Seven years ago this summer, more the 500,000 people came to Cherry Creek State Park to greet the Holy Father and worship Jesus Christ at World Youth Day 1993. I was there as a young bishop from South Dakota, and I remember marveling at the crowd not just its vast size, but also its variety, with persons from every corner of Colorado, the United States and the world.

That day, the differences in language and culture which can sometimes separate us, didn't matter. We were one family in Christ. We all had the same enthusiasm. We all shared the same joy. And we all had the same goal: experiencing the presence of God and giving Him glory.

I remember marveling, too, at the way God used the Holy Father to inspire and re-energize each of us that day. This elderly Polish priest _ a man in his 70s! fired up a whole generation of young Colorado Catholics. And how did he do it? By his own obvious enthusiasm for Jesus Christ. By witnessing his own ardent love for the Gospel with humor, energy and confidence.

A little more than a year later, in November 1994, John Paul II announced preparations for the Great Jubilee. As part of those preparations, he urged Catholics all over the world to recover their zeal for the Gospel and renew their missionary spirit exactly those things he modeled so powerfully himself in Denver.

Now the "year of God's favor" the Jubilee is upon us, and the most fruitful way for each of us to live the Great Jubilee is to measure our lives against the "acts of the Apostles" who left the Upper Room on fire with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. They lacked resources, education, social advantages . . . and yet they changed the world. They brought Jesus Christ to every culture and every nation.

What have we done? Whom have we touched with the presence of Jesus Christ?

The enduring lesson of World Youth Day, like the first Pentecost, is that our common love for Jesus Christ binds us together as one believing people, despite our differences in race, language and culture . . . and that as one people, we need to bring Jesus Christ to the world.

"Pentecost 2000: Go Make Disciples of All Nations" if we bring our hearts to it will be a moment of special grace; a link between the joy of World Youth Day 1993 and the great celebration of our Jubilee eucharistic congress on September 17 this year. I'm especially grateful that Msgr. Ed Buelt, who played such a key role in World Youth Day 1993's success, will make one of the day's key presentations. He saw the power of the "new evangelization" firsthand throughout the World Youth Day experience.