Pope at Youth Mass: The Lord is gently knocking at the window of your soul
During the Mass for the Jubilee of Young People at Tor
Vergata, Pope Leo XIV reminds the young people that Jesus is our hope, and
urges them to "adventure with the Lord toward eternity" as the Lord
is "gently knocking" at the window of their soul.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Jesus is our hope, adventure with Him throughout your life,
and let Him enlighten you...
Pope Leo XIV expressed this during the Mass for the Jubilee
of Young People at Tor Vergata in Rome on Sunday morning.
The Holy Father introduced this by acknowledging in
his homily that even if today’s liturgy does not mention
the episode directly, it invites us to reflect on the encounter with the
Risen One “Who transforms our lives and enlightens our affections, desires and
thoughts.”
The Lord is knocking at window of our soul
He noted that the first reading, taken from the Book of
Ecclesiastes, invites us, like the two disciples, to come to terms with the
experience of our limitations and the fleeting nature of all things that pass
away.
“We are not made for a life where everything is taken for
granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through
gift of self in love.” “This is why,” he said, “we continually aspire to
something 'more' that no created reality can give us; we feel a deep and
burning thirst that no drink in this world can satisfy."
"Knowing this," he said, "let us not deceive
our hearts by trying to satisfy them with cheap imitations!" Rather,
he suggested, "Let us listen to them!"
"Let us turn this thirst," the Holy Father
suggested, "into a step stool, like children who stand on tiptoe, in order
to peer through the window of encounter with God. We will then find
ourselves before Him, who is waiting for us, knocking gently on the window of
our soul."
St. Augustine's wisdom
“It is truly beautiful, especially at a young age,” the Holy
Father said, “to open wide your hearts, to allow him to enter, and to set out
on this adventure with him towards eternity.”
Pope Leo XIV delivers
homily at Mass for Jubilee of Young People (@Vatican Media)
Saint Augustine, reflecting on his intense search for God,
the Pope recalled, asked himself: 'What, then, is the object of our hope
[...]?'
Asking whether our source of hope is the earth or something
beautiful that comes from it, he argued that these items were not, but rather
'the One Who made them,' 'He is your hope.'
St. Augustine, Pope Leo reminded the young people, thinking
of his own journey, prayed and said, “You [Lord] were within me, but I was
outside, and it was there that I searched for you […] You called, you
shouted, and you broke through my deafness."
Like Augustine’s search for meaning, the Pope acknowledged
the young people at times ponder similar questions.
Things that are above
The Pope acknowledged, “There is a burning question in our
hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask
ourselves: what is true happiness? What is the true meaning of
life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom and
mediocrity?"
In recent days, Pope Leo recalled the young people have had
many beautiful experiences, adding that through all this, "you can grasp
an important point," namely the fullness of our existence does not depend
on what we store up or, as we heard in the Gospel, on what we possess.
Rather, he reminded, fullness has to do with what we
joyfully welcome and share. "Buying, hoarding and consuming are not
enough. We need to lift our eyes, to look upwards, to the 'things that
are above…’"
Jesus is our hope
"Dear young people, Jesus is our hope," Pope Leo
insisted.
"It is He," as Saint John Paul II said addressing
young people in the same place during the 2000 Jubilee, Pope Leo remembered,
“who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives [...] to
commit… to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and
more fraternal.”
Therefore, the Holy Father exhorted, “Let us remain united
to Him, let us remain in His friendship, always, cultivating it through prayer,
adoration, Eucharistic Communion, frequent Confession, and generous charity,
following the examples of Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis
who will soon be declared saints.”
Hence, he invited, “Aspire to great things, to holiness,
wherever you are. Do not settle for less. You will then see the light
of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you.”
Finally, after entrusting the young people to the Blessed
Mother, Pope Leo XIV concluded, praying that as they return home, they
“continue to walk joyfully in the footsteps of the Savior, and spread your
enthusiasm and the witness of your faith to everyone you meet!”
Pope Leo presides over
Mass for Jubilee of Young People (@Vatican Media)
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