A Summary of the 29th World Youth Day
This year and next, World Youth
Day will be celebrated on a local level and in 2016 it will be an international
gathering with the Pope in Krakow, Poland. The Pope told young people that in
April, 2014, he will canonise Blessed John Paul II, who began the international
celebrations and will be “the great patron of the World Youth Days”.
Our Holy Father has chosen the
Beatitudes from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew as the themes for
the World Youth Day celebrations for the next three years (2014-2016).
The themes are:
29th
World Youth Day, 2014: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3).
30th
World Youth Day, 2015: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
(Mt 5:8).
31st
World Youth Day, 2016: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
(Mt 5:7).
Pope Francis challenges
young people to “Have
the courage to swim against the tide, have the courage to be truly happy!” In his message for this year’s 29th World Youth Day, he calls on us to
focus on the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.”
The “poor in spirit,” whom
Jesus described as “blessed” are the same people the world considers to be “losers”,
“To be blessed means to be happy,” said the Pope who challenges young people to take seriously their
approach to life and to decide which path is right for them and leads to true
joy and which is the true
path to happiness offered by Jesus..
The Pope
observes that the “Beatitudes of Jesus are new and revolutionary.” “They
present a model of happiness contrary to what is usually communicated by the
media and by the prevailing wisdom. If you are really open to the deepest
aspirations of your hearts, you will realise that you possess an unquenchable
thirst for happiness. That thirst can only be satisfied by union with God.” The
Holy Father urges young people to work toward that goal. “Say No to an
ephemeral, superficial and throwaway culture,” he tells them.
The Pope added, “Young people
who choose Christ are strong: They are fed by his word and they do not need to
‘stuff themselves’ with money, possessions and fleeting pleasure. He said, in
the Bible being poor is not just about having few material possessions. “It
suggests lowliness, a sense of one’s limitations and existential poverty. The ‘anawim’ (God’s poor) trust in the Lord,
and they know they can count on him.”
The Pope said his namesake, St
Francis of Assisi, “understood perfectly the secret of the beatitude” and
demonstrated that by living “in imitation of Christ in his poverty and in love
for the poor.”
To be poor in
spirit, Pope Francis offers young people three pieces of advice in his message:
·
First of all, try to be free with regard to
material things.
·
Second, if we are to live by poverty in
spirit, all of us need to experience a conversion in the way we see the poor
which means meeting them, listening to them, caring for them and offering for
them both material and spiritual assistance.
·
Third, the poor are not just people to whom we can give something. They have
much to offer us and to teach us particularly “people’s value is not measured
by their possessions or how much money they have in the bank.”
Looking to Mary, particularly
in the Magnificat, the Pope tells young people, “The joy of the Gospel arises
from a heart which, in its poverty, rejoices and marvels at the works of God.”
