Sredi 80. let prejšnjega stoletja je papež Janez Pavel II. uvedel idejo svetovnega srečanja mladih, ki je v kratkem času prevzel ime Svetovni dan mladih, na kratko pa SDM. Stvar se je ne samo dobro prijela, ampak je celo prerasla v največje zbirališče mladih – znotraj in zunaj Cerkve. Mestece Panama je dogodek gostila v januarja 2019, naslednje srečanje bo v Lizboni in sicer poleti 2022. SDM ima dva ključna trenutka: uvodna regionalna srečanja mladih po različnih škofijah ter osrednje srečanje v škofiji gostiteljici. Z vsem tem celoten program traja skoraj 2 tedna. V Emanuelu smo imeli pripravljalno srečanje v San José-ju, glavnem mestu Kostarike, kjer se je zbralo kakšnih 350 mladih iz južne in srednje Amerike (ter nekaj mladih iz severne Amerike in Evrope), nakar smo se z avtobusi podali na pot proti Panami. Dogodek se je končal 27. januarja s sveto mašo, ki ji je predsedoval papež Frančišek. V skoraj mesec dni dolgem romarskem potovanju se je zgodilo preveč za en sam prispevek, zato na tem mestu povzemam najbolj pomembno izkušnjo prvega dela dogodka, ki sem ga preživel v Kostariki.
Kmalu po novem letu sem preko Bogote odletel v San José. Izmed 6 članov pripravljalne ekipe sem prispel zadnji, zato mi niso pustili dosti časa za prilagajanje. Do začetka srečanja mladih smo imeli na voljo slabih 10 dni. Sliši se še kar dosti, če pa povem, da je bil celoten program le nekoliko zamišljen, a skrajno malo pripravljen, potem je razumljivo, da niti nismo imeli presežka časa. Naša naloga je bila, da predvidimo skoraj vsak trenutek 5 dnevnega srečanja 350 ljudi, tako z vidika logistike kot (predvsem) pastoralnega pristopa. Moji pameti je to zvenelo skrajno noro, ampak tamkajšnjih ljudi to ni kaj dosti motilo, saj so na to navajeni. Skratka, mislim, da še nikoli prej nisem srečal tako odličnih improvizatorjev. V tem času smo od jutra do večera molili in delali, vse do dne, ko so začeli prihajati mladi romarji in v končni fazi se je srečanje začelo: 5 dnevni festival s predavanji, petjem, molitvami, delavnicami in druženjem. Ah! In z veliko praznovanja. /Sicer sem pa v teh dneh povsem nenačrtovano in neformalno prevzel vlogo pripravljavca kave. To stransko vlogo sem preprosto ljubil. Kostariška kava je vsebovala najboljše od vseh kav: ravno prav je bila popražena, imela je daleč najbolj zapeljivo aromo, ravno prav je bila kisla, ravno prav grenka, ravno prav z zemljo prepojena. Nočem pretiravati, ampak resnično me je pahnila v držo hvaležnosti Stvarniku za enkratno idejo kave v Kostariki./
Nič ni pomagalo, da imam za seboj kar nekaj potovanj z ne samo zelo raznovrstnimi deželami, ampak predvsem z najširšo paleto izkušenj. Čas v Kostariki, ki sem ga preživel v tesnem stiku z mladimi iz latinske Amerike, me je soočil s kulturnim in duhovnim šokom. Drugače rečeno, že dolgo nisem ob nekom doživel nekaj tako močnega.
Kulturni šok. Če poskušam povzeti z eno povedjo, potem bi rekel, da sem v Srednji Ameriki zgrožen spoznal, da smo Evropejci družba stalnega pritoževanja. Zaznal sem, da južno- in srednjeameriška mladina nima večinske in spontane reakcije, da bi se pritoževala. Glede na mojo zahodnjaško raven stvari bi se lahko in to (zelo verjetno) ves čas: nad vročino, nad skromnostjo opreme v hišah, nad pokvarjenim tušem, nad monotonostjo hrane, nad recimo 3 minutami zamude in ravno toliko posledičnega čakanja … skratka, nad tisoč vsakdanjimi stvarmi, ki Evropejce (ja, tudi sam sem med njimi, zato sem pa pravim, da sem bil ob ugotavljanju zgrožen) nemudoma pahnejo v dvigovanje obrvi, mrmranje, prazno govoričenje in pritoževanje. Od kje nam to? Dvomim, da je odgovor kratek in enoznačen, zares. In tudi, da je moja teza o enih in o drugih nekoliko preveč enostavna. In vendar, Evropejci: zaradi našega imetja smo postali preveč vase zagledani in prenapolnjeni z vsem, misleč, da nam stvari pripadajo. Saj jih vendar plačamo! In če jih ne dobimo, odgovorimo, kot rečeno, s pritoževanjem v kateri koli izmed oblik že. Južno- in srednjeameriška mladina ima precej (včasih pa kar mnogo) manj kot mi. Poleg tega ima precej manj gotovosti, da bodo stvari v življenju vedno tako kot so danes. Pravzaprav se lahko iz danes na jutri spremenijo, kot so se že tolikokrat. Od tod, se mi zdi, njihova primarna drža hvaležnosti za dano situacijo. Lahko bi namreč bilo slabše. Takšna srca in takšna drža najprej šokira, nato prevzame. In povzroči željo: tudi jaz želim živeti na takšen način!
Duhovni šok. Kar glede evropske družbe slutim že dolgo, se mi je v Kostariki potrdilo: sodobni evropski človek ne izžareva polnosti življenja. Bil je čas, ko je evropski kontinent prekipeval z ustvarjalnim življenjem (o tem mogoče kdaj drugič), naš čas pa to ni. In tukaj ne gre za to ali ono mnenje, prepričevalne besede, moč argumentov itd. Gre za doživetje, in sicer. Ob popoldnevih so bile na sporedu predstavitve držav, iz katerih so izhajali mladi, pri čemer je šlo praviloma za pevske in plesne točke. Ko si na oder postavil Nemca ali Francoza, je sicer zaplesal ali zapel, ni pa izžareval nobenega presežka življenja. Izmed Slovencev sem bil bolj ko ne edini in zatorej nikoli stoječ na odru, ampak bi bila zgodba po vsej verjetnosti zelo podobna francoski ali nemški. Ko pa si na oder postavil Nikaragvajčana, Kostaričana, Kolumbijca, Brazilca, Perujca … skratka, mladega iz katere koli države latinske Amerike, si vstopil v praznovanje življenja. Prišli so na oder in preprosto živeli to, kar so. Njihova prisotnost, veselje, svežina – skratka prekipevanje življenja – je bilo neznansko. V bistvu so to stvari, ki jih je težko opisati. Jasno je, da nočem poenostavljati ali omalovaževati lastne dediščine, ki jo seveda ljubim. Kar pa lahko zapišem brez, da bi poenostavljal ali padel v katero koli skrajnost, je tole: kakšna škoda, da smo v Evropi na ravni celotnega kontinenta izgubili Boga. Če že nismo razpoloženi zanj, bi se lahko malo bolj nalezli veselja tistih, ki ga imajo spontano in brez priprav.
English
I love you, central America!
Pope John Paul II. introduced the idea of a world youth meeting in the middle of the ’80s and it quickly became known as the World Youth Day, in short: WYD. Not only did the event become very well spread but it has become the most significant youth gathering inside and outside the Church. The city of Panama hosted the last edition in January 2019. The next one will be in Lisbon, Portugal in the summer of 2022. There are two principal moments of the WYD: introductory regional meetings of youth around the dioceses and the central gathering in the hosting diocese. In total, the program usually lasts for 2 weeks. Emmanuel Community organized the first part of the event in San José, Costa Rica, where some 350 young people from Central and South America gathered, together will a tiny group of young northern Americans and Europeans. After it we took buses to Panama, it was a very long trip! The WYD finished with a holy Eucharist presided by the Pope Francis on January 27. There were way too many things which happened in a month-long pilgrimage trip to be all described in this article so let me only concentrate to the significant points which I lived during the first part of the event in Costa Rica.
I flew to Costa Rica soon after New Year’s. Out of the 6 preparation-team members I was the last one to arrive so they wouldn’t give me much time to adapt. We had less than 10 days until the start of the youth festival. This sounds quite a lot of time, but if I say that the team especially imagined the program but didn’t really prepared it much, then one can understand that we didn’t have a surplus of time. Our task was to foresee almost every single moment of the festival with 350 people, be it from the logistical point of view or (primarily) the pastoral. It sounded utterly nuts to me, but the locals didn’t seem to worry that much because that’s how they always function. I think I have never met such good improvisers. We spent those days praying and working, all days long, until the day when the pilgrims started to arrive, and we actually started the gathering: a 5-days long festival with talks, singing, prayers, workshops and social time. Oh! And with a lot of celebration. /Other than that, those were the days when I became a coffee brewer. It was completely unplanned and informal, but I quite liked my second role. Coffee from Costa Rica had the best of all the coffees: just rightly roasted, it has the most tempting aroma ever, it was just enough acid and just bitter enough, it had just enough taste of the ground. Not to exaggerate with the details but this coffee thing really made be being extremely thankful to the Creator for this beautiful idea of the Costa Rican coffee./
The fact that I have not only traveled quite many places but have also had a very vast variety of local experiences didn’t help much. The effect of working together and living a festival with the youth from Latin America caused a cultural and spiritual shock. It’s been really long since I have lived something so overwhelmingly for the last time.
Cultural shock. Trying to resume it in one phrase, I would say that I the Central and South America helped me realize (quite shockingly, thou) that Europe is a society of constant complaining. I actually noticed that the Latin American youth doesn’t spontaneously react to different situations with complaining. Viewing from my western perspective they could and most probably they could do it all the time: about the heat, very modest households, broken shower (that is with a cold water only), very little diverse food, being later for a few minutes and so having to wait for the same amount of time … anyway, complaining about a thousand things which cause a European (yes, I am also one of them, and that was actually the shocking part of the chock) to immediately start murmur, vain talking and – complaining. Where does it come from? I sincerely doubt there is an easy answer and that my conclusion about them and us somewhat too simplistic. But still, Europeans: our many possessions made us being very self-centered, being sure that all the stuff belongs to us. Well, we pay them, right?! If we don’t get them, we just respond with complaints, be it under whatever form. The youth in Latin America has much (often way) less than us. Not only that, often times they are way less sure that the things in life will always be as they are. Actually, they can change at the double, as so often is the case. I guess that’s why they have this basic attitude of thankfulness for any given situation. You never know, it could be worse. Such hearts and such attitude shock at first but then overwhelm. They also bear fruit in a big desire: I, too, want to live like this!
A spiritual shock. I’ve had some kind of confirmation of what I’ve long been thinking about. The contemporary European doesn’t really radiate the fullness of life. There was a time when creative life was totally outspread on the European continent (I might write some about it in another article), but it is not a case anymore. This, of course, is not meant to be just some kind of an opinion of mine, a few persuasive words, a compelling argument, etc. It is what I’ve seen. In the afternoons there were presentations of the countries the youth was coming from. For the most part, they were presented through dancing and singing. When a German or a French stepped on a stage, he was dancing and singing but did not radiate any superabundance of life.
On the other hand, when people from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brasil, Peru … not to mention all of them they were coming from when a young person from whatever country in Latin America stepped on the stage one could enter into the celebration of life. They came, and they only lived their authenticity. Their joy, enthusiasm and freshness, in one word, the fullness of life was extraordinary. It is basically difficult to describe those things. I don’t want, of course, oversimplify or relinquish my own heritage which I love, to be sure. This is what I can write down without any simplifications or falling into the trap of extremism: what a shame the European continent lost God. Well, if we’re not really open to Him, we could at least let those who have Him influence us by their joy.
stalno na poti 