It has been a while since the parish youth ministry prepared for a big event. After arriving back in Myanmar (formerly Burma) from my home vacation, the youth ministry team decided to hold its own celebration of the World Youth Day last August. St. Luke Parish is a new parish. It was established in October 2021, a few months after the coup. Young people these days yearn for hope and light at a time when many of them do not know what to do, where to go. The youth ministry team got so excited in holding the event. They also decided to invite a number of young people from the newly established parishes of Myo Htit Kyi, Njangdung, Palana and Shadau.
With only a few weeks to prepare, the young people started fundraising. On one Saturday, they went house to house to collect garbage for a fee. They also prepared and sold chicken soup, a popular dish during these rainy days. The night before the event, the venue started to fill up with young people decorating and preparing the venue for the big gathering.
It had been pouring rain day after day every morning. But by God’s grace, the sun came out on that day. The day began with the opening Mass led by our parish priest, Fr. Bernard. In his homily, he echoed the words of Pope Francis for the young people gathered in Lisbon. Pope Francis reminded the young people about the three most important actions. He said, “to shine, to listen, and to be unafraid.”
These words resonate so much to young people in Myanmar. Their world, our world has been destroyed by a military regime which does not see any value in life or in young people. Illegal drugs are allowed to spread intoxicating a young population already lost and hopeless. There is very little invested in young peoples’ education, a common tactic of authoritarian regimes to keep the population ignorant and blindly following them without question.