by Emily Lopez
We live in a world marked by constant change, uncertainty and an endless stream of challenges.
However, we are gifted the virtues of faith, hope and love to help shape our lives and the witness of joy we are called to share with this world. In the midst of a changing culture, it can be tempting to question our role in living this witness with those we encounter.
Despite this adversity, I see these types of encounters being lived out among the young adult Catholics in our community. At a Wednesday evening candlelight eucharistic adoration, I watched 200 young people spend two hours in worship of Christ. There was an endless line for confession and a unifying silence of wonder and awe. At a breakfast meeting, I listened as the discussion of prayer and prophetic listening centered around a woman’s chance meeting with a stranger on a college campus.
Participating at Mass, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful singing shared from passionate souls serving Christ as missionaries to young people. I have no doubt that the future of our church is in hands raised to Christ and formed for loving service — precisely the gifts our world needs.
God does not create a soul that cannot achieve sainthood in their time on earth. I am comforted in knowing that no matter what is going on in the world, God has equipped the next generation of Catholics to live faith, hope and love. We are called into a relationship with Christ and his church in living a life of faith, connected to sacramental grace.
With faith, we also receive the virtue of hope when we recognize the eternal sovereignty of God and the gift of eternal life available to us through the death of his son.
As we grow in understanding of God’s gifts of both earthly and eternal life, we appreciate the depth of his love. As we have freely received his love, we can faithfully share his hope and love with others. These theological virtues are not meant to be unattainable finish lines, but lived realities in our daily encounters.
I am grateful for the opportunity to work with our local young adult communities. Their experiences are incredible testaments to the power of God’s love and the movement of the Holy Spirit. Living in an unprecedented time, God is calling them to respond with an extraordinary witness of virtue.
