How is the Mission of Jesus made real in your community?

How is the Mission of Jesus made real in your community?

(How many toilets do you need for 2000 people?)

This first question was asked at the recent Jesus the Christ National E-Conference and immediately my mind turned to the 2008 International Youth Conference (IYF) in Goulburn. The second question was the first thing I asked when our then parish priest Fr. Tony Percy asked me to chair the organising committee.  A friend asked me “Matt have you really thought this through?”  As it turned out we probably hadn’t but if we had we might have missed out on what turned out to be, in the words of a volunteer “one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.”

The International Youth Forum is a work of the Emmanual Community and is normally held in Paray Le Monial, France but as WYD was in Sydney in 2008, Archbishop Mark Coleridge invited the Emmanual Community to collaborate with the Archdiocese and MQA Parish by holding the event in Goulburn.

At first I thought that World Youth Day events are for young people a bit like junior sport.  The reality was that while the forum targeted young people, the event was for us all, catholic people taking the Mission of Jesus to the broader community. 

The Church owns a fair bit of land and buildings in Goulburn,  but nowhere was large enough to fit 2000 people all at once and what about break out space for catechesis and talks. The forum could only be held in the public space, and importantly it would require more than one venue. 

The Mayor suggested the Showground and obviously moved by the Spirit Fr. Tony conceived the idea of holding catechesis and talks in other venues around the city as well as adoration of the blessed sacrament in St. Peter and Pauls Old Cathedral.  What resulted was the Mission of Jesus being embroidered around the city with thread made up of the streams of pilgrims making their often raucous and always happy way around the various locations.

The catholic people of Goulburn, Gunning and Crookwell got involved and amazingly brought the rest of the community with them.  In the time leading up to and during the forum more than a hundred people from the local communities, the Emmanuel community and some from overseas volunteered to make it happen.  People from other denominations and some professing no faith at all came and gave their time. 

During the conference and in the days leading up to it more than 1368 pilgrims were billeted in homes in Goulburn, Gunning and Crookwell.  A further six hundred people under 18 years old were accommodated in two just vacated nursing homes and in St Peter and Pauls Schools.  So great was the response of the community that we ran out of pilgrims to billet. 

More than 14,000 meals were served including, including 2000 heated in 43 warming ovens and served up to 2000 pilgrims inside an hour every lunch and dinner time.  At the Showground there was over one thousand vehicle movements per day morning and night all directed by the local Lions Club, past the 100 water filled barriers and 300 portable stanchions and lit at night by the seven mobile telescopic diesel powered lighting units.  Inside the venue the Pilgrims were warmed by their faith in God and 30 portable gas heaters.

Along the way we learned a lot about project planning, event management, the World Youth Day Act, exactly how many toilets and showers were required, preparing traffic plans, health and hygiene plans, fire and evacuation plans, engineering reports, building occupancy requirements, the number of square metres required for each person to sleep and how to interact with local and state governments, the World Youth Day Authority, the Sydney Archdiocese World Youth Day Office and thankfully we had the support of  our own Archdiocesan WYD Office.

The Emmanuel Community provided a wonderful spiritual experience for pilgrims through the forum in the Eucharist, catecheses, other talks, adoration and reconciliation.  Most of the local volunteers missed out
on most of that, too busy with the work of keeping the show on the road

At another level however the local people had an amazing spiritual experience and saw first hand the work of the Holy Spirit, not directly through praying but through sharing their house with pilgrims or standing in the freezing cold and sleet moving people on or off buses, welcoming incoming pilgrims and allocating them to billets, heating meals, dispatching buses, answering questions, directing people in an out of cars, cleaning up, keeping records, paying accounts, sorting problems, planning, not panicking, making mistakes, apologizing, trusting in God and praying fervently.   

This was the experience of the Mission of Jesus when it came in a particular way to the City of Goulburn and the surrounding towns and villages. A time when the people came together, when cafes and restaurants
reported their biggest trading weeks as locals came together with their guests.  When the city was noisier
but more peaceful.  A time when one man who is not catholic thanked Fr. Tony and the catholic community for
providing his family with “the most spiritual experience we have ever had”. A time about which one overworked volunteer later said,  “I can’t remember when in my whole life I have been so tired but if you asked me to do it all again tomorrow I would love it.”

So how is the Mission of Jesus made real in community? 

It happened when a catholic community came together using each persons gifts and talents to do His work, demonstrating along the way the first and greatest commandment to Love the Lord God and through this enabled a whole city and district to fulfill the second greatest commandment and show their love to one another locally and people from around the world.   

The IYF will happen again next year in Paray-Le-Monial the experience is worth it.