An outdoor concert with music by Mercy Divine, Mass celebrated by Bishop Edward Malesic, a keynote speaker, Adoration, opportunities for confession and spiritual direction, games, food, fun and fellowship. The first “Becoming Fire” event for young adults – 18 and older – had it all.
About 200 people, including clergy, religious and lay people, gathered July 31 at the Center for Pastoral Leadership in Wickliffe for Becoming Fire, an outdoor young adult festival. Father Michael McCandless, director of the diocesan Vocation Office and one of the event organizers, was pleased with the inaugural festival. “I expect it will become an annual event,” he said.
Attendees checked in and were able to socialize and play games including corn hole and volleyball until Mass began about 4 p.m. under a large tent set up on the spacious CPL grounds.
Bishop Malesic was the principal celebrant. Erin Hogan and Billy Olson served as event co-hosts and Ennie Hickman, a well-known speaker, gave keynote remarks. Tables provided information about vocation opportunities, the Knights of Columbus and AM 1260 The Rock, Cleveland Catholic Radio.
“I was told I’d be close to the band but I didn’t realize I’d be in it,” the bishop quipped. A musician himself, he joked that he might be tempted to pick up an instrument and join in.
During the homily, Bishop Malesic told the group that it’s difficult to please some people. “But we must be grateful for Jesus, who give us the bread of life – right now – here at this holy Mass.”
He said as humans, we all want things, including the latest technology, gadgets, a better car, house and job, yet even when we get those material things we still aren’t happy. “As St. Augustine said, ‘Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee, O God.’ God gave us this time together. God is here as the giver of life. We can find God in the blessing of today,” the bishop said.
He mentioned Blaise Pascal, a famous 17th century philosopher who said there is a God-vacuum in the heart of every person and it keeps sucking up everything. It can’t be filled with any created thing; it only can be filled by God, made known to us through his son, Jesus. “That is why we pray: to be filled with God. That is why we come here to celebrate our faith: to let God know that when he knocks, we will allow him to enter into us. That is why we try to detach ourselves from so much that will never really satisfy us, like money, fame, prestige and power because deep down, we now that only God makes us truly happy.”
Bishop Malesic said Jesus knows that we need bodily food to keep us alive, which is why he fed the hungry people on the hillside with physical food. But we are more than our bodies, he said, noting that we have souls that need nourishment, too.
“Mother Theresa, St. Theresa of Calcutta, once said, ‘The spiritual poverty of the Western world is much greater than the physical poverty of the people of the Third World. You in the West have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unwanted and unloved … These people are not hungry in a physical sense but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don’t know what it is. What they are missing really is a living relationship with God.’ Mother Theresa is a wise woman,” the bishop said, adding that she is a great saint for us to imitate in her love of Jesus. “Today and every day, Jesus offers us a relationship with him. Today, in a special way at this Mass, Jesus wants to change our spiritual poverty. He wants to feed our souls. The food he gives us is the food that sets us on fire. He feeds us with himself.”
The bishop recalled a recent visit to the Catholic Youth Summer Camp run by Damascus, where he encountered 500 young people on fire for the Lord. He celebrated the closing Mass for their camp session and noted how focused they were on the Eucharist. “Let me tell you, they were leaving that place with Jesus – and they were on fire with love of him.”
After Mass, they watched a video recap of their camp session. “They were laughing and clapping and just enjoying themselves as they reviewed their last week. But you know what got the loudest shout from them? When the video showed pictures of the time they processed with the Blessed Sacrament to the lake and then adored our Lord,” he said. Many of the campers also shared stories of how they met Jesus in the Eucharist in a special way, telling how they opened their hearts to him and bared their souls. And Jesus answered them. “They had an encounter with Jesus that many of them had never had before. Jesus is alive, after all. We follow a man who has come back to us from the dead,” the bishop said.
“The fire that is ignited in us when we meet Jesus personally is a fire that the world wants to extinguish. Never let this world extinguish the faith that burns in you. You have found what can satisfy you all the way to eternal life. I challenge you to live that faith and share that faith. The more you share it, the brighter your fire becomes. And the closer we gather around Jesus together as his Church, the more intensely we burn and become fire for others,” he added.
“I can already feel the heat and it is the presence of the Son, who burns bright among us today. You are a blessing to me and behind the blessing I see the hand of God himself.”
Hickman, who traveled from his home in Texas to address the group, told them they were just fed “the spiritual food that lasts forever at Mass.” He echoed the bishop’s earlier remarks, noting that if humans don’t eat and drink, they will die – something that applies to us both physically and spiritually. He spoke to the group twice, once about discerning their desire and the second time about “Becoming Fire” and total surrender to Christ, allowing him to take over their lives.
The evening concluded with Adoration and benediction