Speech of the Holy Father at the Welcome Ceremony for Youth at the World Youth Day, Kraków 2016
Dear young people, good afternoon.
Finally, we meet. Thank you for this warm welcome. Thanks to Cardinal Dziwisz, to the Bishops, priests, religious, seminarians, laypeople, and all those who accompany them.
Thanks to those who made it possible for us to be here today, who have strived so that we could celebrate faith. Today, all of us together, are celebrating faith.
In this, your homeland, I would especially like to thank Saint John Paul II, who dreamed and promoted these gatherings. From heaven, he is accompanying us, seeing so many young people belonging to different peoples, cultures, languages, united by a single purpose: to celebrate Jesus, who is alive among us.
Have you understood? To celebrate Jesus, who is alive among us. And to say that He is alive is to want to renew our desire to follow Him, our desire to live passionately the discipleship of Jesus.
What better opportunity to renew friendship with Jesus than strengthening friendship among yourselves! What better way to strengthen our friendship with Jesus than sharing it with others! What better way to live the joy of the Gospel than wanting to “infect” others with His Good News in so many painful and difficult situations!
And Jesus is the one who has called us to this 31st World Youth Day; it is Jesus who tells us: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7). Happy are those who know how to forgive, who know how to have a compassionate heart, who know how to give their best to others; the best, not what is left over: the best.
Dear young people, in these days Poland, this noble land, dresses in celebration; in these days Poland wants to be the ever-youthful face of Mercy. From this land, with you and also united with so many young people who cannot be here today but who accompany us through various media, we will all make this day a true Jubilee celebration, in this Holy Year of Mercy.
In the years I have been a Bishop, I have learned one thing — I have learned many, but I want to say one now —: there is nothing more beautiful than seeing the desire, dedication, passion, and energy with which many young people live life.
This is beautiful, and where does this beauty come from? When Jesus touches the heart of a young man or woman, they are capable of truly great acts. It is inspiring to listen to them, share their dreams, their questions, and their desire to rebel against all those who say that things cannot change.
Those I call the “quietists”: “Nothing can change.” No, young people have the strength to oppose this. But perhaps some are not sure of this… I ask you a question, answer me: –“Can things be changed?”.
It is a gift from heaven to see many of you seeking to make things different with your questions. It is beautiful, and it comforts my heart, to see you so restless. The Church today — I would say more: the world today — looks at you, and wants to learn from you, to renew its trust that the Father’s Mercy always has a youthful face and continues to invite us to be part of His Kingdom, which is a Kingdom of joy, a Kingdom of happiness, a Kingdom that always moves us forward, a Kingdom capable of giving us the strength to change things.
I have forgotten, I repeat the question: ‒“Can things be changed?”.
Knowing the passion you put into your mission, I dare to repeat: mercy always has a youthful face. Because a merciful heart dares to step out of its comfort zone; a merciful heart knows how to go out to meet others, manages to embrace everyone.
A merciful heart knows how to be a refuge for those who have never had a home or have lost it, knows how to build a home and family for those who have had to emigrate, knows tenderness and compassion.
A merciful heart knows how to share bread with the hungry, a merciful heart opens itself to receive the fugitive and the migrant. Saying mercy with you is saying opportunity, saying tomorrow, saying commitment, saying trust, saying openness, hospitality, compassion, saying dreams.
But are you capable of dreaming? And when the heart is open and capable of dreaming, there is space for mercy, there is space to caress those who suffer, there is space to stand with those who have no peace in their hearts and lack what is necessary to live, or do not have the most beautiful thing: Faith.
Mercy. Let’s say this word together: “Mercy” so that the world hears us: “Mercy”.
I also want to confess something else I have learned over these years. I do not want to offend anyone, but it pains me to find young people who seem to have “retired” too early. This causes me suffering. Young people who seem to have retired at 23, 24, 25 years old. This causes me pain.
I am worried to see young people who “threw in the towel” before even starting the game. Who have “given up” without having begun to play. It pains me to see young people walking with sad faces, as if their lives were worthless. They are essentially bored… and boring. They bore others, and this causes me pain.
It is difficult, and at the same time questioning, on the other hand, to see young people who leave life seeking “vertigo,” or that feeling of being alive through dark paths, which in the end they end up “paying for”… and paying dearly.
Think of so many young people, whom you know, who chose this path. It is troubling to see how young people lose beautiful years of their lives and energies chasing after sellers of false illusions — in my homeland we would say “smoke sellers” — who steal the best of themselves. And this causes me suffering.
I am sure that today, among you, there is none of those, but I want to tell you: There are retired young people, young people who throw in the towel before the game, young people who enter into vertigo with false illusions and end up in nothingness.
That is why, dear friends, we have gathered to help each other because we do not want to let ourselves be robbed of the best of ourselves, we do not want to allow our energies to be stolen, our joy, our dreams, with false illusions.
Dear friends, I ask you: Do you want that dizzying vertigo for your lives or do you want to feel that strength that makes you feel alive, fulfilled? Vertigo or grace’s strength? To be fulfilled, to have renewed life, there is an answer; there is an answer that is not sold or bought, an answer that is not a thing, that is not an object, it is a person, and His name is Jesus Christ.
I ask you: can Jesus Christ be compared? Is Jesus Christ sold in stores? Jesus Christ is a gift, a gift from the Father, the gift of our Father. ‒Who is Jesus Christ? He is the gift of the Father.
Jesus Christ is the one who knows how to give true passion to life, Jesus Christ is the one who moves us not to settle for little and leads us to give our best; it is Jesus Christ who questions us, invites us, and helps us to get up every time we give up.
It is Jesus Christ who urges us to lift our eyes and dream big. “But Father — someone might say — it’s so hard to dream big, it’s so hard to go up, to always be climbing. Father, I am weak, I fall, I try but many times I fall apart.” The mountaineers, when they climb a mountain, sing a very beautiful song, which goes like this: “In the art of climbing, what matters is not not falling, but not staying fallen.”
If you are weak, if you fall, look up a little and you will see Jesus’ outstretched hand telling you: ‒“Get up, come with me.” ‒“And if I do it again?” ‒Also. ‒“And if I do it again?” ‒Also. Peter once asked the Lord: “Lord, how many times?” ‒“Seventy times seven.” Jesus’ hand is always extended to lift us up when we fall.
In the Gospel, we heard that Jesus, while heading to Jerusalem, stops at a house — that of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus — which welcomes Him. Along the way, He enters their house to be with them; the two women receive the one they know can move them deeply.
Our many activities make us like Martha: active, distracted, constantly going back and forth…; but we also tend to be like Mary: before a beautiful landscape, or a video sent by a friend on the phone, we remain thoughtful, attentive.
During these days of the Journey, Jesus wants to enter our house: your house, my house, in the heart of each of us; Jesus will see our worries, our hurried walk, as He did with Martha… and He will wait for us to listen to Him like Mary; that, amid the hustle, we dare to entrust ourselves to Him.
Let these days be for Jesus, dedicated to listening to each other, to receiving Him in those with whom I share the house, the street, the club, or the school.
And whoever welcomes Jesus learns to love as Jesus does. Then He asks us if we want a full life. And I ask you in His name: do you want a full life? Start from this moment by allowing yourself to be moved.
Because happiness germinates and blossoms in mercy: that is His answer, that is His invitation, His challenge, His adventure: mercy. Mercy always has a youthful face; like that of Mary of Bethany sitting at Jesus’ feet as a disciple, who delights in listening to Him because she knows that there is peace there.
Like Mary of Nazareth, who, with her “yes” to the adventure of mercy, will be called blessed by all generations, called by all of us “Mother of Mercy.” Let us all invoke her together. Mary, Mother of Mercy.
Then, all together, we ask the Lord — each one silently in his heart —: Lord, send us on the adventure of mercy. Send us on the adventure of building bridges and tearing down walls (fences and barbed wire), send us on the adventure of helping the poor, the one who feels alone and abandoned, the one who no longer finds meaning in life.
Send us to accompany those who do not know You and to say to them slowly and with great respect Your Name, the reason for my faith. Push us to listen, like Mary of Bethany, to those we do not understand, to those from other cultures, other peoples, even to those we fear because we believe they could harm us.
Make us turn our faces, like Mary of Nazareth with Elizabeth, so that we turn our gaze to our elders, our grandparents, to learn from their wisdom.
I ask you: ‒“Do you talk with your grandparents?” Seek out your grandparents, they have the wisdom of life and will tell you things that will move your heart.
Here we are, Lord. Send us to share Your Merciful Love. We want to receive You at this World Youth Day, we want to confirm that life is full when lived from mercy, and that this is the best part, the sweetest part, the part that will never be taken from us. Amen.
