Last Thursday I visited the new Nationals Park for the first time. The $8 tickets my friends and I purchased put us in the nosebleed section and I could barely see the players.
Exactly one week later, I visited the stadium for the second time. Only this time I was closer to the field, close enough to see the face of the main attraction – Pope Benedict XVI.
When I first got word that the pope was coming to D.C. as part of the first U.S. pontifical tour in over a decade, I decided that I would see him. I did not realize at the time how scarce tickets to the Mass would be.
I was raised by an observant Irish Catholic family and have been practicing my faith for all of the 18 years and 11 months that I’ve been on this earth. I happily endured eight years in a plaid St. Patrick’s School uniform and I continue to go to Mass every Sunday. My faith is a huge part of my life.
When I discovered my only chance to obtain a ticket to the Mass was through a random lottery at the Newman Catholic Student Center, I faced the grim reality that my chance to see the pope was slim.
And then I got to thinking – maybe it’s not such a big deal to see the pope.
Despite my strong religious upbringing, the idea of the pope had always been just that – an idea. I had never felt any sort of connection to the spiritual head of the Catholic Church, my Holy Father in Rome. Thousands of miles away, across an entire ocean, the pope had always been a distant figurehead to me.
Also, wouldn’t it also be weird, celebrating Mass in a baseball stadium? Outdoors?
Then again, the significance of the pope’s visit to the United States is not wholly faith-based. Pope Benedict is fascinating to people of all beliefs because of the sheer number of people he leads. People want to see the pope simply because he is the pope.
Lo and behold, I received an e-mail on April 3 from campus chaplain Father Giovanoni – I was getting a ticket!
While I still didn’t feel a bond with the actual man, Pope Benedict XVI, I did feel my lifelong connection to God and to the Catholic Church so I was excited to have won a seat.
For Catholics, every Mass is miraculous. A Mass celebrated by the pope then, is sublime.
The service proved to be an experience beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Standing in the electric energy of some 40,000 people – all so obviously full of joy and emotion – was overwhelming. Goosebumps covered my body and tears, somewhat embarrassingly, sprang to my eyes. As the popemobile appeared, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause and cheers.
With him in my midst, I felt my feelings of detachment dissolve. Even though he was waving to tens of thousands of people from behind bulletproof glass, when he passed the GW community in section 138, I felt personally connected to Pope Benedict.
When I think about the pope today, he is no longer an abstraction. He is now very real to me – an earthly link to my God in heaven.
