JESUS IN THE EYES OF THE YOUTH

Sr. Maria Pacencia P. Bandalan, FMA

Introduction

The Church is so blessed to have a Pope who had a great affection for the young, Bl. John
Paul the Great. It is in his pontificate that the World Youth Day was born and now
continues to bear much fruit of holiness among the youth. He believed in the great
potentials of the youth for greatness. He saw how the young people could bridge the gap
between nations. For, JPII, they have the willingness to work for peace. He knew then
that the adults have to believe in them.

I believe that only those who have met Jesus could also see the potentials of the youth.
JP II is believed to be a mystic. A mystic is someone who has encountered God in a very
intimate way in his daily life and in his prayer life. As I also struggled to understand the
journey that God has given me I have understood what it means to really encounter God,
Jesus in my daily life and in my prayer life.

I am convinced that it would be difficult for us to minister to the youth of today if we

ourselves have not experienced being fascinated by God. Have we really encountered
God ourselves? Have we experienced falling in love with Him? Does this encounter
with Him lead us to serve Him?

Youth of Today: The e-Generation

The e-generation of youth is also called the “digital natives”, “internet savvy” people.
Several surveys had been conducted to determine the effects of technologies to the lives
of the youth. Most young people prefer to spend their leisure in front of the computer
(McCann Erickson, 2005). We are aware how technologies affect the capacity of the
young people for relationships. The 83% of our youth are in the social networking sites
and majority of them are students. Philippines is considered the social network capital of
the world and it is attributed to Filipinos’ natural friendliness (Garcia, nd). Even the
former senator Richard Gordon addresses them as the “Facebook Generation” (Ducusin,
2011). The social networks become the place where the youth establish new friendships.
It is also a place where they can project themselves. In this social network sites they also
hide their true selves through pseudo names and identity which may affect their own
search for their true identity. What is also alarming is the fact that those who are exposed
to internet are getting even younger. The 7-14 years old bracket is already populating the
social network websites (New Generation Survey 2009).

However, the Church affirms that technology could be a means of evangelization. Pope
John Paul II reaffirms this in his message for World Communication Day 2002 saying:

The fact that through the Internet people multiply their contacts in ways hitherto
unthinkable opens up wonderful possibilities for spreading the Gospel. But it is
 also true that electronically mediated relationships can never take the place of the
direct human contact required for genuine evangelization. For evangelization
always depends upon the personal witness of the one sent to evangelize. (cf. Rom
10:14-15). (no. 5)

This brings us to consider the “witness of life” urged by Pope Paul VI in Evangelii
Nuntiandi where he said:

…for the Church, the first means of evangelization is the witness of an

authentically Christian life, given over to God in a communion that nothing
should destroy and at the same time given to one’s neighbor with limitless zeal…
“Modern man listens more willingly to witness than to teachers, and if he does
listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (no. 41).

The Church and the Youth

The Catholic Church also conducted surveys to know how the young people perceive the
Church and Her teachings. In 2002, the Episcopal Commission on Youth made one. The
study shows the drifting away of young people from the Church. They are “personal but
individualist in relating to God, nominal in their faith, decreasing in their appreciation of
the sacraments and distant from the Church’s teachings and life in spite of their feeling of
belongingness to her” (NFCYS-ECY 2002, 109).

In my class in Catechesis of the Young, I asked my Religious Education students to

conduct a mock survey of the youth’s reasons for leaving the Church. The first in the list
was the poor quality of the homily of the Priests. They perceived them as irrelevant or
not connected to their life. The second one was the witnessing of the Church people.
When asked what will bring them back to the Church they answered that priests need to
improve their homilies and that there should be food during youth gathering. McCann
Erikson in their 2005 survey shows the same comment from the young people with
regards to the homilies of the priests and the witnessing of the people in the Church.

Jesus and the Youth of Today

I believe it is not only the technology that must be blamed for this dilemma. Technology
is technology. It is a lifeless machine that is only controlled by human hands. What
affects the young people is the capacity of the adults to relate with them. We see families
disintegrating because of the lifestyle that they choose. We see the Church leaders,
priests, religious men and women and lay people not living the Gospel values. We see
that government leaders setting aside moral values for profit disguise as desiring for the
well-being of people. What is lacking in the world of the youth is genuine witnessing of
friendship with Christ.
To develop this topic I conducted an informal survey among the young people. I have
asked three groups of young people, from public school, all-girls Catholic school and co-
ed Catholic school to answer two simple questions: Who is Jesus for you? and What do
you want the Church to do to help you have a deeper relationship with Jesus?

Those in the public school see Jesus more as a Savior. This may be attributed to their
poverty and their desire to get out from the daily misery of life. The students in the
private schools see Jesus not only a Savior but also as their friend and brother and even as
a father. In both settings, it is obvious that there is insufficient understanding of who
Jesus really is.

As for the second questions, majority of them wants the Church to initiate more activities
that will help them study, learn and pray the Bible so that they will know Jesus more.
They want the Church to show them who Jesus really is and to teach them how to
establish a personal relationship with Him. They also suggested that priests improve their
homilies. They want the homilies to more relevant to their present situations. They want
the celebration of the Holy Mass to be lively. This is true also with the teaching of the
faith because they find catechesis or religion classes boring and irrelevant. They want the
Church to teach them how to make good decisions in life and the values that they need to
uphold in order to live a good life. They also want the Church to establish youth groups,
provide regular retreats, regular receptions of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy
Eucharist and other fun activities.

There are also striking answers from the youth. There are young people coming from the
private schools who do not feel the need to be part of a Church since God has already
provided them with everything they need. Some are even indifferent about knowing Jesus
and the Church.

I believe if we conduct also our own survey in the areas where we are ministering to the
young there will be more revealing input from the youth. I believe that we cannot
anymore plan activities for the youth without them planning with us and providing the
best input on how to address their present situations.

Youth Ministry Models

Encountering Jesus is not a technique. Techniques like Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer,
Rosary and other forms of prayers are means in order to facilitate our encounter with
God. However, we cannot reduce this encounter or experience of Jesus to a particular
technique because encountering God is based on a relationship. To encounter Jesus in
our prayer is His initiative. It is Jesus who initiates that encounter. He may choose to
come or not in our prayer moment. For this reason, we need to understand first how God
work in the human soul. We encounter God both in our prayer life and in the daily
activities of our life.
For this session I would like to suggest three models of youth ministry. From the varied
styles of working with the youth, I take these three as very important and relevant in as
much as they answer the request of the youth.

• Scripture-based Youth Ministry

This is a youth ministry model that takes the Scripture as the basis for their formation
of the youth. This could be in the form of Catechesis, Lectio Divina and other forms
of activities. The Scripture could be a source of fun activities for the youth to deepen
their knowledge of the Word of God.

• Contemplative Youth Ministry

This is a youth ministry model that has prayer especially contemplative or silent
prayer as the heart of their formation of the youth. They introduce the youth to a
deeper encounter with Jesus, not only to talk to Him but more on listening to Him.

• Vocation-oriented Youth Ministry

This is a youth ministry model that helps young people discern God’s will for them.
They assist young people to make choices according to the plan of God and to
respond to it with courage and generosity.

Accompaniment of the Young

In our apostolate with the young it is important that we know how to accompany them
towards spiritual growth. The Institute (FMA) suggests some essential elements in
accompanying the young: knowledge of oneself and one’s story, a journey towards
Christian maturity and vocational discernment.

The three models that I presented for the total youth ministry program that we can
implement in schools and in the parishes are the venues for the essential elements in
accompanying the young to grow. What is central in these three models and in the three
essential elements in accompanying the young is the life of prayer of the youth. Prayer is
the heart of our daily life. It is the one that fuels our daily activities and make of it a true
place of encounter with God. The youth are also called to be “contemplative in action”.
It is prayer that will help them understand God’s movement in the daily life. Therefore, it
is important for the youth to be educated to silence, to interior life.

The Three Stages of Prayer

1. Getting to Know God

2. From Knowing to Loving
3. From Loving to Truly Loving
There are several definitions of prayer but for purpose of our session I would like to take
the definition of the late Fr. Thomas Green: Prayer as an opening of mind and heart to
God and as a personal encounter with God in love. Therefore we can summarize it as:
Prayer is both an OPENING and an ENCOUNTER.

Prayer is an opening of mind and heart indicates that in prayer we need to be receptive to
whatever and however the Lord would like to meet us. When we are open to God the
attitude that is ask of us is patient waiting. We are not sure if God will meet us or He
may be quiet or seemingly absent. In moments when there is dryness or aridity in prayer,
prayer becomes an opening of mind and heart to God. Aside from being patient in
waiting during prayer it becomes being faithful even in moments of dryness in prayer.
However, the truth is that even in dryness we are already encountering God.
Encountering God in prayer means that God has made His presence felt even if we do not
really feel Him or seemingly quiet. God could also speak to us in the silence of our heart
at times so loud and clear.

First Stage: Getting to Know God

It is a stage where we come to know God through the Sacred Scripture. It is important to
immerse ourselves in the Word of God in order to know God’s movement in our life.
Whenever we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit to enter the stories in the
Sacred Scriptures when allow ourselves to be touched by God in Jesus Christ. In
knowing God in Jesus Christ, God reveals not only Himself but He also shows to us our
true self. Therefore this stage is both knowing God and knowing ourselves.

We also come to know ourselves through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Examen of

Consciousness and through the mortification we impose on ourselves. In the Sacrament
of Reconciliation we come to see the sin that dominates our life. Through this knowledge
we can allow God’s Spirit to heal us and to cooperate in the healing process.
This constant awareness of our weakness can be facilitated by our faithfulness to the
examen of our consciousness. This exercise does not only make us aware of our
weaknesses but most importantly of the graces that God is giving us in our daily life.
This make us grow to be grateful of His graces in order to be better. We also believe that
knowing our weakness we can impose the kind of mortification we need in order to
cooperate with God’s healing of our sinfulness.

Second Stage: From Knowing to Loving

Among the 3 stages of prayer this is the most delightful since it is a stage of really feeling
that one is “in love” with God. “We focus here not so much on knowing who God is but
on experiencing God, on being with God in love and sharing our lives” (Green 2010, 51).
This is moving from head (the first stage) to the heart (the second stage). This is what we
also called the affective prayer stage. It is “experiencing God or Jesus as personally real
to us, not just as somebody that we create out of our own fantasy, or somebody that we
ourselves romanticize, but as someone we encounter in reality” (Green 2010, 78).

Third Stage From Loving to Truly Loving

The second stage of the prayer opens the third stage in the sense that the former one is
already the beginning of contemplation. In the first stage of growth in prayer our
relationship with God is more of “He and I” then it becomes “Thou and I” in the second
stage and in this last stage it becomes “You and I”. In prayer we see that the first being a
relationship of acquaintances, the second that of a master and a servant and the third is of
friends, a relationship of beloveds.

I say that the second stage is the beginning of contemplation. Fr. Green describes
contemplation as “God taking over”. It is God who is encountering us. He is the one at
work and we let go and become passive in this moment. This is the stage where we need
to help the young to discern the movement of God in their lives.

It is in a deep life of prayer that the young will come to know themselves and accept their
history, mature in their daily choices and be able to make a courageous response to the
call of God for them.

Speaking about vocation, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has this to say:

Among the many aspects which could be considered in order to foster vocations, I
would like to stress the importance of care for the spiritual life. Vocations are not
the result of a human project or a skillful organizational strategy, At their deepest
level they are a gift of God, a mysterious and ineffable initiative of the Lord
which enters a person’s life, attracting him with the beauty of his love and
awakening as a result a total and definitive gift of self to this divine love (cf. Jn
15:9, 16)

It is always necessary to bear in mind the primacy of spiritual life as the basis of
all pastoral planning. It is necessary to give the young generations the possibility
of opening their hearts to a greater reality: to give Christ, the only One who can
give meaning and fullness to their lives (L’Osservatore Romano, February 9,
2011, 9).

The Spirituality of the Youth Minister

If we so desire that the young will grow spiritually, I believe the first person that must
grow through the knowledge that we have shared today is ourselves. We have to live
these principles first before we can pass them on to the youth. We are all called to grow
in our prayer life so that we can accompany the young towards a genuine encounter with
God. We are called to be true “contemplative in action”.
Sources:

Books

Episcopal Commission on Youth-Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. The

National Filipino Catholic Youth Survey 2002. Manila, 2003.

Green, Thomas, SJ, Experiencing God: The Three Stages of Prayer. Ave Maria Press.
2010.

Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, That They May Have Life and
Have It to the Full: Guidelines for the Educational Mission of the FMA. Translated to
English by Sr. Maire O’Byrne. Elledici, Turin 2006.

Electronic:

Bulaon-Ducusin Ged. Pinoy ‘FB generation’: Ready to overturn social norm?

http://newsbytes.ph/2011/02/02/pinoy-%E2%80%98fb-generation%E2%80%99-ready-
to-overturn-social-norm/ (Acessed last April 4, 2011).

Garcia, Dr. Leonardo Jr.,CPM. Social Networking and Its Impact on Filipino Youth.
www.scribd.com/.../Social-Networking-and-Its-Impact-on-Filipino-Youth-Dr-Lenardo-
R-Garcia-Jr-CPM (Accessed last April 4, 2011).

Filipino Kids and Their Lifestyle 2009. http://aboutmyrecovery.com/2009/10/28/filipino-

kids-their-lifestyle-in-2009/ (Accessed last April 5, 2011).