I had the
opportunity to go on the TEC retreat Feb. 17-19. TEC stands for Teens Encounter
Christ, and the name says it all. I was reluctant to give up one of my precious
weekends, which are sacred to high school seniors. However, God worked through
me and created an experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life.
TEC is a
three day retreat in which high school juniors and seniors expand our understanding of the Catholic faith and our love for
Jesus Christ. There are fun events all day, interspersed with talks about what
it means to be Catholic.
My
favorite part of the retreat was late on Sunday night, when we had Eucharistic Adoration.
We began with a prayer service, we worshipped, and finally we had quiet time to sit with our Lord, Jesus Christ, who
is always present in the Eucharist.
As I sat
in adoration, I began to take in my surroundings. I noticed that the focus of
the room was the monstrance, which was surrounded by prayer candles lit by the retreat candidates and team. The chapel was dark, yet surrounding Christ was an array of light.
I began
to think as each one of the students as a candle. At that moment, we were “on
fire” for Christ, and our light could be seen throughout the room despite its darkness.
Like this, the world sees us as Catholics. They see our light, even though
they are not immersed in it
Much
of the chapel was covered in darkness. I began to think of the darkness as the world that we would be returning to, because
our world is full of darkness, sin, evil and fear. Whether we liked it or not,
all of us would venture back into this intimidating environment.
As a single
candle, immersed in the darkness that is the world, it is easy for us as Catholics to “snuff out” our light. Thus, we join the darkness. It is hard
for one candle to light a room, and it most certainly will be swallowed by the darkness.
Yet if multiple candles were taken into the darkness, and spaced out as we students soon would be, each candle would
give off just enough light to light the entire room.
As
Catholics, this is what we are called to do. At TEC, we learned that all of us
are holy, and all of us are called to discipleship. Leaving TEC, all of us were
excited to begin our discipleship, but it is hard to maintain this excitement when we live in a world full of evil, sin, temptation
and an overwhelming darkness.
We all must
begin to give off a little more light, so that we begin to turn back the tide of darkness that threatens to envelop us all. This is my call to you; join the movement, be a disciple of Christ. For you, even in your darkest hour, are holy.
