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BENEDICT XVI

Called to GREAT THINGS
The Pope's visit to Milan for the Seventh World Family Meeting witnessed to the one million present how faith sustains every circumstance of life: from the experience of falling in love to the offering of one's "yes:" from the education of children to the pain of marriage breakdowns.
A delegate of the Canadian Episcopal Conference kept a brief diary of those days.

BY JOHN ZUCCHI

In the great pilgrimage that is life we have many shorter pilgrimages that help us to understand the reasons for that longer journey. And so it was for my wife, Cecilia, and me on our recent trip to Milan for the Seventh World Meeting of Families, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. We were part of the delegation of the Canadian Episcopal Conference. I kept a brief point-form diary of the days in Milan which I then filled in to share with friends.
Perhaps it's odd that I should dwell on the registration, as it would seem to be one of the least important aspects of such a momentous conference. It did, however, have a certain significance for me. Thousands of people had arrived from overseas with great expectation for these days together, and yet it would seem that this yearning could wane with the slightest snag. I–and many others–were irritated by some of the logistical aspects of the registration process. There were long lines, and people at help desks did not have answers to our questions. At a certain point, I picked up my copy of the guidebook to the conference and opened it to the welcome message from Milan's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Scola. After informing visitors that thousands of volunteers had worked on the preparations, he reminded us, "Despite the goodwill of all, the great mass of people arriving during this period may cause some inconvenience or require a little extra effort. This is normal. I invite you to live this time in a cordial manner, as we do amongst brothers, and offer your efforts for the good of the Meeting." Cardinal Scola added that children, the sick, and members of cloistered orders had prayed for this event. This was the corrective that I needed. In the following days, there were vast improvements in the organization of the conference–indeed, it was brilliantly executed. There were changes, however, in ourselves as well, as we began to raise our gaze.

WHOLLY HUMAN. The International Theological-Pastoral Congress dominated the events of the next three days. The theme was: "The Family, Work, and Celebration in Today's World." In his opening words, Cardinal Scola described the family as "generous and welcoming," as the first school of communion for persons, for those complementary sexual and generational differences, the place where every man, every woman "tells himself or herself."
Many ideas emerged over the course of the next couple of days but what brought things together for me on the first day, what helped me to understand the significance of the family, came about quite by chance. I happened to go to Mass in the ancient Basilica of Saint Nazaro in the center of Milan. It turned out that Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, was the celebrant. In his homily, he referred to the words of Father Giussani regarding the concrete humanity of Jesus: "He could not live if not in a home where there was a bed, where there were tables and chairs, where there was a father and a mother: the house of Nazareth, a wholly human presence in which God dwells." Our Lord could not have become man if not in a family, in the concreteness of that dwelling-place that we too often take for granted.
The second day of the conference (which incidentally attracted 6,000 participants, most of whom were not academics or even involved in pastoral work) was dedicated to work, and the third was on celebration, or "the feast."
That afternoon would be one of celebration for the Congress delegates and indeed for the entire city of Milan as the Pope arrived in Piazza Duomo. It is truly striking how a celebration always involves our freedom. As we approached the Duomo, I noticed the occasional person sitting at an outdoor table, having a drink, completely oblivious to the thousands of people streaming by making their way to the Pope. In the Piazza, throngs of mostly young people and families had excited looks on their faces as Pope Benedict thanked the Milanese and their Cardinal for their hospitality. The official delegations to the Meeting were invited to a concert in honor of Pope Benedict at La Scala, where Daniel Barenboim, with the orchestra and chorus of the famous opera house, gave a stirring rendition of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. At the end of the concert, the Holy Father made his way to the conductor's stand and with his usual simplicity spoke of the great work that we had just heard. He said that Schiller's words in "The Ode to Joy" did not convey a Christian joy. He reminded the delegates that the pain of the victims of the earthquake cast a cloud over the events of these days. The Holy Father proceeded to elevate our gaze by making us go (paradoxically) to the depths of our desires: "We are not in need of an unreal discourse by a distant God, or of a brotherhood which is not challenging. We seek a God who is close. After this concert many will go to the Eucharistic Adoration, to the God who suffers with us and for us and thus made men and women capable of sharing the suffering of the other and transforming it into love. It is precisely to this that we feel called by this concert." This was what I needed, the Pope's judgment on the evening, to introduce me to a new knowledge of reality.

A SECOND WINE. Milan was abuzz with the presence of the Holy Father on Saturday. Street barriers were set up to prepare the Pope's route to the airfield of Bresso, north of Milan, for the evening encounter and the Mass on the following day. Many signs were posted on church walls and doors and even on commercial establishments, welcoming the Holy Father. But the greatest sign was the look on people's faces, the expectancy, the sheer joy of having Benedict XVI among us.
On Saturday evening, it was remarkable to see the attention of the crowd of about 350,000 in the meeting with the Pope. There was calm in the midst of the enthusiasm and excitement, as if we were at a large family gathering. The organizers had prepared a beautiful format: there were five questions posed, one at a time, by people living different circumstances in various parts of the world. The Pope responded simply without a prepared text, almost as if he were having an evening chat with a few family members. A little girl from Vietnam asked the Pope what his family was like in his childhood. He told her about the very simple things his family did, such as walks in the forest and singing together at home, and he added that when he wonders what heaven might be like, he imagines it as something like his childhood.
An engaged couple from Madagascar related their fear of the word "forever." The Pope said that he often thought about the Wedding Feast at Cana, and he compared the first wine to falling in love. But he said that we need a second wine that is better than the first, and we must look for it because it allows us to grow in maturity. That second passage is one of discernment that involves both reason and will. Falling in love is not enough.

A PASTOR AND HIS FLOCK. A couple from Greece spoke of the financial difficulties in which they found themselves with the economic crisis in their country. Pope Benedict let them know that their witness had struck his and everyone's heart. He did not console them with platitudes but called for a true solidarity in which cities, families, and parishes could join in order to help each other concretely. He assured them of his prayers and the prayers of others. The Holy Father was not able to end the evening without recalling the plight of the thousands of earthquake survivors in Italy who are living in tents, praying for them and assuring them that they were not forgotten by us. An American family and a Brazilian couple also asked questions of the Pontiff. It was moving to see the Pope speak not as a theologian but as a true pastor, as a father, a friend who accompanies his flock. This made me recall how I have been constantly accompanied in my life and how I too am called to enter that same gaze of Pope Benedict.
I was at World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002 but I must say I was not prepared for the huge crowd that showed up at the Bresso airfield on Sunday morning. Our bus passed by a stream of humanity over a mile long. We got there two hours early, but the field already seemed full to me. Despite all the predictions in the press that people would not show up for the Pope, there were over a million pilgrims present at the final Mass. As on Saturday, we found ourselves in a family atmosphere. In his homily, the Holy Father recalled the great themes of these days. He referred to Genesis to remind us of our task "to collaborate with God in the process of transforming the world through work, science, and technology," rejecting the "utilitarian concept of work, production, and the market." Referring to Sunday as "the day of the family," the Pope admonished us to "learn to believe first of all in the family, in authentic love, the kind that comes from God and unites us to him, the kind that therefore 'makes us a "we" which transcends our divisions and makes us one.'"
As I reflect on this special final day of Family 2012, what keeps coming back to me is the figure of the Pope. I have always been "wowed" by his intellect and his uncanny ability to communicate the most complicated concept in the most accessible way. What stood out for me on the Bresso airfield, however, was his paternity, his sense of fatherhood. As the Mass started, people were still fidgeting about and clapping and cheering. There was a call for a respectful attitude and no applauding. What followed was simple devotion and attentiveness on the part of everyone. In his homily, the Pope taught us about the foundations and goal of the family, which are not different than those of work or celebration: that God be "all in all." My great desire leaving Milan was that I too could be a father for my children, friends, and everyone I meet, in the same way the Holy Father witnessed to me these days.
At the 2006 World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Father Carrón said something to the effect that everyone must re-appropriate the truth regarding the family. We cannot passively live off the achievements of previous generations, he told us, and the proof of this is that we have lost the truth regarding the experience of the family in a period in which laws still upheld it. As Cardinal Scola reminded us in February, in this post-modern age we deeply need witnesses. And that is what these days at the World Meeting of Families were ultimately about: the witness of many pilgrims sustained by the great witness of the father on our path, Pope Benedict XVI.