Jesus ‘is the king of our hearts,’ NCYC participants urged to stay close to the Lord

INDIANAPOLIS • Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez looked out from a sanctuary built on the floor of Lucas Oil Stadium on the 16,000 youths from across the country who came to Indianapolis for the National Catholic Youth Conference.

He shared with them a message of hope he wanted them to nurture in their hearts as they returned to their homes.

“When you feel lost, Jesus is your shepherd,” Archbishop Pérez said in his homily during the conference’s closing Mass on Nov. 22. “Remember that. When you feel you’re in darkness, Jesus is your light. When you feel you’re absolutely hungry and your soul is weighed down, Jesus is your bread.”

In his homily, the Archbishop reflected on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, saying that Christ is the “king of our hearts” then added that he is not a king in the way that the world views such rulers.

“His throne is a Cross,” he said. “His crown is not made of gold and gems. It’s made of thorns. He doesn’t wear fancy, beautiful, priceless rings on his hands. He has nails.”

According to the world, Christ’s Death on the Cross was “the worst of all ways to execute a criminal.”

But, because of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church in faith proclaims that his Crucifixion was actually a great victory for him and all who believe in him.

Three times in his homily, Archbishop Pérez cried out in a popular and historic phrase in Spanish, “Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long live Christ the King!”). And each time, the congregation cried out the common reply, “Que viva!” (“He lives!”).

Because the centerpiece of this year’s NCYC was a nearly hourlong video interaction of the participants with Pope Leo XIV, Archbishop Pérez reflected in his homily on parts of the pontiff’s message.

Archbishop Pérez encouraged them in the Pope’s words to take “ ‘daily moments of silence … whether through Adoration, or reading Scripture, or simply talking to’ “ Jesus in order to build up a relationship with him and to “ ‘entrust their struggles’ “ to him.

“As you grow closer to Jesus, do not fear what he may ask you for. If he challenges you to make changes in your life, it’s always because he wants to give you a greater joy and freedom. God is never outdone in generosity.’”

Archbishop Pérez offered a heartfelt prayer at the end of his homily after quoting Pope Leo’s words.

“Thank you, Lord, for the visit of your vicar,” he said. “We are blessed and honored to have had him with us. And thank you, Lord, for being our king, for being the king of our hearts.”

One of the most impactful experiences of the National Catholic Youth Conference held every other year in Indianapolis is the gathering of all participants in Lucas Oil Stadium for Eucharistic Adoration, which took place this year on Nov. 21.

During Adoration, as Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services knelt before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in the center of the stadium, he read the Bread of Life Discourse from John 6:35-58.

“We must partake of the bread of eternal life if we hope to achieve our goal – eternal happiness in union with Almighty God,” he said. “Jesus insists twice on this necessity, even in the faith of the disbelief of his audience. He will not compromise to please the crowd. … Unlike many who will only tell us what they think we want to hear, Christ’s words are spirit and life. They challenge us to grow. They invite us into communion with him and with each other.”

Among the many speakers who addressed the NCYC crowd of 16,000 was Nolan McCracken, a senior at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, who tied thanking God, his mother, his sister, his grandmother and his friends to the three laws of motion of Sir Isaac Newton, a 17th-century mathematician and physicist.

“My journey with God so far can be understood by using Newton’s three laws of motion,” Nolan said: “an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external force”; “force equals mass times acceleration”; and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

In middle school and his freshman year of high school, he was “an object at rest – not physically or mentally, but spiritually,” because he was focused on grades.

He switched to Cathedral High School for his sophomore year, where his “acceleration” was to increase his success, he said, letting go of “ friends, family and a relationship with a God whose face I no longer recognized.”

But then he began to attend Church with his mom and sister and also found that at every all-school Mass he “could be a part of a community, a part of a collective witness to love.”

During a junior retreat that Cathedral held at the University of Notre Dame in northern Indiana, “I became open to hearing about the external force God had in their lives, I began to see that I could rely on God.” In accepting, “God’s loving and powerful external force,” Nolan saw Newton’s third law of motion come into play in his life.

Sean Gallagher is a reporter and columnist at The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Contributing to this story were reporter Natalie Hoefer and assistant editor John Shaughnessy. This story was originally published by The Criterion and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.

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