Our Lady at the heart of 2017 WYD message
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis in his message for diocesan
World Youth Day, which takes place on Palm Sunday, tells young people the
Church and society needs their courage, dreams and ideals”.
This year's message has a Marian theme “The Mighty One has
done great things for me”, taken from the Magnifcat.
Below find the English translation of the Pope's message
for World Youth Day 2017
Dear Young Friends,
Here we are, on the road again, following our great meeting in Kraków, where we
celebrated the Thirty-first World Youth Day and the Jubilee for Young People as
part of the Holy Year of Mercy. We took as our guides Saint John Paul II and
Saint Faustina Kowalska, the apostles of divine mercy, in order to offer a
concrete response to the challenges of our time. We had a powerful experience
of fraternity and joy, and we gave the world a sign of hope. Our different
flags and languages were not a reason for rivalry and division, but an
opportunity to open the doors of our hearts and to build bridges.
At the conclusion of the Kraków World Youth Day, I announced the next stop in
our pilgrimage, which with God’s help will bring us to Panama in 2019. On this
journey we will be accompanied by the Virgin Mary, whom all generations call
blessed (cf. Lk 1:48). This new leg of our journey picks up from the one
that preceded it, centred on the Beatitudes, and invites us to press
forward. I fervently hope that you young people will continue to press
forward, not only cherishing the memory of the past, but also with courage in
the present and hope for the future. These attitudes were certainly
present in the young Mary of Nazareth and are clearly expressed in the themes
chosen for the three coming World Youth Days. This year (2017) we will reflect
on the faith of Mary, who says in the Magnificat: “The Mighty One has done
great things for me” (Lk 1:49). The theme for next year (2018) – “Do not
be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God” (Lk 1:30) – will lead us
to meditate on the courageous charity with which the Virgin welcomed the
message of the angel. The 2019 World Youth Day will be inspired by the
words “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your
word” (Lk 1:38), Mary’s hope-filled reply to the angel.
In October 2018, the Church will celebrate the Synod of Bishops on the theme:
Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment. We will talk about how you, as
young people, are experiencing the life of faith amid the challenges of our
time. We will also discuss the question of how you can develop a life project
by discerning your personal vocation, whether it be to marriage in the secular
and professional world, or to the consecrated life and priesthood. It is
my hope that the journey towards the World Youth Day in Panama and the process
of preparation for the Synod will move forward in tandem.
Our age does not need young people who are
“couch-potatoes”
According to Luke’s Gospel, once Mary has received the message of the angel and
said “yes” to the call to become the Mother of the Saviour, she sets out in
haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was in the sixth month of her
pregnancy (cf. 1:36, 39). Mary is very young; what she was told is a
great gift, but it also entails great challenges. The Lord assured her of
his presence and support, yet many things remain obscure in her mind and
heart. Yet Mary does not shut herself up at home or let herself be
paralyzed by fear or pride. Mary is not the type that, to be comfortable, needs
a good sofa where she can feel safe and sound. She is no couch potato! (cf.
Address at the Vigil, Kraków, 30 July 2016). If her elderly cousin needs
a hand, she does not hesitate, but immediately sets off.
It was a long way to the house of Elizabeth, about 150 kilometres. But
the young woman from Nazareth, led by the Holy Spirit, knows no obstacles.
Surely, those days of journeying helped her to meditate on the marvellous event
of which she was a part. So it is with us, whenever we set out on
pilgrimage. Along the way, the events of our own lives come to mind, we
learn to appreciate their meaning and we discern our vocation, which then
becomes clear in the encounter with God and in service to others.
The Mighty One has done great things for me
The meeting of the two women, one young and the other elderly, is filled with
the presence of the Holy Spirit and charged with joy and wonder (cf. Lk
1:40-45). The two mothers, like the children they bear, practically dance
for joy. Elizabeth, impressed by Mary’s faith, cries out: “Blessed is she
who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the
Lord” (v. 45). One of the great gifts that the Virgin received was certainly
that of faith. Belief in God is a priceless gift, but one that has to be
received. Elizabeth blesses Mary for this, and she in turn responds with
the song of the Magnificat (cf. Lk 1:46-55), in which we find the words: “The
Mighty One has done great things for me” (v. 49).
Mary’s is a revolutionary prayer, the song of a faith-filled young woman
conscious of her limits, yet confident in God’s mercy. She gives thanks
to God for looking upon her lowliness and for the work of salvation that he has
brought about for the people, the poor and the humble. Faith is at the
heart of Mary’s entire story. Her song helps us to understand the mercy
of the Lord as the driving force of history, the history of each of us and of
all humanity.
When God touches the heart of a young man or woman, they become capable of
doing tremendous things. The “great things” that the Almighty
accomplished in the life of Mary speak also to our own journey in life, which
is not a meaningless meandering, but a pilgrimage that, for all its
uncertainties and sufferings, can find its fulfilment in God (cf. Angelus, 15
August 2015). You may say to me: “But Father, I have my limits, I am a
sinner, what can I do?” When the Lord calls us, he doesn’t stop at what
we are or what we have done. On the contrary, at the very moment that he calls
us, he is looking ahead to everything we can do, all the love we are capable of
giving. Like the young Mary, you can allow your life to become a means
for making the world a better place. Jesus is calling you to leave your
mark in life, your mark on history, both your own and that of so many others
(cf. Address at the Vigil, Kraków, 30 July 2016).
Being young does not mean being disconnected from the
past
Mary was little more than an adolescent, like many of you. Yet in the
Magnificat, she echoes the praises of her people and their history. This shows
us that being young does not mean being disconnected from the past. Our
personal history is part of a long trail, a communal journey that has preceded
us over the ages. Like Mary, we belong to a people. History teaches us
that, even when the Church has to sail on stormy seas, the hand of God guides
her and helps her to overcome moments of difficulty. The genuine
experience of the Church is not like a flash mob, where people agree to meet,
do their thing and then go their separate ways. The Church is heir to a
long tradition which, passed down from generation to generation, is further
enriched by the experience of each individual. Your personal history has a
place within the greater history of the Church.
Being mindful of the past also helps us to be open to the unexpected ways that
God acts in us and through us. It also helps us to be open to being chosen as a
means by which God brings about his saving plan. As young people, you too can
do great things and take on fuller responsibilities, if only you recognize
God’s mercy and power at work in your lives.
I would like to ask you some questions. How do you “save” in your memory
the events and experiences of your life? What do you do with the facts and the
images present in your memory? Some of you, particularly those hurt by
certain situations in life, might want to “reset” your own past, to claim the
right to forget it all. But I would like to remind you that there is no
saint without a past, or a sinner without a future. The pearl is born of
a wound in the oyster! Jesus, by his love, can heal our hearts and turn
our lives into genuine pearls. As Saint Paul said, the Lord can show his
power through our weakness (cf. 2 Cor 12:9).
Yet our memories should not remain crammed together, as in the memory of a hard
drive. Nor can we archive everything in some sort of virtual
“cloud”. We need to learn how to make past events a dynamic reality on
which to reflect and to draw lessons and meaning for the present and the
future. This is no easy task, but one necessary for discovering the thread of
God’s love running through the whole of our life.
Many people say that young people are distracted and superficial. They are
wrong! Still, we should acknowledge our need to reflect on our lives and
direct them towards the future. To have a past is not the same as to have
a history. In our life we can have plenty of memories, but how many of
them are really a part of our memory? How many are significant for our
hearts and help to give meaning to our lives? In the social media, we see
faces of young people appearing in any number of pictures recounting more or
less real events, but we don’t know how much of all this is really “history”,
an experience that can be communicated and endowed with purpose and
meaning. Television is full of “reality shows” which are not real
stories, but only moments passed before a television camera by characters
living from day to day, without a greater plan. Don’t let yourselves be
led astray by this false image of reality! Be the protagonists of
your history; decide your own future.
How to remain connected, following the example of Mary
It is said of Mary that she treasured all these things and pondered them in her
heart (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). This unassuming young woman of Nazareth teaches us by
her example to preserve the memory of the events of our lives but also to put
them together and reconstruct the unity of all the fragments that, put
together, can make up a mosaic. How can we learn to do this in
practice? Let me offer you some suggestions.
At the end of each day, we can stop for a few minutes to remember the good
times and the challenges, the things that went well and those that went
wrong. In this way, before God and before ourselves, we can express our
gratitude, our regrets and our trust. If you wish, you can also write
them down in a notebook as a kind of spiritual journal. This means
praying in life, with life and about life, and it will surely help you to
recognize the great things that the Lord is doing for each of you. As Saint
Augustine said, we can find God in the vast fields of our memory (cf.
Confessions, X, 8, 12).
Reading the Magnificat, we realize how well Mary knew the word of God.
Every verse of her song has a parallel in the Old Testament. The young mother
of Jesus knew the prayers of her people by heart. Surely her parents and
her grandparents had taught them to her. How important it is for the
faith to be passed down from one generation to another! There is a hidden
treasure in the prayers that past generations have taught us, in the lived
spirituality of ordinary people that we call popular piety. Mary inherits
the faith of her people and shapes it in a song that is entirely her own, yet
at the same time the song of the entire Church, which sings it with her. If you,
as young people, want to sing a Magnificat all your own, and make your lives a
gift for humanity as a whole, it is essential to connect with the historical
tradition and the prayer of those who have gone before you. To do so, it
is important to be familiar with the Bible, God’s word, reading it daily and
letting it speak to your lives, and interpreting everyday events in the light
of what the Lord says to you in the sacred Scriptures. In prayer and in
the prayerful reading of the Bible (lectio divina), Jesus will warm your hearts
and illumine your steps, even in the dark moments of life (cf. Lk 24:13-35).
Mary also teaches us to live “eucharistically”, that is to learn how to give
thanks and praise, and not to fixate on our problems and difficulties
alone. In the process of living, today’s prayers become tomorrow’s
reasons for thanksgiving. In this way, your participation in Holy Mass
and the occasions when you celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be
both a high point and new beginning. Your lives will be renewed each day in
forgiveness and they will become an act of perennial praise to the
Almighty. “Trust the memory of God … his memory is a heart filled with
tender compassion, one that rejoices in erasing in us every trace of evil” (cf.
Homily at Mass, World Youth Day, Kraków, 31 July 2016).
We have seen that the Magnificat wells up in Mary’s heart at the moment when
she meets her elderly cousin Elizabeth. With her faith, her keen gaze and her
words, Elizabeth helps the Virgin to understand more fully the greatness of
what God is accomplishing in her and the mission that he has entrusted to her.
But what about you? Do you realize how extraordinarily enriching the
encounter between the young and the elderly can be? How much attention do you
pay to the elderly, to your grandparents? With good reason you want to “soar”,
your heart is full of great dreams, but you need the wisdom and the vision of
the elderly. Spread your wings and fly, but also realize that you need to rediscover
your roots and to take up the torch from those who have gone before. To
build a meaningful future, you need to know and appreciate the past (cf. Amoris
Laetitia, 191, 193). Young people have strength, while the elderly have
memory and wisdom. As Mary did with Elizabeth, look to the elderly, to your
grandparents. They will speak to you of things that can thrill your minds and
fill your hearts.
Creative fidelity for building the future
It is true that you are still young and so it can be hard for you to appreciate
the importance of tradition. But know that this is not the same as being
traditionalists. No! When Mary in the Gospel says: “The Mighty One has done
great things for me”, she means to say that those “great things” are not over,
but are still happening in the present. It is not about the distant past.
Being mindful of the past does not mean being nostalgic or remaining attached
to a certain period of history, but rather being able to acknowledge where we
have come from, so that we can keep going back to essentials and throwing
ourselves with creative fidelity into building the future. It would be
problematic and ultimately useless to cultivate a paralyzing memory that makes
us keep doing the same things in the same way. It is a gift of God to see how
many of you, with your questions, dreams and uncertainties, refuse to listen to
those who say that things cannot change.
A society that values only the present tends to dismiss everything inherited
from the past, as for example the institutions of marriage, consecrated life
and priestly mission. These end up being seen as meaningless and outdated
forms. People think it is better to live in “open” situations, going through
life as if it were a reality show, without aim or purpose. Don’t let yourselves
be deceived! God came to enlarge the horizons of our life in every
direction. He helps us to give due value to the past so as better to build a
future of happiness. Yet this is possible only if we have authentic experiences
of love, which help us concretely to discern the Lord’s call and to respond to
it. For only that can bring us true happiness.
Dear young people I entrust our journey towards Panama, together with the
process of preparation for the next Synod of Bishops, to the maternal
intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I ask you to keep in mind two
important anniversaries in 2017: the three-hundredth anniversary of the finding
of the image of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil and the centenary of the
apparitions in Fatima, Portugal, where, God willing, I plan to make a
pilgrimage this coming May. Saint Martin of Porres, one of the patron saints of
Latin America and of the 2019 World Youth Day, in going about his humble daily
duties, used to offer the best flowers to Mary, as a sign of his filial
love. May you too cultivate a relationship of familiarity and friendship
with Our Lady, entrusting to her your joys, your worries and your concerns. I
assure you that you will not regret it!
May the maiden of Nazareth, who in the whole world has assumed a thousand names
and faces in order to be close to her children, intercede for all of us and
help us to sing of the great works that the Lord is accomplishing in us and
through us.
From the Vatican,
FRANCIS
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