VATICAN CITY (CNS): When adults have so much difficulty bringing young people to faith, it probably is a sign that God is calling youths to evangelise their peers, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for World Youth Day 2008.
The struggle adults have in making the faith convincing “can be a sign that the Spirit intends to push you young people to take charge of this”, the Pope wrote in his message, released in Italian on July 21.
Pope Benedict also said he hoped a huge crowd of young people would join him in Sydney, for the July 15-20 international gathering, which will include a renewal of the promises made at baptism and confirmation.
“Together we will invoke the Holy Spirit, asking with trust in God for the gift of a new Pentecost for the Church and for humanity in the third millennium,” the Pope said.
The theme of World Youth Day 2008 is: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses”.
Pope Benedict said he knew many young people have worries and questions about their lives and their futures.
They are concerned about their place in a world marked by “serious injustices and sufferings” and about how they can make a difference when there is so much selfishness and violence around them, he said.
Young Christians, he said, ask themselves how they can bring into the world the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
“Only Christ can fulfill the most intimate aspirations of the human heart; he alone is capable of humanising humanity and leading it to its divinisation,” the Pope said.
The Pope asked the young people to commit their lives to sharing “the truth of Christ, to respond with love to the hatred and disdain for life; to proclaim the hope of the risen Christ in every corner of the world”.
“Be holy. Be missionaries,” he said.
(Copyright Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.)
