As the walls in Rome closed in around him, St. Peter made a desperate effort to avoid his destiny. Unless he left the Eternal City under the cover of night, he would be crucified the next day on Vatican Hill by Emperor Nero. As he fled, he saw a vision of Christ, carrying his cross and walking the opposite way.
“Domine, quo vadis?” said Peter – Latin for “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus answered, “I am going to Rome, to be crucified again.”
In shame, Peter turned around and went back to his cell. The next day, he asked the soldiers to crucify him upside down, because he did not feel worthy to die the same way as the Lord.
This story was recorded in the apocryphal Acts of Peter (not included in the Biblical canon), later referenced by the Church Fathers, including Tertullian, Origen of Alexandria and St. Jerome.
Today, the story is a powerful example of what discipleship can require. Fittingly, Father Armando Herrera emphasized the message of martyrdom to the thirty high school boys taking part in the diocesan Quo Vadis retreat.
Quo Vadis is a discernment retreat for high school boys that is held each year. This year, it was held Thursday, June 29-Sunday, July 2 in Richmond.
The retreat included Mass at St. Patrick, Richmond, on Friday, June 30, the Feast of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church. In his homily, Father Herrera told them, “Jesus said, ‘I came to set the world on fire, and how I wish it were already burning.’”
He noted that the early Christians, who were blamed for the Great Fire and martyred en masse by Nero, had not set the literal blaze (the historian Suetonius famously laid the blame on Nero himself). However, by enduring the massacre that claimed the lives of countless saints, they set the world on fire in a far more dramatic way, eventually converting the Western world to Christianity by their heroic example.
“It’s not enough for us to profess a belief in Jesus,” said Father Herrera. “We have to live the faith.”
The next generation
Carlos Gonzalez, a rising high school senior and parishioner at St. Thomas More, Lynchburg, was one of the young men on the Quo Vadis retreat. Some of his peers were there to learn more about Catholicism. Others were there to test the waters and listen for God’s call. Some, like Gonzalez, seem to have their minds already made up. After graduation, Gonzalez intends to enter seminary.
“I came to Quo Vadis for the first time three years ago,” he said. “I came because I was discerning, and by coming, I’ve learned a lot. I continue to do so because I always leave with more knowledge than I brought.”
During the retreat, there was Mass each day, prayer throughout the day, and time for reflection and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
On Friday, a tour of downtown Richmond brought the group to St. Patrick, St. Peter and the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. They also stopped to pray at the home of Servant of God Frank Parater, a Richmond native and seminarian who died at the age of 22 while studying theology in Rome.
Henry Tripp, another student in attendance and a parishioner of St. Thomas More, was confirmed just three months before the retreat. A Baptist from birth, he began reading about other religions in an effort to set his life on a more even keel. After considering Buddhism, Greek Orthodoxy and various Protestant denominations, he says that his studies of the Church Fathers pointed him in a particular direction.
“I read the early Church Fathers, especially St. Ignatius of Antioch. Everything I read pointed me toward Catholicism,” he said. “I decided to take a look. I loved it, and I found it to be true.”
Unlike Gonzalez, Tripp is not committed to entering seminary. He wants to learn more about the diaconate, and the retreat was an opportunity to grow in his faith while learning about religious life.
“My life is so much better since I learned the truth about Catholicism,” he said.
The size of the retreat has grown steadily in the past few years. When Gonzalez first attended, COVID-19 was in full swing, and the retreat was a short camping trip with seminarian John Paul Shanahan and Father Brian Capuano, then the vicar for vocations.
“My first year, there were four guys. The next year, there were twelve of us, and we went camping again,” said Gonzalez. This year, he brought his brother Pablo with him to share the experience. “This is a huge change from the last few years of Quo Vadis.”
‘Radiant joy’
On Saturday, the young men faced a particular challenge. The group was split in two, and while one half prayed for their fellow attendees before the Blessed Sacrament at St. Bridget, Richmond, the other half went into the streets of the neighborhood to evangelize.
“It was great to see them going out and taking risks, pushing themselves to pray with people,” said Father Herrera. “At first, they were kind of intimidated and shy, but the longer they did it, the more comfortable they became.”
Father Matt Kiehl, the newly-appointed vicar for vocations, said the experience was powerful both for him and the young men he was leading.
“As Catholics, we don’t always have the reputation of going out on the street and praying with people openly and outwardly, but when you think about how the Church exists and where she began, that’s precisely what those first disciples of Jesus did,” he said. “To offer the guys a glimpse of that was really helpful.”
“In so many ways, we are rediscovering the fundamentals of the mission that was entrusted to us by Jesus in Mt 28:19. ‘Go and make disciples of all nations,’” he said. “How do you do that? You do that one person at a time, by walking with people, literally and spiritually.”
The experience was followed by overnight adoration on Saturday. Citing a quote by Blessed Carlo Acutis, Father Kiehl compared the effect of adoration to time spent in the sun: “When you go out in the sun, you get a tan, not by doing anything, but just by being there,” he said.
“Something very similar happens before the sacrament. There is a certain radiant joy that I noticed in these guys that grew as they encountered Jesus. It was very moving and deeply impactful,” said the priest.
On Sunday, the retreat concluded with Mass in the chapel at the Roslyn Retreat Center that was open to families. “Mass on Sunday was incredibly powerful, because the men were there up front, the seminarians were there, and then their parents and friends and siblings were behind them,” said Father Kiehl.
“To see the great support that these young men have from the Lord, from those in their family – to see all of that during a celebration of the Mass was quite literally a gift,” he said.
Many of the young men told Father Herrera how much they enjoyed their time, predicting that it will continue to influence them as they go back into the world. “They enjoyed the fraternity and brotherhood among themselves, and they were impressed by the brotherhood of the seminarians,” he said. “A lot of guys were saying how impactful the weekend was, and how they felt equipped to evangelize and tell people about their faith.”