We are all a mess. And God’s mercy takes that mess and turns it into a message.
World Youth Day is a mess.
Fr. Rob Galea is a mess.
We are all a mess.
At least that’s what we gathered during our impromptu breakfast with the Maltese-Australian priest in Krakow.
World Youth Day can get a bit crazy, but, says Galea, that’s the beauty of it. “As artists we tend to be very serious; we want to have everything in order. Here, you get off one stage and then you have to walk 15 kilometers and then get up on another stage again, and you’re all tired and sweaty…but yet, it doesn’t matter.”
“You come back to the core of the gospel, and that is to bring Jesus to people,” continued Fr. Rob. “As a priest and a musician I think that’s what is so beautiful here.” In the midst of the tiredness and the chaos we are brought back to the most important thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And at the heart of the gospel: Divine mercy.
“And what is mercy?” we asked Fr. Rob. “If I had to summarize mercy in one sentence, it’s God’s pursuit of us. God doesn’t just tolerate us, He doesn’t just forgive us, He runs after us. He runs after us until we are ready to stop and turn around, but He doesn’t force us.”
Taking a sip of his coffee, he continued, smiling, “I was and I still am a mess. We are all a mess. And God’s mercy takes that mess and turns it into a message. This is what mercy is: from mess to message. And we ourselves become pursuers of others, messages of mercy. Divine mercy, that’s the heart of it: God’s mercy drawing the world back to Him, back to His heart.”
Cecilia Music
Reporting from World Youth Day Krakow 2016
And today we celebrate...