“Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

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:

 29^th World Youth Day, 2014: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3).

 30^th World Youth Day, 2015: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mt 5:8).

 31^st 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.”