The World Youth Day Cross
By Stephen Tardif
The Cross is Christianity's most enduring and prominent symbol of sacrifice and pilgrimage. It is also the very standard under which young people from all corners of the globe will converge to celebrate World Youth Day 2002.
The World Youth Day Cross was first entrusted to the young people of the world in 1984, following the Jubilee of Redemption by Pope John Paul II. "Bear it in the world as the sign of the love of the Lord Jesus for Humanity" he bid them, and since that time, the Cross has traveled 40,000 kilometres by land, sea, and air.
Given by the Pope to a Canadian delegation on Palm Sunday of last year, the Cross has since traversed the length and breadth of Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia and as far north as Inuvik, Nunavut, in preparation for World Youth Day.
Arriving in Toronto on June 9, the Cross - with about 400 walkers - processed from St. Augustine's Seminary to St. Michael's Cathedral, where it was received by about 200 jubilant participants. The arrival which was especially poignant for the 20 portageurs who had accompanied the Cross since its departure from Montreal.
The Cross will now be carried throughout the Archdiocese for 200 or so events that will take place in the days leading up to World Youth Day. Just as Christ came for those in need of a physician, the Cross will travel to places of affliction and distress, such as youth detention centres and street shelters. During the events of World Youth Day, the Cross will serve as a beacon and rallying point for times of prayer, celebration, reflection, and local pilgrimage.
The Cross will also be a symbol to the participants of World Youth Day: a sign both of meekness and of triumph. No matter how bleak the future may seem or how fierce the persecution may be, the victory of Christ is an irreversible one, and it is only our own will that can separate us from that victory. The Cross is also a sign of contradiction to our vindictive society. The World Youth Day Cross is a challenge to each of us to bear wrongs patiently.
Christ bore his Cross, a burden as onerous as sin, to Calvary and, since that day, Christians have been taught to imitate Him and carry their own crosses in the same way. Though our crosses may be but the vicissitudes of daily life, the World Youth Day Cross is a tangible reminder to us of the words of Christ: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mt 16:24).
