Pope to young people in Tokyo:
‘Japan needs you, the world needs you!'
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| Pope Francis at Tokyo's Cathedral |
One rendezvous Pope Francis never misses during an Apostolic
Visit abroad is meeting with young people, “the builders of tomorrow’s
society”. That meeting took place on the penultimate day of his visit to Japan,
when he took time to meet with the youth in Tokyo.
By Linda Bordoni
According to a well-rehearsed formula, the meeting between
Pope Francis and young people in Tokyo’s St Mary Cathedral began with some
first-hand testimonies. Representing the cultural and religious diversity of
young people living in Japan today, a young Catholic, a young Buddhist, and a
young migrant were able to voice their deepest fears and aspirations and ask
the Pope some important questions.
Miki highlighted a reality in which lack of time
and fraught competitiveness often cause young people to “fail to see the
uncountable stars and lose the joy-filled chance to experience the greatness of
God and their own weakness and realize that God is with them”.
Masako shone the spotlight on the scourge of
bullying and suicide, particularly amongst scholars and students in Japan, and
on the fact that a wrong use of technology leads many young people to
experience loneliness, isolation, and a lack of true friends.
Her concerns were echoed by Leonardo, the son of
Filipino immigrants, who said to the Pope: “Please tell me, Holy Father, how
should we confront the problems of discrimination and bullying that are
spreading throughout the world?
"Thank you, Leonardo", Pope Francis said, “For
sharing the experience of bullying and discrimination,” and he noted that more
and more young people are finding the courage to speak up about such
experiences.
Leonardo, Masako, and Miki listen to Pope Francis at the Meeting with
Young People
Bullying
Bullying, he said, “attacks our self-confidence at the very
time when we most need the ability to accept ourselves and to confront new
challenges in life”.
The Pope described the phenomenon as an epidemic and said
the best way to treat it is to unite and learn to say “Enough!”. And he urged
all young people never to be afraid of “standing up in the midst of classmates
and friends and saying: “What you are doing is wrong”.
Fear
Fear, the Pope explained, is always the enemy of goodness,
because it is the enemy of love and peace.
He said that all great religions teach tolerance, harmony
and mercy, not fear, division and conflict. He reminded those present that
Jesus constantly told his followers not to be afraid. Love for God and for our
brothers and sisters, the Pope said, casts away fear. “Jesus himself,” he said,
“knew what it was to be despised and rejected – even to the point of being
crucified”.
“He knew too what it was to be a stranger, a migrant,
someone who was “different”. In a sense, Jesus was the ultimate
“outsider”, an outsider who was full of life to give,” he said.
“The world needs you, never forget that!” Pope Francis said
to all the ‘Leonardo’s of the world’: we can always look at all the things we
don’t have, but we must see all the life that we can give and share with
others: “The Lord needs you, so that you can encourage all those people around
us who are looking for a helping hand to lift them up.”
This, he said, involves “developing a very important but
underestimated quality: the ability to learn to make time for others, to listen
to them, to share with them, to understand them”.
Love changes the world
Only then, the Pope explained, can we open our experiences
and our problems to a love that can change us and start to change the world
around us.
That, the Pope continued is exactly what Miki talked about
during his presentation when he asked how young people can make space for God in
a society that is frenetic and focused on being competitive and productive.
Increasingly, he said, we see that “a person, a community or
even a whole society can be highly developed on the outside, but have an
interior life that is impoverished and under-developed, lacking real life and
vitality”.
“Everything bores them; they no longer dream, laugh or
play. They have no sense of wonder or surprise. They are like
zombies; their hearts have stopped beating because of their inability to
celebrate life with others,” he said.
Spiritual poverty
Remarking on how many people throughout our world are
materially rich, but live as slaves to unparalleled loneliness, the Pope quoted
Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta who worked among the poorest of the poor and
said: “Loneliness and the feeling of being unloved is the most terrible form of
poverty”.
We are all called to combat spiritual poverty, Pope Francis
said, but young people have a special role to play “because it demands a major
change in priorities and options”.
“It means recognizing that the most important thing is not
what I have or can acquire, but with whom I can share it. It is not so
important to focus on what I live for, but whom I
live for. Things are important, but people are essential,” he said.
Without people, the Pope continued, we grow dehumanized, we
lose our faces and names, and we become just another object.
Pope Francis surrounded by young people in Tokyo's Cathedral
Friendship
Friendship, the Pope said is something beautiful that you
can offer to our world, and he invited young people to place their hope in a
future “based on the culture of encounter, acceptance, fraternity and respect
for the dignity of each person, especially those most in need of love and
understanding.”
“In order to stay alive physically, we have to keep
breathing; it is something we do without realizing it, automatically. To
stay alive in the fullest sense of the word, we also need to learn how to
breathe spiritually, through prayer and meditation,” he said.
He urged those present to do that and learn to hear God speak
to them in the depths of their hearts, and at the same time reach out to others
in acts of love and service.
Never set aside your dreams
Finally Pope Francis referred to Masako’s experience as a
student and a teacher noting that the key to growing in wisdom is not so much
finding the right answers but discovering the right questions to ask.
“Keep asking, and help others to ask, the right questions
about the meaning of our life and about how we can shape a better future for
those who are coming after us,” he said.
Dear young people, the Pope concluded, “Never lose heart or
set aside your dreams. Give them plenty of room, dare to glimpse vast
horizons and see what awaits you if you aspire to achieve them together”.
Watch the video of the full event (with English
commentary):
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