plane steadies after take-off and I squirm in my uncomfortable seat. Preparing myself for a two-hour flight I open my carry-on bag, take out a novel and two pages in I am struck by this quote: “As is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favour, when in fact I was being given one”. This is a quote from Mitch Albom’s novel ‘Have a Little Faith’ - which explores how he had to confront his own views on faith & belief and their relation to the great mysteries of life, when asked to write the eulogy of his former rabbi.

Similarly, I think many of us, especially my generation, look at ‘faith’ as

a favour. Whether it be the ‘chore’ of getting up early and attending Mass on Sundays, or the ‘favour’ to God of going to a religious service at certain festivals – to remind ‘Him’ quite simply that you’re ‘doing your bit’ – it certainly feels like we’re ‘going out of our way’. In fact, even if a person my age practices their faith and not begrudgingly so, there is still a hint of obligation about it all – something that ‘must be done’ to be seen to be good, obedient, faithful (be that in the eyes of family, friends, or God). Madrid and World Youth Day hinted at something altogether different.

The festivity, the colour, the exuberance, elation and excitement that enveloped the Spanish capital for a week hinted at us all being given a favour. Anywhere you looked there were huge groups of happy, beaming faces singing and dancing. The idea of joyous young Christians in this era might sound a bit corny and ridiculous. At least, that’s what my friends imagined when I spoke to them before I left. That’s what many a sceptical college-educated-cynic I knew told me before I left. That’s what I was beginning to expect… before I left. Now I’m home, I’ve been there, and I know it was something altogether different.

World Youth Day was not two million young people suddenly – irrationally even – experiencing some sort of epiphany and shouting loud in praise of God with fires on their tongues like the Pentecostal apostles. Naturally, the streets were filled with the energy of two million festival-goers, tourists, friends, youth groups and clubs. The atmosphere of a concert, a football match or indeed a huge party pervaded the city. We weren’t inexplicably changed, the joy and jubilation is to be expected when a plethora of teens, twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings come together to celebrate.

And so, where does God, or divinity, fit into all this?

Well, a priest spoke to me at the vigil with the Pope, the climax of the week, and asked me – “How are you finding it?”
“It’s been a great experience”, I said – and then, remembering a young girl that cried and shook at the vigil I continued – “It was surreal to see her so moved”. He then told me that at least three young people had told him

that week that they had encountered God – the Divine – in an unexpected way during their time there. And, somewhat disappointed in my apparent lack of any significant or supernatural spiritual encounter, I wondered had I encountered the Divine that week? Before I went, I’d have been tempted to say that encountering the Divine is for the Saints, the Prophets and the Missionaries, for the devout and the pious, the contemplative and the unbearably serious. But, at that moment, as I asked myself that question, I realised I had.

I had encountered divinity in each and every person I met. Over a million young people slept out in the same field, like any music festival, to hear the Papal Address and celebrate Mass together. I’ll go out on a whim now when I say – I doubt there were many, if any, victims of theft (as often occurs at Oxegen or Electric Picnic). Sitting in a café, looking out the window, a huge group of pilgrims pass by and seeing our WYD t-shirts wave frantically and smile broad, happy smiles. That’s divinity. A group of French approach us, wondering where we’re from, how many of us there are, and how we’re getting on. That’s divinity. A helping hand, a kind word, an encouraging nod, a spontaneous sing-song, a hug. That’s divinity! I had encountered it on a massive scale.

When we think of ‘Godly’ or ‘Divine’ traits, our point of reference is the

embodiment of the Divine in the person of Jesus Christ. And so, we think of charity, compassion, tolerance, humility, the open and all-embracing arms. These traits were embodied in no small way by the seas of crowds at World Youth Day. Hugs and laughter were in abundance.

Tolerance too, was the most surprising and striking of qualities. While there I met the most liberal of people and the most conservative, and I was taken aback by how neither tried to ‘convert’, or to aggressively ‘persuade’. When we argued we debated civilly, when we were convinced of our own beliefs we were firm and not obnoxious, and when we parted ways it was often with a smile, a handshake and a genuine wish of ‘good luck’ for the future. That’s divinity…A glimpse though it may be, that’s it.

So, while in Madrid, like Mitch Albom – I was forced to confront my own ideas regarding faith. And, like an actor or comedian ad-libbing, when you’re put on the spot you can be surprised by what you come out with. While in Madrid someone asked me did I have strong faith, and I said this: ‘If faith is, for the purpose of a simple example, likened to one big five-hour long television programme, very few of us are going to sit glued to the TV for that whole time. We’ll pop out and pop back in again. We’ll go off for a cup of tea, or make a phone call, or maybe even nod-off in front of the screen for awhile! Very few possess a faith that goes unshaken. And so, if someone asked you – did you see that programme last night? You might say, ‘Ah sure, I caught a glimpse of it’. It’s too difficult to see it all the time, but just a glimpse can be enough.’

World Youth Day provided that glimpse at a living faith, at a young, radical Church. I say radical, because, before I left I would have went with the general consensus that atheism and individualism are radical. That these were the options for the modern thinkers, and their cutting-edge

values. I now disagree. That’s the easy option, the popular option. The radical option is to take a leap of faith – to embrace hope and to deal with the cynicism, the anger and the disheartening scandals with that hope in tact. To live in the footsteps of a lifestyle that dares you to love your enemy, to be endlessly charitable, to be humble. That’s the daring, radical vision of Christ – no matter what the present Church faces. And, let’s face it, we are the Church! In Madrid, I got to see the creativity, energy and spirit of a Church very much alive in people. Traditions, rituals, rules and regulations, institutions and administration – we all have our own opinions on each of these. But when we meet people who try their best to emulate the ‘love’ of God, we catch a glimpse of God. And no damning opinion, no hurt, and no scandal, should be allowed to dwarf the significance of that encounter.

No holiday lasts forever. And we all know that when you get home from your

one or two weeks off abroad, your problems are waiting for you when you return. But hopefully, you’ve come back to those problems a little happier, a little more rested, a little more capable to take them on. World Youth Day was a wonderful experience, and like everything, an all-too-quickly fleeting one. Yet, we were asked anonymously to write a little prayer for what we wanted to find in Madrid before we left, and I don’t mind sharing it with you now, I wrote ‘I am looking for something to quieten my cynicism’. And I got it. I come home saying this; people are essentially good no matter their wrongs, and God is in the everyday, if you look out for Him.

So, now what? I try and live well. And when I fail, not if, and I make a mistake, in the words of Beckett: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”.

Bringing It Home! (Article for Salesian Bulletin)

“If you’ve come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you’ve come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us go together”
(Aboriginal Woman).

I think this quote sums up my experience of international volunteering. I first went to India in 2001 with Maynooth Mission Outreach and, as most volunteers do, I thought I would change the world. It was not long before I realised how naïve I had been and that the people who benefit most from these experiences are the volunteers themselves. But I was not finished with India or with the idea of working and campaigning on justice and peace issues. In 2008, while teaching in England, I became involved with BOVA (Bosco Volunteer Action), the volunteer sending organisation of the Salesians in the UK.

This was to be the start of my addiction to the Salesian way and a connection with the SDB community in the Salesian province of Bangalore, India. I spent 6 months living and working with 40 ex-child labourers in a rural part of Karnataka where the Salesians offer a rehabilitation programme for poor and abandoned youth.

The difference this time was that I was aware that I was there as a learner and that the concept of ‘helping’ was a concept that is now defunct in the ‘development’ agenda. When we say we are going to ‘help’ others, we immediately disempower ‘the other’ and presume that we are the ones who are ‘developed’ and ‘not in need of help’. The training weekends that I experienced with BOVA in Bollington before my departure had turned my concept of volunteering on its head. I was left wondering ‘why am I actually doing this?’ ‘For whose benefit?’

I now see this experience as an essential part of education and youth ministry today. Young adults (and not so young adults) should be given the opportunity to spend time in a community in the Global South as part of a development education programme and also as part of a faith development experience.

So it is with great excitement and enthusiasm that the Salesians in Ireland have started SAVIO (Salesian Volunteers Ireland & Overseas) in order to provide opportunities for adults to live and work with poor youth in Salesian communities worldwide and also to provide a development education experience which will support them before, during and after their experience. It is essential that this programme is a responsible one that addresses the criticisms of international volunteering and provides a opportunity where participants are introduced to an experiential educational experience: their experience abroad, reflecting on that experience and action – continued involvement with justice and peace issues on return. A responsible programme also needs to ensure that the voice of the host community is heard and not exploited.

When I returned to Ireland in 2009 I was so full of enthusiasm because of my experience and decided to do a Masters in Development Studies at Kimmage DSC in Dublin. As part of that course I had the opportunity to return to India in order to carry out research on this concept of short-term international volunteering. The Salesian communities in Bangalore kindly agreed to participate in the research and were asked what they thought about the concept of international volunteering as they are sometimes inundated by volunteers from Europe and the U.S. One of the most moving responses I got was from a Salesian priest who works for the development office in Bangalore. He said:

“I’d say most volunteers haven’t got what they were looking for in that their expectations were not necessarily the right ones…But I’d also say that hardly any of them were sorry for what they experienced in those projects…The happiest thing for us is the feedback that they are so grateful for the experience because it has changed young people a lot, in their perspectives to life, to their own situations, their lifestyles and attitudes that they have back home. That is the biggest change they experience and I believe we contribute to them”.

So who is ‘helping’ who? The host communities that I spoke to perceive this experience to have a profound effect on the lives and attitudes of the volunteers. It is a process of ‘conscientisation’ as programmes, like the one which SAVIO will offer, can create awareness of development issues, promote international solidarity between people and communities and give those who volunteer a faith experience and a poverty experience. This has the possibility of motivating them to address the root causes of poverty in the ‘West’. The Salesian community and the children I lived with in India have become an important part of my life and my home community in Ardattin, Co. Carlow continue to contribute financially to that project through various fundraising events. Although I would love to be working in that community, I have had to ask myself, where am I most useful? And seeing, as the real work is here, that answer is on campaigning and creating awareness of justice and peace issues, staying involved with the preparation and formation of volunteers so that we contribute to an ‘awakening’ of sorts.

At a recent meeting in Rome to celebrate the focus of Salesian Mission Day 2011, the co-ordinators of seven of the Salesian volunteer organisations from Europe, U.S. and Australia came together with Fr. Vaclav. The Rector Major met with the group towards the end of the two-day meeting and spoke about how important the Salesian Lay Missionary and volunteer programmes have become for Salesian

communities worldwide. He emphasised that volunteering is not a vocation in itself, it is a step of the journey and an integral part of formation in a young persons life. He also placed the movement within the Youth Ministry framework by suggesting that it is the best expression of Salesian youth ministry, where committed young people are ready to share life in full with the Salesian community and carry out the Salesian mission with them.

SAVIO’s first official volunteer, David Byrne from Tullow, Co. Carlow left on June 13th for the Indian Province of Tiruchy in Tamil Nadu. David will be working alongside the Salesians with disadvantaged youth for one year and we look forward to reading about his experiences in the future.

If you are interested in volunteering with the Salesians, contact savioireland@gmail.com or join us on facebook: Salesian Volunteers Ireland & Overseas.

Jane Mellett (June 2011)