"Jugendliche sollen nicht nur an eigene Karriere denken" - Papstbotschaft zum
22. WJT
Heute ist im Vatikan die Botschaft Papst Benedikts zum XXII. Weltjugendtag veröffentlicht
worden. Die Botschaft gilt den diözesanen Weltjugendtagen, die in den Jahren zwischen
den großen Internationalen Treffen jeweils am Palmsonntag gefeiert werden. Das Motto
2007:„Wie ich euch geliebt habe, so sollt auch ihr einander lieben.“ (Joh 13,34)
Ist
es möglich zu lieben? Ist die Liebe nicht eine Utopie, ein unerreichbarer Traum,
den man besser aufgibt? Mit diesen nachdenklichen Fragen beginnt Benedikt seine Botschaft
an die Jugendlichen. Nein, schreibt er. Liebe ist möglich, weil Gott die Quelle der
Liebe ist. Benedikt wolle das Vertrauen der Jugendlichen stärken, dass es wahre,
treue und starke Liebe wirklich gibt. Und so ist der Text vor allem eine meditative
Betrachtung über die göttliche Liebe einerseits und die Sehnsüchte der Jugendlichen
andererseits. Nach der theologischen Grundlegung – Gott als Quelle der Liebe,
offenbar geworden im gekreuzigten Jesus Christus, und die Nächstenliebe als Konsequenz
dieser Liebe – entfaltet Benedikt die Konsequenzen. Zunächst einmal bedeutet Liebe
großherziges Engagement für den Nächsten im Rahmen der Kirche als „spiritueller Familie“.
Dann ermutigt Benedikt vor allem die Verlobten, in der Liebe zu wachsen und sich auf
die christliche Ehe vorzubereiten: „Einander Liebenlernen ist ein wunderbarer Prozess“,
heißt es wörtlich. Und schließlich die Umsetzung der Liebe im Alltag: in der Schule,
an der Arbeit und in der Freizeit. Benedikt schreibt: „Der Horizont der Liebe ist
wahrlich grenzenlos: Er ist die ganze Welt!“ Die Liebe sei die einzige Kraft, die
in der Lage ist, das Herz des Einzelnen und der ganzen Menschheit zu verändern. Das
Geheimnis der Liebe könne in der Schule der Eucharistie erfahren eingeübt werden.
Am Schluss der Botschaft dann die Erinnerung an Sydney: 2008 findet dort der 23. Weltjugendtag
statt unter dem Motto “Ihr werdet die Kraft des Heiligen Geistes empfangen, der auf
euch herabkommen wird; und ihr werdet meine Zeugen sein.“ (rv 05.02.07 mc) Hier
der Text der Botschaft auf Englisch: MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER TO THE YOUTH OF
THE WORLD ON THE OCCASION OF THE 22nd WORLD YOUTH DAY 2007
“Just
as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34).
My
dear young friends,
On the occasion of the 22nd World Youth Day
that will be celebrated in the dioceses on Palm Sunday, I would like to propose for
your meditation the words of Jesus: “Just as I have loved you, you also should
love one another” (Jn 13:34).
Is it possible to love?
Everybody
feels the longing to love and to be loved. Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how
many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even
come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection
can cause us to think that love is utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become
resigned? No! Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken
in each one of you - you who are the future and hope of humanity-, trust in a love
that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that
binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another. Let
us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a “discovery” of
love.
God, the source of love
The first stage concerns the source
of true love. There is only one source, and that is God. Saint John makes this clear
when he declares that “God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8,16). He was not simply saying
that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love. Here we find ourselves
before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity:
in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons
of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment, but it is
a person; it is the Holy Spirit.
The Cross of Christ fully reveals the love
of God
How is God-Love revealed to us? We have now reached the second stage
of our journey. Even though the signs of divine love are already clearly present in
creation, the full revelation of the intimate mystery of God came to us through the
Incarnation when God himself became man. In Christ, true God and true Man, we have
come to know love in all its magnitude. In fact, as I wrote in the Encyclical Deus
caritas est, “the real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas
as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those conceptsCan
unprecedented realism” (n. 12). The manifestation of divine love is total and perfect
in the Cross where, we are told by Saint Paul, “God proves his love for us in that
while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8). Therefore, each
one of us can truly say: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (cf Eph
5:2). Redeemed by his blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because
each of us is loved personally by Him with a passionate and faithful love, a love
without limits. The Cross, - for the world a folly, for many believers a scandal-,
is in fact the “wisdom of God” for those who allow themselves to be touched right
to the innermost depths of their being, “for God’s foolishness is wiser than human
wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25).
Moreover, the Crucifix, which after the Resurrection would carry forever the marks
of his passion, exposes the “distortions” and lies about God that underlie violence,
vengeance and exclusion. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins
of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true “revolution”
that He brings about: love.
Loving our neighbour as Christ loves us
Now
we have arrived at the third stage of our reflection. Christ cried out from the Cross:
“I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love
and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive the depth and
intensity of such a mystery that we can realise the need and urgency to love him as
He has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary,
for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for Him. God had already said in the
Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18),
but the innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means
loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, “to the end” (cf
Jn 13:1).
Witnesses to the love of Christ
I would like to
linger for a moment on three areas of daily life where you, my dear young friends,
are particularly called to demonstrate the love of God. The first area is the Church,
our spiritual family, made up of all the disciples of Christ. Mindful of his words:
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another” (Jn 13:35), you should stimulate, with your enthusiasm and charity,
the activities of the parishes, the communities, the ecclesial movements and the youth
groups to which you belong. Be attentive in your concern for the welfare of others,
faithful to the commitments you have made. Do not hesitate to joyfully abstain from
some of your entertainments; cheerfully accept the necessary sacrifices; testify
to your faithful love for Jesus by proclaiming his Gospel, especially among young
people of your age.
Preparing for the future
The second area,
where you are called to express your love and grow in it, is your preparation for
the future that awaits you. If you are engaged to be married, God has a project of
love for your future as a couple and as a family. Therefore, it is essential that
you discover it with the help of the Church, free from the common prejudice that says
that Christianity with its commandments and prohibitions places obstacles to the joy
of love and impedes you from fully enjoying the happiness that a man and woman seek
in their reciprocal love. The love of a man and woman is at the origin of the human
family and the couple formed by a man and a woman has its foundation in God’s original
plan (cf Gen 2:18-25). Learning to love each other as a couple is a wonderful
journey, yet it requires a demanding “apprenticeship”. The period of engagement, very
necessary in order to form a couple, is a time of expectation and preparation that
needs to be lived in purity of gesture and words. It allows you to mature in love,
in concern and in attention for each other; it helps you to practise self-control
and to develop your respect for each other. These are the characteristics of true
love that does not place emphasis on seeking its own satisfaction or its own welfare.
In your prayer together, ask the Lord to watch over and increase your love and to
purify it of all selfishness. Do not hesitate to respond generously to the Lord’s
call, for Christian matrimony is truly and wholly a vocation in the Church. Likewise,
dear young men and women, be ready to say “yes” if God should call you to follow the
path of ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life. Your example will be one of
encouragement for many of your peers who are seeking true happiness.
Growing
in love each day
The third area of commitment that comes with love is that
of daily life with its multiple relationships. I am particularly referring to family,
studies, work and free time. Dear young friends, cultivate your talents, not only
to obtain a social position, but also to help others to “grow”. Develop your capacities,
not only in order to become more “competitive” and “productive”, but to be “witnesses
of charity”. In addition to your professional training, also make an effort to acquire
religious knowledge that will help you to carry out your mission in a responsible
way. In particular, I invite you to carefully study the social doctrine of the Church
so that its principles may inspire and guide your action in the world. May the Holy
Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in
your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building
up of the “civilisation of love”. The horizon of love is truly boundless: it is the
whole world!
“Dare to love” by following the example of the saints
My
dear young friends, I want to invite you to “dare to love”. Do not desire anything
less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of
making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a
gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished
hatred and death forever through love (cf Rev 5:13). Love is the only force
capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful
the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilisations.
This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. They are true friends of God who channel
and reflect this very first love. Try to know them better, entrust yourselves to their
intercession, and strive to live as they did. I shall just mention Mother Teresa.
In order to respond instantly to the cry of Jesus, “I thirst”, a cry that had touched
her deeply, she began to take in the people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta
in India. From that time onward, the only desire of her life was to quench the thirst
of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognising his
disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor.
Blessed Teresa put the teachings of the Lord into practice: “Just as you did it
to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt
25:40). The message of this humble witness of divine love has spread around the whole
world.
The secret of love
Each one of us, my dear friends, has
been given the possibility of reaching this same level of love, but only by having
recourse to the indispensable support of divine Grace. Only the Lord’s help will allow
us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken.
It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable. Contact
with the Lord in prayer grounds us in humility and reminds us that we are “unworthy
servants” (cf Lk 17:10). Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love.
When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained
time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand
the length, breadth, height and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge (cf
Eph 3:17-18). By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters
of the Church community, we feel compelled, like Our Lady with Elizabeth, to render
“in haste” the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters.
Towards
the encounter in Sydney
On this subject, the recommendation of the apostle
John is illuminating: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but
in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth” (1 Jn
3: 18-19). Dear young people, it is in this spirit that I invite you to experience
the next World Youth Day together with your bishops in your respective dioceses. This
will be an important stage on the way to the meeting in Sydney where the theme will
be: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will
be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). May Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the
Church, help you to let that cry ring out everywhere, the cry that has changed the
world: “God is love!” I am together with you all in prayer and extend to you my heartfelt
blessing.