Rev. Alexandru Lungu
We see a sea of young people preparing for the Untold festival. No doubt their number will be in the order of tens of thousands. We can sit on the sidelines and judge dryly, and highly biased that we are dealing with an atheist generation. I am convinced that most of those who participate in this festival today are baptized people. Many of them believe that they also participate in the Holy Liturgy. Some go to confession at least once a year. I wouldn’t call them lost souls, nor hopelessly lost. They are at an age where these festivals give them total freedom. I don’t think that everyone who goes to listen to music is a drug, alcohol or cigarette user. It would also be one of those.
What are we doing for them as a Church? Do we automatically deny them and put a stamp on their foreheads, categorizing them as such? If they came to the Church tomorrow, wouldn’t we welcome them with open arms?
What would Christ do for them if he were on earth today and we were fasting? He would walk among them and speak to them peer to peer. He would wait for them like a worried father, hoping he hadn’t fallen into the trap of misunderstood freedom. I don’t know if He would condemn them. I tend to think not.
The Church has the duty to carry all of them in prayer and thus wait with hope for their return Home.
Every lost son is a wound to his parents. Every baptized Christian is an indispensable piece in the plan of salvation.
We pray for them and wait obediently and full of hope that one day they will open with love and joy the narrow door full of trials that leads to Christ. Cheer up, dear young people! Up!
