ST.
JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND
Dear
Young People, Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
I
thank you for your warm welcome here today
in Newfoundland. It is a great
joy for me to join you as
you celebrate your faith in Jesus Christ at this festival of youth. I thank God for
you and for young people everywhere,
for the special gifts of your youth,
and for the part you play among
us in
building a more just, peaceful and loving world. In the words of Saint
Paul:
"I thank my God whenever I think of you, and every time I pray for all of you, I pray with joy" (Ph 1:3).
To live in this
immense country which has been
blessed with peace and freedom
is cause
for thanksgiving. You have freedom of speech, of worship and movement - and you have political
options. And
yet you are not without your
problems. I know that
many of you
young people have no jobs and look to
the future with deep anxiety. You are challenged by chronic and painful
unemployment to keep alive a spirit of hope, to try to use creatively
the enforced leisure
which joblessness creates. Others
among you are in school,
where there
is also uncertainty. You are sometimes tempted to give up and to ask: What is the use of all
this effort? What is the meaning of human life? Where is it all
leading?
These
are questions that are being asked
by young people all over the world.
They are being
asked by young men and women who, in many countries,
do not have enough to eat and have no chance for a formal
education. They are being asked by young people who live
in the midst of injustice,
violence and persecution. They are being asked by young people who
are searching for peace, craving for
justice and longing for God. They were
asked
this year by the young people who came to Rome to celebrate with me the Holy Year of the Redemption.
As
a pastor and as a brother, I wish to offer
you today a powerful reason
to
hope
and to see life
as a great and precious gift of God. And this
reason is Jesus Christ,
the Son of God who came into the world to teach
us the full meaning of human life.
Through the power of his Spirit, the
same
Jesus who died on the Cross and rose from the dead is alive in his Church; he is alive in you who bear
his name as
Christians and who strive to listen to his words of life.
I
am here to proclaim this presence of
Jesus in your lives and the power
of his love working in your hearts. Because of this presence and
this power you can do great things. This is your life's call, a call of
God
to serve as a husband or wife, a parent,
a single person, a religious or
a
priest. But in every case it is a call to a personal conversion, a call
to open your hearts to the message of Christ and to his power
in your lives. Every economic,
social or
political structure in the world that needs
reform can be adequately changed only when our hearts are purified,
because
the source of
all injustice is the human heart.
Young
people of Newfoundland and of all
Canada, you are invited by Christ
to a conversion of heart,
to a life
lived in union with him. For this
reason you must not let yourselves be
overwhelmed by anxiety, by the painful
sense of
helplessness, or by the temptation to revolt or drop out. No one can deny that much of the world
is in
frightening disorder: the inhumanity
of many persons and the injustice of certain systems cause unspeakable
human misery; the possibility of nuclear confrontation creates anxiety and fear. But you are in a
position to
face, all problems with a new attitude, a new heart, a new power:
your
faith in Jesus Christ who is alive in
you. In the words of Saint John: "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith" (1 Jn
5:4).
In
God's plan you were not meant to inherit a
broken world. It is the responsibility
of all of us to
change the dangerous
course of events on which
human
beings have embarked. You, the youth of this country, are called to play a special part in
shaping and
building a better world. Your efforts can succeed, but you
must make
them in union with the Christ who is powerful
within you and who speaks to your hearts.
In
union with the Lord begin your task by
looking critically at yourselves
and then at the society in which you live. To do this you have
to
know how to judge and
with what set of rules. You need the right scale of
values,
a clear vision of the world, of human work, of human
life, of love.
How, you
may ask, do you acquire all this?
Every
day the media and the example of people
around you present certain
models of life. Very often these show selfishness winning over
generosity.
Today I invite you to look at another model of humanity - one which
can fully satisfy your thirst for
meaning. The person that I present over
and over again to the youth of the world is the Jesus about whom we
are
speaking. Although he
is Son of God, he is also Mary's Son and he shares
completely in our human nature. He experienced joy and suffering, hunger
and pain; he knew the beauty of nature
and the love of friendship. Forever
he remains the true image of what it is to be human. He is Jesus of
Nazareth and we get to know him in the
pages of the Gospels. He was put to
death for having cast his lot with the poor and exploited, for having
come
to serve and not to be
served. But God his Father raised him from the dead.
Through his Holy Spirit he remains in our midst and
within us: he is
the source
of strength in the daily struggle to uplift our world. This is
our Christian faith: with his
help, we can carry out the program he left
us,
so simple and yet so all-embracing: "Love one
another as I have loved
you" (Jn 15:12).
On every page
of the Gospel, Jesus keeps telling us that
we must never despair,
that love triumphs over every obstacle, over every failure, over suffering and
hatred, even over death itself. This love,
dear young people,
and the peace that it brings, will
anchor you firmly amid the chaos of
the world; it will also lead you
into deeper involvement with that world.
Jesus invites you to love and to serve.
Begin
by doing something concrete in your own
situation. Do not look too far afield. Begin now where you work or
study, in
your youth groups, in your family circle, in your parish. Never allow
anyone
among your acquaintances
to be deprived of his or her rights, or put down by others because
he or she is not of your social milieu, or your colour, or
does not speak your language or
share your
faith. Refuse to build barriers between yourselves and older people. Be
present also in their situations,
because there your voice is needed and you will contribute and learn.
Give your
enthusiastic support to
those local
groups which are seeking to build a more human world, and then broaden
your
horizons and work with the joyful energy of youth to share with the
hungry and
with young people who have received
less that you. In solidarity with your brothers and sisters of different nations and races and
cultures, it is
possible for you to change the world
and to shape a better future for all
- a future in which persons are
more
important than profits; in which the world's resources are justly
shared, and
in which peaceful negotiations replace threats of war.
But
in order to do this you need God's help.
And God's help comes to you
through prayer.
Your
union with Christ will be the secret of your effectiveness,
and it is strengthened by your prayer,
your conversation with God, the lifting up of your heart to him. But
Jesus has
also provided for your needs through the Sacraments of the Church,
particularly
the Eucharist
and the Sacrament
of Penance. The conversion of your hearts is brought
about by Christ's action and Christ reaches out
to you in his Sacraments, which will always be for you an
expression
and celebration of your faith and your life
in Christ.
Sin is a human reality and we all need to
experience forgiveness, reconciliation and peace in a personal
encounter with Christ. God's
providence supplies this
opportunity for us in Confession, and makes available in the
Eucharist
an access to his love that responds to our deepest yearning for an
interpersonal relationship.
Yes,
to build a civilization based on love
and truth and justice is surely
a
gigantic task. But you are equal to it!
Why? Because of
Christ, living
in you,
because of his Sacraments, because of your union with him through
prayer. Take courage then, dear young
people, for we are celebrating
together our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of
the world. As we approach the end of this
millennium, remember that Christ needs you, the youth of Newfoundland,
of
Canada and the world. He needs
you with pure hearts and generous love to help him in his mission of uplifting
humanity and bringing his
salvation to the world. This is Christ's
mission and he shares it with you!