WYD (1) : World Youth Day begins. What begins?

Finally, it's here. World Youth Day begins in Sydney. But exactly what? From reading any odd newspaper article, such as the website front page this am on SMH, you cannot tell. There are a lot of Catholic pilgrims, some young, some not so young gathered around Sydney. Some of them are obviously passionate about the Pope. Some of them are proud of their nationality, such as the Chileans cited in the article. Some of them are passionate about a whole host of things: "faith in action", "displaying the Holy Spirit", "celebration" as I heard some interviewees say on the Sunrise show. But WHAT remains my question for WYD week.

From gleaning the photos, the interviews and the program, I think the highlight is obviously the Pope's arrival and for people to be able to meet him, or be physically within hundreds of feet of him. Pope Benedict XVI is a learned man, knowledgeable and has his opinion on celibacy, ordination and so on. We can find these from papal releases. So far, the press have actually got through to me that the Pope will specifically apologise for sexual abuse within the Catholic church. A very good thing. Still the question remains: is WYD week just about the coming of the Pope?

In contrast, the Gospel is good news about the coming, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I say in contrast because the Gospel is clear, one can read it from the Bible and hear it from Bible-believing Christians and see it in action in their lives. I find any single message hard to glean from WYD or the Pope so far. In response to WYD week, I would sum up the person of Jesus from 1Timothy 2:5

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

So there is only one person, who can bring any pilgrim close to God: the man Jesus, who is God Himself. It is the crux of the Gospel. Yet, it makes no clear appearance in any WYD public announcement, pilgrim response or event. What could this mean? I leave that to you guys.

Related to message confusion is the general veneration of a very good, knowledgeable person. The photo insert shows an image of the Pope on the Harbour Bridge. And I'm sure pilgrims are ecstatic about his coming. I feel strangely uncomfortable to see a man, who is not a mediator between men and God, elevated to such superhero status. But more on this in the next post.