Jakarta (AsiaNews) - AsiaNews presents Gerard Thema, an Indonesian Catholic who took part in two previous World Youth Days in Sydney and Madrid. Active in his parish of Saint Jacob's Kelapa Gading, he has served as an altar boy as a child, and later became a member of the choir of the local church.
After he got married, he moved to South Jakarta, to the Holy Family Parish in Pasar Minggu, and attended the Catholic University of Atmajaya where he graduated in psychology. At present, he teaches in the field of the humanities.
His commitment to World Youth Day began in 2007, when he helped a group of young people prepare for Sydney. He was one of the leaders of the Holy Trinity Community, a national movement that promotes the Christian faith through a series of activities, including prayers, Bible readings and meetings.
Thanks to the wealth of experiences acquired before Sydney and Madrid, he has been able to play a fundamental role in preparing the Indonesian mission to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. On this occasion, he "got" a dozen young Catholics from the University of Jakarta to go to Rio, at no cost to themselves because their trip is being paid by private donors.
Here is what he had to say to AsiaNews:
From the start, I realised that it was nothing in the sight of God and that I was a small part of the whole. Despite this, God always loved me. The experience of participating twice in World Youth Day, in Sydney and then in Madrid, led me to a personal encounter with Jesus and others, in particular, when they realised, to their great surprise, that even a country like Indonesia was able to send such a large number of participants, and this in spite of the "misconception" that the most populous Muslim nation in the world could not have an active Church involved in the WYD.
This is the first spiritual experience I had in Madrid, when a young man from Turin (Italy) asked me some "critical" questions on my country. With him, I was able to talk about many aspects of the Church in Indonesia, an experience that impressed me a lot and stayed with me a long time.
But what touched me the most was the fact that ten minutes after this unexpected encounter, the young man from Turin left, then came back to thank me for what I had told him about my own country and its Church. Another element that left me speechless was his personal story as he was going through a deep "crisis" that was not only spiritual.
As an Italian, he was undoubtedly Catholic but he never lived his faith and did not attend Mass. In Italy, he said, Catholicism has become part of the "national identity", but not many people live their faith in depth.
My story about the Church of Indonesia and its small number of Catholics, who are very lively and active, became a source of inspiration for his life.
In the end, he told me that he was proud of his Catholic faith. I then realised that a story like this is not only significant, but has especially great spiritual value, namely that Jesus came to me and "used" me as a means to "touch" the life of the young Italian from Turin.
Another story linked to the WYD in Madrid occurred when I met a man with a disability, with whom I shared some music. Although I was restless with a thousand things racing through my head, I was able to watch him thoroughly enjoy life without any particular concern. His life became an inspiration for me, a way to understand what it truly means putting oneself "in the hands of God".
World Youth Day is an international event that only the Catholic Church can organise. How is it possible, in fact, to bring together more than two million young people from 190 different countries who speak no less than a thousand different languages and say with pride: We are Catholics! Being Catholic is great source pride.
On a personal level, I can say that I have experienced these two WYD in depth; they have strengthened my spiritual life and my Christian faith. I feel I have thousands if not millions of friends with whom I have one thing in common: We live the Christian faith and are proud to be Catholic. I am no longer a kid, but my spirit is young and alive in spite of my job as a professor in Jakarta. The WYD has forever changed my life.
(Mathias Hariyadi contributed to this article)
