In St. John’s Gospel, Nathaniel asks Philip if any good can come out of Nazareth. Would his twenty-first century counterpart express the same sentiment about the Big Apple? If so, a contemporary Philip would likely reply with enthusiasm: “Come and see”.
We are invited to come and see – either in person or virtually – the 2021 New York Encounter which will occur on the weekend of February 12th. This annual festival which began in 2011 is a three-day public cultural event fostering education, conversation and friendship for those who share the common bonds of inquiry, desire for dialogue and hope. Organized by the Catholic movement known as the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, it is free and open to speakers and attendees from all walks of life. Visit its website (www.newyorkencounter.org) to have an idea of the energy, diversity, and edification of this New York experience. This year’s speakers and cultural events are listed on the program attached below. They are as impressive as their predecessors in previous years.
Under the heading “When Reality Hits” New York Encounter’s website explains: “Reality is still hitting. It has elicited the best in us: an urgency to respond, admiration for the caregivers, solidarity with those in need and for the victims of injustice. But after so many months, tiredness and a sense of rebellion are sinking in. Ultimately, the events of the past months have exposed our radical neediness and debunked our illusion of control. A deeper, truer core of our humanity is emerging: expectancy. Expectancy of a vaccine, of the end of racism, of political change or … of something else, more radical. It is this expectancy that pushes us towards the future, igniting the desire to continue to walk……Join us February 12-14 for a weekend of online public discussion, exhibits and performance to delve into these questions and sustain our desire to live fully here and now”.
The broad array of organizations that sponsor these annual festivals and the striking diversity of the festival participants underscore the meaning of the third mark of the Church. This celebration of friendship found in difference (not indifference by any means) in some way resonates with the words our Lord spoke to Pilate: “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn. 18:37). People genuinely seeking hope and desiring to ‘live fully here and now’ hear God’s voice and find the promise of truth in distinctive ways, whether these activities be cultural, educational, or artistic. Perhaps preeminent among these means of discovery is dialogue, the dialogue that occurs ‘when two or more are gathered in my name’. Is the celebratory din arising from the Sheen Center in New York where the Encounter occurs each year an echo of the future?
Isn’t it also the sound of the Kingdom advancing?