Yesterday I wrote about Jesuit father Gregory Boyle and his
incarnational commitment to the lost in gangland U.S.A.
I find it compelling that the same sort
of vision for ministry is witnessed in the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now
Pope Francis I.
In Buenos Aires, where Bergoglio served as archbishop for
over twenty years, there are neighborhoods that locals refer to as villas miserias, or “villas of
misery.” These are Argentina’s
most destitute slums, places where the poorest of the poor are found. And these were the places that you were
likely to see Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
“He’d take the bus and just come walking around the corner like
a normal guy,” reported one of the local priests.
“It was the most natural thing in the world.
He’d sit around and drink tea, talking
with people about whatever was going on.
He’d start talking to the doorman even.
He was totally comfortable.”
Bergoglio’s vision for ministry, witnessed in his life in
the
villas miserias, is precisely the
vision of Young Life.
Catholics and Young Life leaders, all people of God, are called to a life of compassion, “going directly to those people and
places where suffering is most acute and building a home there.”
It is a participation in the very life
of God who took on flesh and “moved into the neighborhood” of humanity.
This point cannot be overstated.
As the Lord Jesus said, “As the Father
has sent me, I am sending you.”
Young Life is responding to the universal call of
mission, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus
Christ to
every kid, everywhere.
In the same spirit, Pope Francis is
calling for a “missionary church, one that moves out of the sacristy and into
the streets,” noted one of his close friends, Bishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano.
It is there where we’ll meet the lost,
the broken, the wounded.
Whether it be the slums of Argentina or the suburbs of the
U.S., the problems facing our young people are the same.
"Drugs are a symptom, violence is
a symptom, but marginalization is the disease,” notes Pope Francis.
“Our people feel marginalized by a
social system that's forgotten about them and isn't interested in them."
This is precisely the assessment of
adolescent youth presented by Chap Clark, professor of youth, family and
culture at Fuller Theological Seminary.
“The root of the issues related to contemporary adolescence has to do
with leaving this age group to flounder on its own.”
Beneath the carefree and often rebellious veneer of youth
culture, Clark’s research reveals a desperate world where kids are struggling
to survive.
“The answer,” Clark says, “is relationships with adults who
sincerely care.
That is the sole
need of this abandoned generation.”
Young Life and the Catholic Church can do
this together.
The kids are waiting, wishing . . .
I Wish . . .
I wish I could tell
secrets
To someone who would
listen.
To someone who
wouldn’t tell.
I wish I could meet
that special someone.
Someone who loves me.
Someone who cares for
me.
I wish I could talk to
someone.
Someone who would
understand.
Someone who wouldn’t
laugh.
I wish I had a best
friend.
Someone I can trust,
Someone I can tell
secrets to.
Someone who
understands me,
Someone who will grow
with me,
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