Stepping beyond our comfort zone

On June 20 I had the opportunity to attend the 2008 Eucharistic Congress in Atlanta, GA. I had never been to a Eucharistic Congress before and had only vague notions (perhaps prejudices, if I'm being honest!) about what it involved. The idea of gathering with 20,000+ Catholics in a huge convention center seemed to be "not my spirituality." But the women I met at the Archdiocesan Office of Young Adult Ministry were so excited about the event that their enthusiasm proved contagious. 

I attended the Friday night Healing Mass and the Revive! Young Adult track - two very different events. At the Healing Mass, I was surrounded by Catholics of every race and ethnicity, all joyfully praying in their own language for the physical or spiritual healing they came seeking from the Eucharist. At the Revive! Young Adult Track, I saw hundreds of young adults - again, of every background and walk of life - flood into a giant hall in the convention center. They sang and swayed to the band's praise & worship music like they were at a rock concert. They listened intently and laughed with Matthew Kelly's engaging talk on the crazy, stressful state of modern life and the need to seek silence to hear God's voice. And they prayed on their knees during a lengthy time of Eucharistic Adoration that filled the hall with incense and the pulsing beats of bass guitars and drums as the band rocked on.

No, it wasn't my spirituality in the least. But I had forgotten the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone within my own faith, to appreciate what other people believe it means to be Catholic. And I was surprised and encouraged by what it taught me - especially in the numbers of young adults who flocked to this Friday night event. 

So many of the young people I talked to that night told me passionately about how much Revive! has meant to them each year and how young adult ministry in the Archdiocese has given them a true home and community in Atlanta. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory (pictured above in a cool blurry photo) kicked off the Revive! event by reminding the crowd that "young adults are the engine that drives the train in the Archdiocese." What I witnessed at the Eucharistic Congress showed me just how much steam the Catholic young adults in Atlanta have behind them...

All who work for social justice, whether in a ministry setting or outside the church, are constantly involved in rubbing some people the wrong way. It's not easy to address unjust systems in society or to ask people to examine their own lives, habits, or presumptions. We read the books of the prophets and see that God's message of justice has never been easily accepted. But what is true and important is rarely easy. 

If I am asking people to step out of their comfort zones into the work of social justice, then I have to be equally willing to step out of my own places of comfort. What a gift it is for the Catholic Church to be made up of a People of God so diverse in culture, thought, and spirituality that we can challenge each other to be more open to the mystery of God's Spirit in our lives and world! Young adults are as diverse as the rest of the church, and if I hope to find ways to bring them into the church through social justice, then I must be equally ready to explore the paths that might not be my own instinct.