Archbishop addresses faithful at World Youth Day celebration
This is an excerpt from a speech given in Rosary Hall on the occasion of the 30th World Youth Day March 28.
Sometimes people ask me, “What do expect from the young people of the archdiocese? What would you like them to do as followers of Christ?”
I have come up with four things I expect from young people. They are suggestions which I hope will make your life richer and more fulfilling.
Personal relationship
It is sad, but many Catholics say they have no personal relationship with God. Pope Francis takes this relationship as his absolute starting point in his preaching, as he wrote in “Joy of the Gospel”:
I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting Him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord.”
I never tire of repeating the words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
Challenge status quo
What then comes to mind is the advice given by Pope Francis to go forth from our comfort zones. This is a little challenging, especially for us older people, but I believe he hit the core of my expectations in what he said to a group of young people at World Youth Day in Rio a couple of years ago:
“But I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses: I want the noise to go out, I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions are made for going out … if they don’t, they become an NGO, and the Church cannot be an NGO.”
While it is often uncomfortable to be confronted by the challenges and demands you put forth, that is all part of being enthusiastic, zealous, and joyful young Catholics. You’ve got a lot to teach us; just as you have a lot to learn!
Spread the Good News
You’ve got to go out to others, those who are your friends, those who are lukewarm about their faith or question it. Offer them the fullness of our faith, summarized in the heart of the Gospel.
“The heart of its [the Gospel’s] message will always be the same: the God Who revealed His immense love in the crucified and risen Christ,” Pope Francis said.
He added, “Please do not water down your faith in Jesus Christ…. Faith is whole and entire, not something that you water down.”
Remember, your faith cannot remain locked up in your parish group, your movement, or your community. That would be like withholding oxygen from a flame that was burning strongly.
Careful, though! Jesus did not say: “Go, if you would like to, if you have the time,” but He said: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
The Gospel is not only for those who seem closer to us, more receptive, more welcoming. It is for everyone.
Be joyful
My last hope and expectation is that you seek happiness in all the right places and that you will be joyful witnesses to the Gospel of mercy.
People of all times and all ages search for happiness. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us the way to a life of happiness and joy.
The Beatitudes are revolutionary. They present a model of happiness contrary to what is usually communicated by the media.
According to the logic of this world, those whom Jesus proclaimed blessed: the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the merciful, the seekers of justice, and so on, are regarded as “losers.” What is glorified is success at any cost, money, having power, and self-affirmation at the expense of others.
But Jesus challenges us to take seriously His approach to life and to follow the path that leads to true joy. This is the great challenge of faith. Jesus was not afraid to ask His disciples if they truly wanted to follow Him or if they preferred to take another path.
What does it mean to be “blessed” as the Beatitudes indicate? To be blessed means to be happy. Do you really want to be happy?
In an age when we are constantly being enticed by vain and empty illusions of happiness, we risk settling for less and “thinking small” when it comes to the meaning of life. Think big instead! Open your hearts!
As Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati once said, “To live without faith, to have no heritage to uphold, to fail to struggle constantly to defend the truth: this is not living. It is scraping by. We should never just scrape by, but really live.”
