The hope of the future
Today in Brazil, Pope Benedict appealed to the young people to carry the world into the future with sensibility and morality.
The Pope addressed the participants by quoting words used by John Paul II during his visit to the Mato Grosso in 1991: “Young people are the main protagonists of the third millennium. … It is they who will decide the destiny of this new stage of humanity.” Benedict XVI then added: “God’s charity is infinite, and the Lord asks us, or rather he requires us, to expand our hearts so as to contain ever more love, goodness, and understanding for our fellows and for the problems that involve not only human coexistence but also the effective preservation and protection of the natural environment, of which we are all a part.
That’s on everyone’s mind right now, so Benedict takes the opportunity to engage the issues of the day since the Church is concerned with all that concerns modern man.
The Holy Father then turned to the central theme of his homily, the dialogue between Jesus and the rich young man as recounted in the Gospel of St. Matthew, the central point of which is the question: “What must I do to have eternal life?”
“This query,” the Pope explained, “does not only concern the future. It does not concern only the question of what happens after death. Quite the contrary, there is a commitment in the present, here and now, that must guarantee authenticity and consequently the future. In a word, the query concerns the meaning of life and could therefore be expressed thus: what must I do in order for my life to have meaning?’.”
Christ, “a Master Who does not deceive, … invites us to see God in all things and all events, even where the majority of people see only the absence of God. He encourages the rich young man “to keep the Commandments … at the foundation of which are grace and nature.” They “stimulate us to do something towards our own self-fulfillment. To fulfil oneself through action is in fact, to become real.”
“We hear talk of the fears of today’s youth. These fears reveal an enormous lack of hope: fear of death; … fear of failure for not having discovered the meaning of life; and fear of exclusion in the face of the bewildering pace of events and of communications. … Yet when I look upon you young people present here … I see you as Christ sees you: a gaze full of love and trust, in the certainty that you have found the true path. You are the youth of the Church. … Be apostles to the young!”
Great call, which is not new but always energizing to hear it renewed, this encouragement for youth and young adults to actively be involved with their peers.
“There exists, in the final analysis, an immense field of action in which social, economic and political questions are particularly important, so long as their source of inspiration is always the Gospel and the Church’s social doctrine.
That’s an important qualifier. Social action, yes. But grounded in the Gospel and the Church’s social teaching.
The building of a more just and united, reconciled and peaceful society; the commitment to halt violence; initiatives aimed at promoting fullness of life, democratic order and the common good and, especially, those that seek to eliminate certain forms of discrimination that exist in Latin American society … are not grounds for exclusion but for mutual enrichment.”
Same is true here, of course.
“Youth is a form of wealth,” said Benedict XVI returning to consider the dialogue between Jesus and the rich young man, “because it leads to the rediscovery of life as a gift and as a task.” But the young man of the Gospel, “at the moment of the great choice, did not have the courage to wager everything on Jesus Christ, … he realized that he lacked the generosity and this prevented him from complete fulfillment.”
“Do not waste your youth,” Pope Benedict concluded, “do not seek to flee it. … Consecrate it to the ideals of faith and of human solidarity. You young people are not just the future of the Church and of humanity, as if you were trying to flee the present moment. On the contrary, you are the existing youth of the Church and of humanity. You are the young face … without which the Church would be disfigured.”
I have great hope in the youth. For good reason.