Young pilgrims say they hope to find joy as missionaries of mercy

IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Dennis Sadowski

KRAKOW,
Poland (CNS) — Tara Gouldring never thought of herself as a missionary to
others.

But the
18-year-old from Birmingham, England, decided it’s not such a strange idea after
hearing Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, during a morning catechetical
session July 28 during World Youth Day.

“It’s inspiring to see God’s
mercy in so many ways and how I can bring it into my life and how (to) love people
even though they do you wrong,” Gouldring told Catholic News Service.

“You can start with prayer for
people who need help and hope to help more from there,” she said.

Bishop Caggiano’s talk at Sacred
Heart of Jesus Church focused on the idea that anyone can become a missionary
of mercy by showing compassion, love and a caring attitude toward anyone who is
suffering.

He took the 150 young people in the
church, most from the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England, back to the days before
he became a priest. He was a sales representative for a major publisher in New
York City, and on his way to work every morning he saw a homeless man in a
plaza along the Avenue of the Americas. For weeks, he said, he ignored the man.

“I was so self-absorbed it took
me two months to realize this was a man there. I would literally step over him,”
the bishop said.

Soon, he began giving the man $1
every day.

“I thought I was giving him
what he needed. I thought I was doing something good. I thought I was an OK
Catholic,” he said.

Today, he realizes he was being far
from merciful.

“My friends, that may be good
enough for the world, but that’s not good enough for Jesus Christ. That is not
what we are being called to do. We are being called to more than that,”
Bishop Caggiano explained.

Then, dressed in the traditional
bishop’s cassock, waist sash and zucchetto, he got down on his knees and acted
out how he should have responded.

“You get down on your knees and
put your hands under them and you bring them close to you and you lift them up,”
he said. “And the smell of the sheep is when your heart and their heart
are so close that they touch.”

Acting with mercy can occur toward
anyone at any time, as long as it is done to follow the example of Jesus, he
said, suggesting that World Youth Day 2016 can be the start of merciful actions
on the part of everyone attending the six-day celebration of faith.

“Is it easy? No. Is it going to
be something you and I will fail at? Yes. Are we going to learn from failure?
Yes, because Christ will love us,” Bishop Caggiano said.

The bishop, who was the U.S. bishops’
episcopal liaison for World Youth Day, called on each member of the audience to
become a missionary of mercy one person at a time.

Bridget Phiri, 20, of Wolverhampton,
England, said she saw herself in Bishop Caggiano’s story of giving money to the
homeless man in New York.

“Instead of just handing people
money, I should get up and give them a hug and make them feel like they’re a
person too, like they’re accepted in society. Something more physical than just
giving them some coins and walking by,” she said.

“I think I need to re-evaluate
how I look at things now and how I act toward people who are homeless or less
fortunate,” Phiri said.

It comes down to letting God flow
through each person’s action, concluded Toby Duckworth, 21, of Streetly,
England, who will enter the Venerable English College in Rome as a seminarian
in August.

“The challenge is to go beyond
what the world sees as mercy. To go beyond even what we as human beings think
is merciful. To me that is constant challenge, always, everywhere,”
Duckworth told CNS.

Returning home to England and elsewhere,
pilgrims will find it difficult to go beyond their normal circles, he
acknowledged. But such work is never easy. The challenge is “be Jesus to
others,” he said.

– – –

Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.

– – –

Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Original Article