Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Clearly youth is the future of the Church and the hope of society. This is why the Church has so at heart the evangelisation of young people. It was John Paul II who, certainly inspired by God, thought of a Youth Day in 1985. As a young priest he had always dreamed of leading all young people to Christ. In the Apostolic Letter addressed to young people in 1985 on the occasion of the International Youth Year the Pope wrote: “ In you there is hope, for you belong to the future, just as the future belongs to you” (Dilecti Amici, 1).
If man is the way of the Church we see why the Church gives such special importance to the period f youth, a key stage in life for every person. Precisely because it is so important this period should be a special time for the encounter with Christ. Only Christ reveals man to man. This encounter takes place in meditation of the Word of God and is deepened during the Eucharist: “the Eucharist adoration becomes union” (Benedict XVI, World Youth Day, Cologne, 21 August 2005).
Let us pray for a fruitful World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. Let us pray that the words of the Holy Father will lead many young people to accept with enthusiasm the Gospel, Jesus Christ, the Church, the missionary and martyr Bride of Christ.
May personal contact with Christ in the Eucharist fill the hearts of young people with the fire of love and the fire of the Holy Spirit which Christ brought to earth. May this experience bring a change for young people and for society. Addressing young people from all over the world in Marienfeld Germany in August 2005, Benedict XVI said: “ By making the bread into his Body and the wine into his Blood, he anticipates his death, he accepts it in his heart, and he transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence - the Crucifixion - from within becomes an act of total self-giving love. This is the substantial transformation which was accomplished at the Last Supper and was destined to set in motion a series of transformations leading ultimately to the transformation of the world when God will be all in all”. (Cologne, 21 August 2005).
Anyone who has encountered Christ, cannot keep this joy to himself. In our society we see the paradox of forgetfulness of God and at the same time a demand for spirituality which saves man from suffocating materialism and consumerism. Young believers can be channels of hope for their peers, if they are well versed in the faith and able to respond to any question about the hope they have in their hearts “explain the reason for the hope you hold in your heart ” (1Pt 3, 15).
The encounter with Christ is not something “sentimental”. It is an experience which affects the rest of one's life, a life of witness to the living God and to a faith which must be lived and shared with others: “Help people discover the true start which shows the way: Jesus Christ!” (Benedict XVI, Marienfeld, 21 August 2005).
A flame on its own may go out. Faith must be lived in the community because the Church is a community and communion, in the image of the Trinity. Parishes and Church associations and Movements can help the faithful experience the Church as a family, as communion in God, "one body". We all need travelling companions for the journey of faith. Le us join the Holy Father to ask God that young people may be the living and missionary Church, leaven of renewal in their local Churches. (Agenzia Fides 26/6/2008)
