By Gabriella Munoz
Special to the Herald
Growing up, my parents used to tell me stories from their trips to the World Youth Days in Denver and Manila. One of the stories that stuck with me was when mom saw Pope John Paul II in Manila. Imagine the streets filled thousands and thousands of pilgrims — excited cheers rising in a chorus of languages, and then, when the beloved pope appears: roses.
Mom told me that the unmistakable smell of roses, a symbol of Mama Mary, drifted in sweltering heat through the crowd of thousands surrounded by nothing but concrete.
I may not have experienced a big miracle like that on my Sept. 26-27 trip to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis, but it was filled with little everyday miracles that showed themselves in subtle ways.
The first miracle: bonding with the others. My trip began when I woke up at 6 a.m., tried to get dressed and finish packing without waking up my sleeping roommate, before waddling out of my room laden with my sleeping bag and duffle. Of the 26 people also traveling, I sort of knew four, one of them being my professor from the past semester. As someone who isn’t always confident in her socializing abilities, especially in this case when I hardly knew anyone, I mentally prepared myself for an awkward couple of days.
That awkwardness lasted right up until the moment when we first sprinted to see the motorcade. It was a false alarm (the pope wasn’t going to arrive until about 15 minutes later) but the chance to see him broke the ice. From then on we joked about our professor breaking into a sprint while the rest of us raced blindly after him.
Our group chat flooded with papal pictures and videos, something that led directly into all of us following and tagging each other on Instagram. We even got a chance to joke around with the students at St. Joseph’s, the Jesuit university in Philadelphia that was hosting us, reveling in our shared “Jesucation.” The first motorcade loosened things up for me by providing the best conversation topic: THE POPE JUST DROVE BY IN A FIAT.
The second miracle: seeing the motorcade. Our group was insanely lucky — we had front row to the pope’s drive-by five times the day before the Mass. The first motorcade was the epitome of Pope Francis. There was a police bike brigade, several police cars, a squadron of police motorcycles flying the Vatican flag, and a band of large black SUVs. In the middle of the grandiose car parade came a sleek little Fiat with Pope Francis’ eager face sticking out and smiling at all the people.
My sister asked if I had felt a sense of peace when he passed by. She had heard people say that they were overcome with tranquility in his presence. I felt no such thing. What I did feel was a surge of giddiness. The second time he passed by, we locked eyes for about a millisecond and it was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.
The third miracle: swelling with Catholic pride. The magnitude of the papal Mass didn’t quite register until it was time for Communion. The area, stretching several blocks and filled with hundreds of thousands of people, fell completely silent. The Eucharist prayer reverberated through the stretch of the arena. So many people fell to their knees. Then came a wave of bright yellow umbrellas with Vatican crests, and under them eucharistic ministers. They lined the roads, ready to distribute the Eucharist to the faithful. In those moments as I kneeled in prayer with hundreds of thousands of other Catholics there was wave of admiration and awe. Earlier that week, in Washington, I was overwhelmed with appreciation for an American Catholic identity. Now I was in awe of the global identity I was a part of.
The miracles on this pilgrimage could just be seen as ordinary events — I made some friends, I saw the pope for a few seconds, I went to Mass. But they were more than that. Pope Francis is famous for his humble nature. I think that was the style of these miracles — humble, subtle, and a testament to the holiness in every day.
Gabriella Muñoz is a sophomore at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She is from Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Pearl City and is a 2014 graduate of Mililani High School.
