Simone and I take care of the group of young people in the two parishes that we have been entrusted here in Taiwan. After a beautiful three-day vacation on the North coast in August, we decided to organize a day together to mark the beginning of the academic year: lunch in the parish in Taishan and games in the park that is close to our house. Among us educators, there was a desire to prepare the lunch instead of ordering it out and we asked the young people to help with the preparations. Simone would cook pasta carbonara together with a small group and I would make tiramisù with some others. Another small group would set and prepare the table. In the days that followed, we were struck by the enthusiasm: 25 young people had signed up, a small miracle here in Taiwan! Including the adults who helped us, there were over 30 people.
On that Sunday morning, it began to rain and the forecast was bleak. While we were waiting for the young people to arrive at the parish of St. Paul, I recited the rosary and prayed that the day would be beautiful, that the communion among us be a sign of the presence of God.
They arrived around 11 and we split up into groups and got to work preparing the lunch. The kitchen of the parish center and that of our house were filled with their chatter while they cut bacon and flocked to lay out the ladyfingers that would form the layers of the tiramisù. Miraculously, at 1PM, everything was ready. We served the food and began to eat. We asked only that they put aside their smartphones during our time together because for them, the phone is too great a temptation towards isolation. And it was beautiful to see how, proposing to them to remain attentive to reality, they opened themselves to the others, they began to converse, to joke together, laughing and getting to know each other.
They were looking at everything with eyes filled with surprise, almost as if they did not believe that there could be so many friends
Hui Ting is a 15-year-old girl who met us a year ago through some friends. She will receive baptism this coming Easter. Every Sunday she comes to Mass half an hour early, sits in the front row, reads the readings and simply sits there, greeting those who arrive and waiting for the celebration to begin. She is not an introverted girl, on the contrary: in the youth group she is one of the liveliest. At today’s lunch she came with her sister, to show her the place that has been changing her life for some time. As I watched them during lunch, I was reminded of the Gospel passages that tell us about Jesus standing at the table with his own people and the people wanting to see him. Who knows how many times it must have happened that one of those present would later say to a friend, “You have to come too, you have to see this!”
On that day, there was also En Zhao and his brothers, who did not want to miss out on the occasion. We met them because, about a month prior, we went to see them at their home on the invite of their grandfather, who is a parishioner of ours. We simply spent some time together, talking, singing and eating. En Zhao said that during the summer, he felt very alone and that the Sunday spent together was one of the most beautiful days. On the day we spent together, at the table, they were looking at everything with eyes filled with surprise, almost as if they did not believe that there could be so many friends who gather together.
Even after lunch, the rain gave no sign of stopping. We pulled out our guitars and began to sing. The afternoon passed by like this and when we all went to say goodbye, you could feel that something was being born among these young people, something beautiful and rare in a land like the one in which we live: a community. Simone and I got to the evening tired, but grateful for the beauty that we were able to witness, that of Christ who attracts the hearts of the young and makes our hearts young again as well.
