By David Kilby | Correspondent

Those who attended the Diocesan Youth Celebration in Monsignor Donovan High School and St. Joseph Parish, Toms River, enjoyed the great talks, workshops, music and games, but the focal point and climax were still worshipping Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and during the celebration of Mass with Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M.

“We hold onto these sins and God wants nothing more than to free us from them,” said keynote speaker Scott Anthony, as he invited youth to go to Confession being offered by various priests in and around the gym of the high school.

“We don’t bow before anyone else except the Lord of the universe.... If you can be open now to the presence of Christ in this gym, it will blow your mind,” he said.

Dozens of teens got up for Confession. There were so many, in fact, that over an hour later -- once Adoration was ending -- there were still people waiting for their confessions to be heard. There were also those who came closer to Jesus by approaching the Blessed Sacrament as it was exposed in the front of the gym. Meanwhile, Sibling Rivalry played praise and worship music.

Before Mass, Anthony briefly spoke to help the young people see Mass a little differently.

“There’s no such thing as a boring Mass,” Anthony said as people gathered in the church. “Sometimes at Mass there are boring people.”

The 5 p.m. Mass for the DYC coincided with the regularly-scheduled Sunday evening Mass for the parish celebrated at the same time, so the approximately 300 youths -- along with their ministers and coordinators of the conference -- shared the church with the regular 5 p.m. crowd. Those parishioners who didn’t get the memo were pleasantly surprised by the mob of young people who filled the church.

As the day marked the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Bishop O’Connell directed his homily on the significance of the Gospel reading on the Man Born blind that Jesus healed on the Sabbath.

He recalled how as children he used to play a silly game with his friends where they spun around until they were real dizzy, closed their eyes and then tried to find each other.

“Of course, blindness is neither silly nor a game,” he shared. “To be without sight is a hardship and a burden. As kids pretending to be blind we knew we could see again, but a blind person will never see as we do.”

The Gospel, he said, shows how in Jesus’ day those with disabilities were considered cursed by God.

“The Gospel of John is often called the ‘Gospel of Signs.’ Today’s passage is the sixth sign ... the cure, the healing of the man born blind,” he said. “It points to an even deeper reality that affects people with and without sight. The darkness, the blindness, that our Gospel is speaking of is the darkness of sin.”

He spoke of how Jesus  called himself the Light of the World, while challenging the popular conception that suffering is a punishment from God. Jesus in this Gospel shows that God can use suffering to do good.

He encouraged the congregation to turn on the light, go to Confession, and seek the healing and forgiveness of Jesus.

“As we continue our Lenten journey toward the celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, let’s not walk in darkness anymore. Let’s walk forward in light, in the One who is the Light of the World,” he concluded.

About 15 youths joined the choir, led by the band Sibling Rivalry, that sang for the Mass with Bishop O’Connell. As they sang the recessional hymn, the Bishop blessed the congregation as the youths prepared to live the Gospel in their daily lives according to what they learned and experienced at the daylong conference.