Address of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at the celebration welcoming the young
people
(Cologne - Poller Wiesen, 18 August 2005)
Dear Young
People,
I am delighted to meet you here in Cologne on the banks of the Rhine!
You have come from various parts of Germany, Europe and the rest of the world as pilgrims
in the footsteps of the Magi. Following their route, you too want to find Jesus.
Like them, you have begun this journey in order to contemplate, both personally and
with others, the face of God revealed by the Child in the manger. Like yourselves,
I too have set out to join you in kneeling before the consecrated white Host in which
the eyes of faith recognize the real presence of the Saviour of the world. Together,
we will continue to meditate on the theme of this World Youth Day: “We Have Come To
Worship Him”(Mt 2:2).
With great joy I welcome you, dear young
people. You have come here from near and far, walking the streets of the world and
the pathways of life. My particular greeting goes to those who, like the Magi, have
come from the East. You are the representatives of so many of our brothers and sisters
who are waiting, without realizing it, for the star to rise in their skies and lead
them to Christ, Light of the Nations, in whom they will find the fullest response
to their hearts’ deepest desires. I also greet with affection those among you who
have not been baptized, and those of you who do not yet know Christ or have not yet
found a home in his Church. Pope John Paul II had invited you in particular to come
to this gathering; I thank you for deciding to come to Cologne. Some of you might
perhaps describe your adolescence in the words with which Edith Stein, who later lived
in the Carmel in Cologne, described her own: “I consciously and deliberately lost
the habit of praying”. During these days, you can once again have a moving experience
of prayer as dialogue with God, the God who we know loves us and whom we in turn wish
to love. To all of you I appeal: Open wide your hearts to God! Let yourselves be
surprised by Christ! Let him have “the right of free speech” during these days!
Open the doors of your freedom to his merciful love! Share your joys and pains with
Christ, and let him enlighten your minds with his light and touch your hearts with
his grace. In these days blessed with sharing and joy, may you have a liberating
experience of the Church as the place where God’s merciful love reaches out to all
people. In the Church and through the Church you will meet Christ, who is waiting
for you.
Today, as I arrived in Cologne to take part with you in the Twentieth
World Youth Day, I naturally recall with deep gratitude the Servant of God so greatly
loved by us all, Pope John Paul II, who had the inspired idea of calling young people
from all over the world to join in celebrating Christ, the one Redeemer of the human
race. Thanks to the profound dialogue which developed over more than twenty years
between the Pope and young people, many of them were able to deepen their faith, forge
bonds of communion, develop a love for the Good News of salvation in Christ and a
desire to proclaim it throughout the world. That great Pope understood the challenges
faced by young people today and, as a sign of his trust in them, he did not hesitate
to spur them on to be courageous heralds of the Gospel and intrepid builders of the
civilization of truth, love and peace.
Today it is my turn to take up this
extraordinary spiritual legacy bequeathed to us by Pope John Paul II. He loved you
– you realized that and you returned his love with all your youthful enthusiasm.
Now all of us together have to put his teaching into practice. It is this commitment
which has brought us here to Cologne, as pilgrims in the footsteps of the Magi. According
to tradition, the names of the Magi in Greek were Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar.
Matthew, in his Gospel, tells of the question which burned in the hearts of the Magi:
“Where is the infant king of the Jews?” (Mt 2:2). It was in order to search
for him that they set out on the long journey to Jerusalem. This was why they withstood
hardships and sacrifices, and never yielded to discouragement or the temptation to
give up and go home. Now that they were close to their goal, they had no other question
than this. We too have come to Cologne because in our hearts we have the same urgent
question that prompted the Magi from the East to set out on their journey, even if
it is differently expressed. It is true that today we are no longer looking for a
king, but we are concerned for the state of the world and we are asking: “Where do
I find standards to live by, what are the criteria that govern responsible co-operation
in building the present and the future of our world? On whom can I rely? To whom
shall I entrust myself? Where is the One who can offer me the response capable of
satisfying my heart’s deepest desires?” The fact that we ask questions like these
means that we realize our journey is not over until we meet the One who has the power
to establish that universal Kingdom of justice and peace to which all people aspire
but which they are unable to build by themselves. Asking such questions also means
searching for Someone who can neither deceive nor be deceived, and who therefore can
offer a certainty so solid that we can live for it and, if need be, even die for it.
Dear
friends, when questions like these appear on the horizon of life, we must be able
to make the necessary choices. It is like finding ourselves at a crossroads: which
direction do we take? The one prompted by the passions or the one indicated by the
star which shines in your conscience? The Magi heard the answer: “In Bethlehem of
Judea; for so it is written by the prophet” (Mt 2:5), and, enlightened by these
words, they chose to press forward to the very end. From Jerusalem they went on to
Bethlehem. In other words, they went from the word which showed them where to find
the King of the Jews whom they were seeking, all the way to the end, to an encounter
with the King who was at the same time the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world. Those words are also spoken for us. We too have a choice to make. If
we think about it, this is precisely our experience when we share in the Eucharist.
For in every Mass the liturgy of the Word introduces us to our participation in the
mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ and hence introduces us to the Eucharistic
Meal, to union with Christ. Present on the altar is the One whom the Magi saw lying
in the manger: Christ, the living Bread who came down from heaven to give life to
the world, the true Lamb who gives his own life for the salvation of humanity. Enlightened
by the Word, it is in Bethlehem – the “House of Bread” – that we can always encounter
the inconceivable greatness of a God who humbled himself even to appearing in a manger,
to giving himself as food on the altar.
We can imagine the awe which the Magi
experienced before the Child in swaddling clothes. Only faith enabled them to recognize
in the face of that Child the King whom they were seeking, the God to whom the star
had guided them. In him, crossing the abyss between the finite and the infinite,
the visible and the invisible, the Eternal entered time, the Mystery became known
by entrusting himself to us in the frail body of a small child. “The Magi are filled
with awe by what they see; heaven on earth and earth in heaven; man in God and God
in man; they see enclosed in a tiny body the One whom the entire world cannot contain”
(Saint Peter Chrysologus, Serm. 160, No. 2). In these days, during this “Year
of the Eucharist”, we will turn with the same awe to Christ present in the Tabernacle
of mercy, in the Sacrament of the Altar. Dear young people, the happiness you are
seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus
of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only he gives the fullness of life to humanity!
With Mary, say your own “yes” to God, for he wishes to give himself to you. I repeat
today what I said at the beginning of my Pontificate: “If we let Christ into our lives,
we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and
great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this
friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this
friendship do we experience beauty and liberation” (Homily at the Mass of Inauguration,
24 April 2005). Be completely convinced of this: Christ takes from you nothing
that is beautiful and great, but brings everything to perfection for the glory of
God, the happiness of men and women, and the salvation of the world.
In these
days I encourage you to commit yourselves without reserve to serving Christ, whatever
the cost. The encounter with Jesus Christ will allow you to experience in your hearts
the joy of his living and life-giving presence, and enable you to bear witness to
it before others. Let your presence in this city be the first sign and proclamation
of the Gospel, thanks to the witness of your actions and your joy. Let us raise our
hearts in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the many blessings he
has given us and for the gift of faith which we will celebrate together, making it
manifest to the world from this land in the heart of Europe, a Europe which owes so
much to the Gospel and its witnesses down the centuries.
And now I shall
go as a pilgrim to the Cathedral of Cologne, to venerate the relics of the holy Magi
who left everything to follow the star which was guiding them to the Saviour of the
human race. You too, dear young people, have already had, or will have, the opportunity
to make the same pilgrimage. These relics are only the poor and frail sign of what
those men were and what they experienced so many centuries ago. The relics direct
us towards God himself: it is he who, by the power of his grace, grants to weak human
beings the courage to bear witness to him before the world. By inviting us to venerate
the mortal remains of the martyrs and saints, the Church does not forget that, in
the end, these are indeed just human bones, but they are bones that belonged to individuals
touched by the transcendent power of God. The relics of the saints are traces of
that invisible but real presence which sheds light upon the shadows of the world and
reveals the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst. They cry out with us and for us: “Maranatha!”
– “Come Lord Jesus!” My dear friends, I make these words my farewell, and I invite
you to the Saturday evening Vigil. I shall see you then!