A Self-Awareness for the Movement? (BJEP021)

 A Self-Awareness for the Movement?

The importance of asking ‘What is Jesus Youth?’

I remember the Friday evening we arrived at POC — the Pastoral Orientation Center at Palarivattom, Ernakulam — with that particular feeling I associate with being invited somewhere for the first time. Alicekutty, Manoj Sunny, and I had come representing Jesus Youth. The year was 1993. The then-Director of POC and Deputy Secretary of the Kerala Bishops' Conference was a priest who would go on to become Bishop Joseph Kariyil, Bishop of Kochi. The catechetical center of the Bishops' Conference had come up with a fresh idea: to design a unified faith formation program for young people across Kerala, and to do that, they had called together all the known Catholic youth movements in the state. Large groups, small groups, established groups, newer groups — all were invited. And among them, Jesus Youth.

The significance of this was not lost on us. Although Jesus Youth had grown considerably by that point, this was the first time the Church had formally called us to the table. It was, without exaggeration, the first occasion for any kind of official dialogue between our movement, other movements, and Church authorities. We arrived enthusiastically.

Then, on that very first evening, a rather uncomfortable piece of news reached us: each movement would be required, on the second day, to present in writing who they were, what their style was, and what they were trying to achieve. I looked around the room. Nobody else in our group had prepared anything. And so, late that Friday night, while others rested, I sat down and hurriedly put together a single page — a brief description of what Jesus Youth was and why it existed. I would not have called it a great work of theology. But it became, without my realizing it at the time, the first step in a long line of Jesus Youth documents that would follow in the years that followed.

The gathering itself ended somewhat disappointingly. A major youth organization had stayed away, objecting to the mix of participants, and the weekend's grand purpose dissolved into formality. But for Jesus Youth, something quiet and important had happened. We had been asked, "Who are you?" — and for the first time, we had tried to answer.

The Long Journey to Saying "I"

I am always struck by a simple fact about how children learn to speak. Even after a child begins to form words, it takes a long time before that child can say "I." In the early months, they refer to themselves by the names others call them — "give that to baby," not "give that to me." The leap into self-reference, into a clear sense of one's own identity, takes time and requires a kind of maturing. And even when it comes, it is not the end of the journey. How many more scenes of self-discovery still lie ahead! In much the same way, Jesus Youth has been on a pilgrimage of self-awareness from its very beginning — and looking back at that pilgrimage is not mere nostalgia. It is nourishment for the road ahead.

The first deliberate effort to gather young people who had entered the Charismatic experience took place during preparations for the 1978 Youth Conference. Through preparatory seminars and leadership gatherings, a network of charismatic young people slowly began to take shape. The vision at the time was primarily this: a line of young people coming together to pray. There was a strong idea circulating in those early years — that the renewal spirit should be like leaven in bread, spreading its energy all through the dough and then becoming invisible within it. Because of this, words like "movement" and "organization" were actively avoided. At the close of the 1978 Conference, one enthusiastic priest prepared a printed framework for how the youth groups could be structured. He used words like "unit system," "president," and "secretary." The room received him with something close to contempt. They dismissed not only his proposal but, I am sorry to say, his entire standing in the renewal sphere.

The next wave of growth brought something more deliberate: a centralized 'First Line' community, and sharing groups spreading across Kerala, divided into fourteen zones. The animating vision was clear and beautiful — that the next step after the renewal experience is to build communities of love. Those were years when the New Covenant magazine from America arrived regularly in our hands, and its articles on the Covenant Communities that had formed in various parts of the world shaped our young leadership deeply. Community-building, the formation of small cell groups — this became the language and the aspiration.

By the time of the 1985 Conference, the central idea was that our network should become a community of communities. The first of the study booklets produced then was on precisely this — how to form those small communities. It was a joyful, earnest time.

Then came another wind. The teachings of Pope John Paul II on the New Evangelization caught fire in the hearts of this generation. From the second half of the eighties, the movement turned outward with a fresh energy — not content to stay within the consolation of prayer and community alone but pressing toward mission. The document I had written for POC spoke of this as a youthful stride toward the establishment of the Kingdom of God. The expression "youth initiative" came into wide use. Ministries — personal and organized — began to multiply.

Among the Movements

The late 1990s were extraordinary years for the whole Church — the long preparation for the Great Jubilee of 2000 was underway, and something notable happened at Pentecost 1998. For the first time, Pope John Paul II convened a gathering at the Vatican of the new-generation ecclesial movements that had sprung up after the Second Vatican Council. He called them a great work of the Holy Spirit in our age. It was a striking statement. Until then, many of us — in the Renewal, in Jesus Youth — had been reluctant to use the word "movement" at all. I used to speak only of "a move of the Spirit." The Pope's words turned that reticence around, gently and decisively. Gradually, Jesus Youth too began to describe itself as a movement.

Since that Friday night at POC when I sat down with a blank page and tried to say who we were, Jesus Youth has come a very long way — in growth, in self-awareness, and in its capacity to describe itself with precision. Today, Jesus Youth places itself among the diverse ecclesial movements within the Church, with a Charismatic spirituality and an international reach. But the other layers of identity accumulated along the journey — as a renewed youth community, as a community of communities, as a mission network — must continue to deepen and inform that newer understanding. They are not left behind; they are carried forward.

The searching must continue. The self-discovery must continue. And that, in a way, is one of the most joyful things about being part of a movement that is still alive.

For further reflection:

1. The child's journey to saying "I" takes time and many stages of growth. Can you trace a similar journey of self-awareness in your own faith life — moments when you understood yourself, your calling, or your community more clearly?

2. The early movement was so wary of words like "organization" and "movement" that it rejected good ideas to avoid them. When does a healthy instinct for simplicity become an obstacle to growth?

3. Pope John Paul II's affirmation of ecclesial movements gave Jesus Youth the confidence to name what it was. Who or what has helped you find language for your own identity as a Christian?

4. The POC gathering failed in its stated purpose but became a milestone for Jesus Youth. Can you think of an event in your group's life that seemed to "fail" at the time but proved, in retrospect, to be a turning point?