Around the "Holy Year Cross," World Youth Days were born and developed as meaningful "moments of rest" along your journey as young Christians; a constant, pressing invitation to build life on the rock that is Christ.  How can we fail to bless the Lord for the countless fruits born in the hearts of individuals and in the whole Church thanks to the World Youth Days, which in this last part of the century have marked the journey of young believers towards the new millennium? 

After spanning the continents, that Cross now returns to Rome bringing with it the prayers and commitment of millions of young people who have recognized it as a simple and sacred sign of God's love for humanity.  Because Rome, as you know, will host World Youth Day of the Year 2000, in the heart of the Great Jubilee.

Dear young people, I invite you therefore to undertake with joy the pilgrimage to Rome for this important ecclesial appointment, which will rightly be the "Youth Jubilee."  Prepare to enter the Holy Door, knowing that to pass through it is to strengthen faith in Him in order to live the new life which He has given to us. (cfr Incarnations Mysterium 8).

On the eve of the new millennium, I make again to you my pressing appeal to open wide the doors to Christ who "to those who received him, gave power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12).  To receive Jesus Christ means to accept from the Father the command to live, loving Him and our brothers and sisters, showing solidarity to everyone, without distinction; it means believing in the history of humanity even though it is marked by evil and suffering, the final word belongs to life and to love, because God came to dwell among us, so we may dwell in Him. 

By His incarnation Christ, became poor to enrich us with His poverty, and He gave us redemption, which is the fruit above all of the blood He shed on the Cross (cfr Catechism of the Catholic Church 517).  On Calvary, "ours were the sufferings he bore…he was pierced through for our faults" (Is 53:4-5).  The supreme sacrifice of His life, freely given for our salvation, is the proof of God's infinite love for us.  Saint John the Apostle writes: "God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).  He sent Him to share in every way, except sin, our human condition; He "gave" Him totally to men, despite their obstinate and homicidal rejection (cfr Mt 21:33-39), to obtain, through His death, their reconciliation.  "The God of creation is revealed as the God of redemption, as the God who is 'faithful to himself' to his love for man and the world which he revealed on the day of creation…how precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he gained so great a Redeemer" (Redemptor hominis 9:10).

Jesus went towards His death.  He did not draw back from any of the consequences of His being "with us," Emmanuel.  He took our place, ransoming us on the Cross from evil and sin (cfr Evangelium vitae 50).  Just as the Roman Centurion, seeing the manner in which Jesus died, understood that He was the Son of God (cfr Mark 15:39) so we too, seeing and contemplating the Crucified Lord, understand who God really is, as her reveals in Jesus the depth of His love for mankind (cfr Redemptor hominis 9).  "Passion" means a passionate love, unconditioned self-giving: Christ's passion is the summit of an entire life "given" to His brothers and sisters to reveal the heart of the Father.  The Cross, which seems to rise up from the earth, in actual fact reached down from heaven, enfolding the universe in a divine embrace.  The Cross reveals itself to be "the center, meaning and goal of all history and of every human life" (Evangelium vitae 50).

"One man has died for us all" (2 Cor 5:14): Christ "gave himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2).  Behind the death of Jesus there is a plan of love, which the faith of the Church calls the "mystery of the redemption": the whole humanity is redeemed, that is, set free from the slavery of sin and led into the kingdom of God.  Christ is Lord of heaven and earth.  Whoever listens to His word and believes in the Father, who sent Him, has eternal life (Jn 5:25).  He is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29, 36), the high priest who, having suffered like us, is able to share our infirmity (Heb 4:14) and "made perfect" through the painful experience of the Cross, becomes "for all who obey him, the source of eternal salvation" (Heb 5:9).

Contemplate and reflect!  God created us to share in His very own life; He calls us to be His children, living members of the mystical Body of Christ, luminous temple of the Spirit of Love.  He calls us to be His; He wants us all to be saints.  Dear young people, may it be your holy ambition to be holy, as He is holy.

You will ask me: but is it possible today to be saints?  If we had to rely only on human strength, the undertaking would be truly impossible.  You are well aware, in fact, of your successes and your failures; you are aware of the heavy burdens weighing on man, the many dangers which threaten him and the consequences caused by his sins.  At times we may be gripped by discouragement and even come to think that it is impossible to change anything either in the world or in ourselves.

Although the journey is difficult, we can do everything in the One who is our Redeemer.  Turn then to no one, except Jesus.  Do not look elsewhere for that which only He can give you, because "of all the names in the world given to men this is the only one by which we can be saved" (Acts 4:12).  With Christ, saintliness – the divine plan for every baptized person – becomes possible.  Rely on Him believe in the invincible power of the Gospel and place faith as the foundation of your hope.  Jesus walks with you, He renews your heart and strengthens you with the vigor of His Spirit.

Young people of every continent, do not be afraid to be the saints of the new millennium!  Be contemplative, love prayer, be coherent with your faith and generous in the service of your brothers and sisters, be active members of the Church and builders of peace.  To succeed in this demanding project of life, continue to listen to His Word, draw strength from the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Penance.  The Lord wants you the be intrepid apostles of His Gospel and builders of a new humanity.  In fact, how could you say you believe in God made man without taking a firm position against all that destroys the human person and family?  If you believe that Christ has revealed the Father's love for every person, you cannot fail to strive to contribute to the building of a new world, founded on the power of love and forgiveness, on the struggle against injustice and all physical, moral and spiritual distress, on the orientation of politics, economy, culture and technology to the service of man and his integral development.

The mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that of the Redemption He worked for all men constitute the central message of our faith.  The Church proclaims this down through the centuries, walking "amidst the misunderstandings and persecutions of the world and the consolations of God" (St. Augustine De Civ. Dei 18, 51, 2; PL 41, 614) and she entrusts it to her children as a precious treasure to be safeguarded and shared. 

You, too, dear young people, are the receivers and the trustees of this heritage: "This is our faith.  This is the faith of the Church.  As we are proud to profess it, in Jesus Christ Our Lord" (Roman Pontifical, Rite of Confirmation).  We will proclaim it together on the occasion of the next World Youth Day, in which I hope very many of you will take part.  Rome is a "city-shrine" where the memory of the Apostles Peter and Paul and other martyrs remind pilgrims of the vocation of every baptized person.  Before the world in August next year, we will repeat the profession of faith made by Saint Peter the Apostle; "Lord to who shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68) because "you are the Christ the Son of the Living God" (Mt 16:16).

Also to you boys and girls who will be adults in the next century, is entrusted the "Book of Life," which on Christmas Eve this year, the Pope, the first to cross the threshold of the Holy Door, will show to the Church and to the world as the wellspring of life and hope for the third millennium (Incarnations Mysterium 8).

May it become your most precious treasure: in the careful study and generous acceptance of the Word of the Lord, you will find nourishment and strength for your daily life, you will find motivation for tireless commitment to the building of a "civilization of love."

The Incarnation of the Word and Redemption of mankind are closely linked with the Annunciation when God revealed to Mary His plan and found in her, a young person like yourselves, a heart totally open to the action of His love.  For centuries Christian devotion has recalled everyday, with the recitation of the Angeles Domini, God's entrance into the history of man.  May this prayer become your daily meditated prayer.

Mary is the dawn which precedes the rising of the Sun of justice, Christ our Redeemer.  With her "yes" at the Annunciation, as she opened herself completely to the Father's plan, she welcomed and made possible the incarnation of the Son.  The first disciple, with her discreet presence she accompanied Jesus all the way to Calvary and sustained the hope of the Apostles as they waited for the Resurrection and the Pentecost.  In the life of the Church she continues to be mystically the one who precedes the Lord's coming.  To Mary, who fulfills without interruption her ministry as Mother of the Church and of each Christian, I entrust with confidence the preparation of the 15^th World Youth Day.  May Most Holy Mary teach you, dear young people, how to discern the will of the heavenly Father in your life.  May she obtain for you the strength and the wisdom to speak to God and to speak about God.  Through her example may she encourage you to be in the new millennium announcers of hope, love, and peace.

Looking forward to meeting many of you in Rome next year, "I command you to God, and to the word of his grace that has power to build you up and to give you your inheritance among all the sanctified" (Acts 20:32), while, gladly and with great affection, I bless all of you, with your families and your loved ones.

Johannes Paulus PP II

Cardinal James Francis Stafford,
President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity
Welcomes Young People
to
World Youth Day 2000

St. Peter's Square, Tuesday, 15 August 2000

My dear young brothers and sisters in Christ, you are pilgrims to Rome.  In ancient times, the baptized passing over the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul were called "Romei."  Welcome, young Romei of the third millennium! 

In Rome, you will encounter young pilgrims from all parts of the world.  Some may become your life-long friends.  You will also see things of great beauty.  I pray that you will find both experiences of faith.  May I suggest two further considerations?

1.  You will pass over the threshold of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Patriarchal Basilica.  This is a unique opportunity to rediscover your Christian identity.  Use it.

Your identity is unfolded in the Sacraments of Initiation.  Jesus said, "I am the door.  If any one enters by me, he will be saved."  By the new birth through Baptism, you have been saved and become a new creation.  Three times you were washed or plunged in the sacred water, signifying Christ's burial for three days.  By this action, you died and you were born.  For you the saving water was at once a grave and a womb of a mother.  Baptismal water marked your first conversion.  Your second conversion is in the tears of repentance in the Sacrament of Penance.

The inscription on the Holy Door confirms the Baptismal significance for those passing over its threshold:

"Here may the abundant waters of divine grace flow; Here may they cleanse the souls of all who enter – Here may the water refresh them with cherished peace, [and] here may they provide them with Christian virtue."

The last phrase perhaps contains a reference to your Confirmation.  You have been anointed in Confirmation with the muron, the perfumed Chrism.  You thereby achieved perfection in the gift of the Spirit with his seven virtues: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and holy fear.  You have become the fragrance of Christ.

Baptism and Confirmation placed you on the threshold of the greatest pass-over of all, the Holy Eucharist.  You are carried to the thrice-holy God in, through, and with Christ, your Paschal sacrifice.  Having entered the House of Peter, you are invited to taste the sweetness of the Lord in the spiritual manna.  For Jesus has become you heavenly bread in the wilderness.

You may do this in four steps: read this passage, meditate upon it again and again, pray about it, and contemplate its mystery in silence.  For the Father's eternal Love has been made visible to the whole world in Jesus.  In all that Jesus said and did the Father expressed Himself.  Moreover, in Jesus another dimension of the Triune God is seen.  We discover that the Spirit of the Father dwelt within the inmost being of the Son.  It was always in the Holy Spirit that Jesus in Sovereign freedom took up the mission of the "One who sent him."

Christians take their stand in history.  The leitmotif of history is guilt.  But Christ's grace is greater than guilt, misery, and death.  There is no greater task than this: to encounter everything and everyone with love.  Self-emptying and forgiving love is the water-mark of the Incarnate Word in whose name you were baptized.  That is the freedom with which Christ has set you free.  Christians alone know true freedom.  Pilgrims pray to grow in this freedom

Grace, joy, and peace in Christ!

The Holy Father's Address at the Welcoming Ceremony
of
World Youth Day 2000

St. Peter's Square, Tuesday, 15 August 2000

First Part

Dear young people of the Fifteenth World Youth Day, dear brother priests, men and women religious, and teachers who are here with you, welcome to Rome!  I thank Cardinal James Francis Stafford for his warm words of presentation.  With him I greet Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and the other Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops present.  I also thank the two young people who so well expressed the feelings of all of you, gathered here from so many parts of the world.

After stopping at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome, to greet the young people of Rome and Italy, I welcome all of you with joy.  The Roman and Italian young people join me in offering you a most fraternal and heartfelt welcome.

Your faces bring to mind, and in a way make present here, all the young people that it has been my privilege to meet on my apostolic journeys throughout the world in these years at the end of the millennium.  To each of you I say, "Peace be with you!"

Peace be with you, young people who have come from Africa!

Peace be with you, young people who have come from the Americas!

Peace be with you, young people who have come from Asia!

Peace be with you, young people who have come from Europe!

Peace be with you, young people who have come from Oceania!

With special affection I greet the group of young people from countries where hatred, violence and war bring suffering to the life of entire populations.  Thanks to the solidarity shown by all the youth here present, they have been able to come here this evening.  To them I say, in your name as well, that in our gathering we are close to them as brothers and sisters; with all of you, I ask for them and for their people a time of peace in justice and freedom.

I mention too the young people of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities who are here this evening with some of their Pastors: may the World Youth Day be another occasion for us to know each other and to implore together from the Spirit of the Lord the gift of the perfect Unity of all Christians!

Dear friends from the five Continents, I am happy to inaugurate with you this evening the Jubilee of Young People!  Pilgrims in the footsteps of the Apostles, imitate their faith!

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Second Part

1.  Dear friends who have traveled so many miles in so many ways to come to Rome, to the Tombs of the Apostles, let me begin by putting to you a question: what have you come here to find?  You have come here to celebrate your Jubilee: The Jubilee of the Young Church.  Yours is not just any journey: if you have set out on pilgrimage it is not just for the sake of recreation or an interest in culture.  Well the, let me ask again: what have you come in search of?  Or rather, who have you come here to find?

There can be only one answer to that: you have come in search of Jesus Christ!  But Jesus Christ has first gone in search of you.  To celebrate the Jubilee can have no other meaning than that of celebrating and meeting Jesus Christ, the Word who took flesh and came to dwell among us.

The Prologue of Saint John's Gospel, which has just now been proclaimed, are in a sense Jesus' "visiting card."  These words invite us to fix our eyes on the mystery that He is.  These words hold a special message for you, dear young people: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God" (Jn 1:1-2).

Indicating to us the Word who is one in being with the Father, the eternal Word generated as God from God and light from light, the Evangelist takes us to the heart of the divine life, but also to the wellspring of the world.  This Word in fact is the beginning of all creation: "all things were made through him and without him was not made anything that was made" (Jn1:3).  The whole created world in depth, allowing ourselves to marvel at the wisdom and beauty which God has poured out upon it, we can see in it a reflection of the Word, which biblical revelation unveils for us fully in the face of Jesus of Nazareth.  In a sense, creation is the first "revelation" of Him.

2.  The Prologue continues with these words: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not accept it "(Jn 1:4-5).  For the Evangelist, the light is life, and death, the enemy of life, is darkness. Through the Word, all life appeared on earth, and in the Word this life has its perfect fulfillment.

Identifying light and life, John is thinking of the life that is not just the biological life of the body, but the life which comes from sharing in the very life of Christ.  The Evangelist says: "The true light that enlightens every many was coming into the world" (Jn 1:9).  This enlightenment was given to humanity on the night of Bethlehem, when the eternal Word of the Father took a body from the Virgin Mary, became man and was born into the world.  From that time onwards, every person who by faith shared in the mystery of that even experiences some measure of the enlightenment.

Christ Himself, announcing that He was the light of the world, said one day, "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light" (Jn 12:36).  This is a summons which the followers of Christ pass on to one another from generation to generation, trying to answer it in everyday life.  Referring to this summons, Saint Paul writes: "Walk always as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true (Eph 5:8-9).

3.  The heart of John's Prologue is the proclamation that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us" (Jn 1:14).  A little before this, the Evangelist had declared: "He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.  But to all who received him, he gave power to become children of God" (Jn 1:10-12).  Dear friends, are you among those who have accepted Christ?  Your presence here is already an answer to that question.  You have come to Rome, in this Jubilee of the two thousandth anniversary of Christ's birth, in order to open your hearts to the power of life which is in Him.  You have come here to rediscover the truth about creation and to recover a sense of wonder at the beauty and the richness of the created world.  You have come to renew within yourselves the awareness of the dignity of man, created in the image and likeness of God.

"We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14).  A contemporary philosopher has emphasized the significance of death in human life, to the point of describing man as "a being made for death."  The Gospel, on the contrary, makes it clear that an is a being made for life.  Every person is called by God to share in the divine life.  Man is a being called to glory.

These days, which you will spend together in Rome at the World Youth Day, should help each of you to see more clearly the glory which belongs to the son of God and to which we have been called in Him by the Father.  For this to happen, your faith in Christ must grow and be strengthened.

4.  I wish to bear witness to this faith here before all of you, young friends, at the tomb of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord wished me to succeed as Bishop of Rome.  Beginning with myself, today I wish to tell you that I believe firmly in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Yes, I believe, and I make my own the words of the Apostle Paul: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

I remember how, as a child, in my own family, I learned to pray and trust in God.  I remember the life in the path in the parish that I attended in Wadowice, as well as the parish of Saint Stanislaus Kostka, in Debniki in Krakow, where I received my basic formation in Christian living.  I cannot forget the experience of war and the years of work in a factory.  My priestly vocation came to its full maturity during the Second World Way, during the occupation of Poland.  The tragedy of the War gave a particular coloring to the gradual maturing of my vocation in life.  IN these circumstances, I perceived a light shining ever more brightly within me: the Lord wanted me to be a priest!  I remember with feeling that moment in my life when, on the morning of 1 November 1946, I was ordained a priest.

My Credo continues in my present service to the Church.  On 16 October 1978, after my election to the See of Peter, when I was asked, "Do you accept?" I answered. "With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and trusting in the Mother of Christ and of the Church, no matter what the difficulties, I accept" (Redemptor Hominis, 2).  From that time on, I have tried to carry out my mission, drawing light and strength every day from the faith that binds me to Christ.

But in my faith, like that of Peter an like the faith of each one of you, is not just my doing, my attachment to the truth of Christ and the Church.  It is essentially and primarily the work of the Holy Spirit, a gift of His grace.  The Lord gives His Spirit to me as He gives him to you, to help us say, "I believe!" and then to use us to bear witness to Him in every corner of the world.

5.  Dear friends, why do I want to offer you this personal testimony at the beginning of your Jubilee?  I do so in order to make it clear that a journey of faith is part of everything that happens in our lives.  God is at work in the concrete and personal situations of each one of us: through them, sometimes in truly mysterious ways, the Word "made flesh," who came to live among us, makes us present to us.

Dear young people, do not let the time that the Lord gives you to go by as though everything happened by chance.  Saint John told us that everything has been made in Christ.  Therefore, believe unshakably in Him.  He directs the history of individuals as well as the history of humanity.  Certainly Christ respects our freedom, but in all the joyful or bitter circumstances of life, He never stops asking us to believe in Him, in His word, in the reality of the Church, in eternal life!

Don't ever think that you are unknown to Him, as if you were just another number in an anonymous crowd.  Each one of you is precious to Christ, He knows you personally, He loves you tenderly, even when you are not aware of it.

6.  Dear friends, who face the third millennium with all the ardor of your youth, give your full attention to the opportunity offered to you by World Youth Day in this Church of Rome, which today more that ever is your Church.  Let yourselves be molded by the Holy Spirit.  Spend time in prayer, letting the Spirit speak to your hearts.  To pray means to give some of your time to Christ, to entrust yourselves to Him, to listen in silence to His word, to make it echo in your hearts.

Treat these days as though they were a great week of spiritual exercises: look for times of silence, prayer and recollection.  Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your minds, ask him for the gift of a living faith which will forever give meaning to your lives, joining them to Christ, the Word made flesh.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit, Mary Salus Populi Romani and Mother of all peoples, and the Saints Peter and Paul, and all the other Saints and Martyrs of this Church and of all the Churches to which you belong, sustain you in your journey.

Address of the Holy Father John Paul II
Vigil of Prayer 

Tor Vergata, Saturday. 19 August 2000

1.  "But who do you say that I am?"  (Mt 16:15)

Dear young people, it is with great joy that I meet you again at this Prayer Vigil, during which we wish to listen together to Christ whom we feel present among us.  It is He who is speaking to us.

"Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asks his disciples this question near Caesarea Philippi.  Simon Peter answers: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).  The Master then turns to him with the surprising words: "Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah!  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17).

What is the meaning of this dialogue?  Why does Jesus want to know what people think about him?  Why does he want to know what his disciples think about him?

Jesus wants his disciples to become aware of what is hidden in their own minds and hearts and to give voice to their conviction.  At the same time, however, he knows that the judgment they will express will not be theirs alone, because it will reveal what God has poured into their hearts by the grace of faith.

This event which took place near Caesarea Philippi leads us, in a sense, into the "school of faith."  There the mystery of the origin and development of our faith is disclosed.  First there is the grace of revelation: an intimate, ineffable self-giving of God to man.  There then follows the call to respond.  Finally, there comes the human response, a response which from that point on must give meaning and shape to one's entire life.

This is what faith is all about!  It is the response of the rational and free human person to the word of the living God.  The questions that Jesus asks, the answers given by the Apostles, and finally, by Simon Peter, are a kind of examination on the maturity of the faith of those who are closest to Christ.

2.  The conversation near Caesarea Philippi took place during the time leading up to the Passover, that is before Christ's passion and resurrection.  We should also recall another event, when the Risen Christ checked the maturity of faith of his Apostles.  This is the meeting with the Apostle Thomas.  He was the only one not there when, after the resurrection, Christ came for the first time to the Upper Room.  When the other disciples told him that they had seen the Lord, he would not believe it.  He said, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20:25).  Jesus came through the close door, and greeted the Apostles with the words, "Peace be with you" (Jn 20:26), and immediately he turned to Thomas: "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing" (Jn 20:27).  Thomas then answered, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20:28).

The Upper Room in Jerusalem too was a kind of "school of faith" for the Apostles.  However, in a sense, what happened to Thomas goes beyond what occurred near Caesarea Philippi.  In the Upper Room, we see a more radical dialect of faith and unbelief, and, at the same time, an even deeper confession of the truth about Christ.  It was certainly not easy to believe that the One who had been placed in the tomb three days earlier was alive again.

The divine Master had often announced that he would rise from the dead, and in many ways he had shown that he was the Lord of life.  Yet the experience of his death was so overwhelming that people needed to meet him directly in order to believe in his resurrection:  the Apostles in the Upper Room, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the holy women beside the tomb…Thomas, too, needed it.  But when his unbelief was directly confronted by the presence of Christ, the doubting Apostle spoke the words which express the deepest care of faith: If this is the case, if you are truly living despite having been killed, this means that you are "my Lord and my God."

In what happened to Thomas, the "school of faith" is enriched with a new element.  Divine revelation, Jesus' question and man's response and the disciples personal encounter with the living Christ, with the Risen One.  This encounter is the beginning of a new relationship between each one of us and Christ, a relationship in which each of us comes to the vital realization that Christ is Lord and God; not only the Lord and God of the world and of humanity, but the Lord and God of my own individual human life.  One day Saint Paul would write: "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach.  Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:8-9).

3.  The readings of today's Liturgy describe the elements of the "school of faith" from which the Apostles emerged as people fully aware of the truth which God had revealed in Jesus Christ, the truth which would shape their personal lives and the life of the Church throughout history.  This gathering in Rome, dear young people, is also a kind of "school of faith" for you, the disciples of today; it is the "school of faith" for all who proclaim Christ at the beginning of the Third Millennium. 

You can all sense in yourselves the process of questions and answers that we have just been talking about.  You can all measure the difficulties you have in believing, and even feel the temptation not to believe.  But at the same time, you can also experience a slowly maturing sense and conviction of your commitment in faith.  In fact, there is always a meeting between God and the human person in this wonderful school of the human spirit, the school of faith.  The Risen Christ always enters the Upper Room of your life and allows each of us to experience his presence and to declare :You, O Christ, you are "my Lord and My God."

Christ said to Thomas: "Because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (Jn 20:29).  There is something of the Apostle Thomas in every human being.  Each one is tempted by unbelief and each one asks the basic questions:  Is it true that God exists?  Is it true that he created the world?  Is it true that the Son of God became man, died and rose from the dead?  The answer comes as the person experiences God's presence.  We have to open our eyes and our heart to the light of the Holy Spirit.  Then the open wounds of the Risen Christ will speak to each of us: "Because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

4.  Dear friends, to believe in Jesus today, to follow Jesus as Peter, Thomas and the first Apostles and witnesses did, demands of us, just as it did in the past, that we take a stand for him, almost to the point at times of a new martyrdom: the martyrdom of those who, today as yesterday, are called to go against the tide in order to follow the divine Master, to follow "the Lamb of God wherever he goes" (Rev 14:4).  It is not by chance, dear young people, that I wanted the witnesses to the faith in the twentieth century to be remembered at the Coliseum during this Holy Year.

Perhaps you will not have to shed your blood, but you will certainly be asked to be faithful to Christ!  A faithfulness to be lived in the circumstances of everyday life:  I am thinking of how difficult it is in today's world for engaged couples to be faithful to purity before marriage.  I think of how the mutual fidelity of young married couples is put to the test.  I think of friendships and how easily the temptation of disloyalty creeps in.

I think also of how those who have chosen the path of special consecration have to struggle to persevere in their dedication to God and to their brothers and sisters.  I think of those who want to live a life of solidarity and love in a worlds where the only things that seem to matter are the logic and profit of one's personal or group interest. 

I think too of those who work for peace and who see new outbreaks of war erupt and grow worse in different parts of the world; I think of those who work for human freedom and see people still slaves of themselves and of one another.  I think of those who work to ensure love and respect for human life and who see life so often attacked and respect due to life to often flouted.

5.  Dear young people, in such a world, is it hard to believe?  Is it hard to believe in the Third Millennium?  Yes!  It is hard.  There is not need to hide it.  It is hard, but with the help of grace it can be done, as Jesus explained to Peter: "Neither flesh nor blood has reveled this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17).

This evening I will give you the Gospel.  It is the Pope's gift to you at this unforgettable vigil.  The word which it contains is the word of Jesus.  If you listen to it in silence, in prayer, seeking help in understanding what it means for your life from the wise counsel of your priests and teachers, then you will meet Christ and you will follow him, spending your lives day by day for him!

It is  Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.  It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

Dear young people, in these noble undertakings, you are not alone.  With you there are your families, there are your communities, there are your priests and teachers, there are so many of you who in the depths of your hearts never weary of loving Christ and believing in him.  In the struggle against sin, you are not alone: so many like you are struggling and through the Lord's grace are winning!

6.  Dear friends, at the dawn of the Third Millennium, I see in you the "morning watchmen" (Is 21:11-12).  In the course of the century now past young people like you were summoned to huge gatherings to learn the ways of hatred: they were sent to fight against one another.  The various godless messianic systems which tried to take the place of Christian hope have shown themselves to be truly horrendous.  Today you have come together to declare that in the new century you will not let yourselves be made into tools of violence and destruction; you will defend peace, paying the price in your person if need be.  You will not resign yourselves to a world where other human beings die of hunger, remain illiterate, and have no work.  You will defend life at every moment of its development; you will strive with all your strength to make this earth ever more livable for all people.

Dear young people of the century now beginning, in saying "yes" to Christ, you say "yes" to all your noblest ideals.  I pray that he will reign in your hearts and in all of humanity in the new century and the new millennium.  Have no fear of entrusting yourselves to him!  He will guide you, he will grant you the strength to follow him every day and in every situation.

May Mary most holy, the Virgin who said "yes" to God throughout her whole life, may Saints Peter and Paul and all the Saints who have lighted the Church's journey down the ages, keep you always faithful to this holy resolve!

To each and every one of you I offer my blessing with affection.

Closing of World Youth Day 2000
Homily of the Holy Father John Paul II

Tor Vergata, Sunday, 20 August 2000

1.  "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68)

Dear young people of the Fifteenth World Youth Day!  These words of Peter, in his conversation with Christ at the end of the discourse on the "bread of life," affect us personally.  In these days we have meditated on John's statement: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).  The evangelist has brought us back to the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Son given to us through Mary "when the fullness of time had come" (Gal 4:4).

In His name I greet you all once more with great affection.  I greet Cardinal Camillo Ruini, my Vicar for the Diocese of Rome and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, and I thank him for his words at the beginning of this Mass.  I also greet Cardinal James Stafford, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and the many Cardinals, Bishops and Priests gathered here.  With gratitude I extend respectful greetings to the President of Italy and the head of the Italian Government, as well as all the civil and religious authorities who honor us with their presence.

2.  We have reached the high point of World Youth Day.  Yesterday evening, dear young people, we confirmed our faith in Jesus Christ, Son of God, whom the Father sent, as the First Reading reminded us today, "to bring good tidings to the poor,…to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…to comfort all who mourn" (IS 61:1-3).

In today's Eucharistic celebration, Jesus helps us to come to know a particular aspect of His mystery.  In the Gospel, we listened to a part of His discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves.  In it He reveals himself as the true bread of life, the bread which has come down from heaven to give life to the world (cf. Jn 6:51).  These are words that those who hear Him do not understand.  Their outlook is too material for them to grasp what Christ really means.  They are thinking in terms of flesh, which "is of no avail" (Jn 6:63).  Jesus' words, instead, have to do with the unlimited horizons of the spirit: "The words that I have spoken to you," He insists, "are spirit and life" (ibid.).

But His hearers are hesitant: "This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?" (Jn 6:60).  They consider themselves to be persons of common sense, with their feet on the ground.  For this reason they shake their heads and go away muttering, one after another.  The initial crowd grows smaller.  At the end, only the tiny group of His most faithful disciples remains.  But with regard to the "bread of life," Jesus is not prepared to back down.  Rather, He is ready to lose even those closest to Him: "Will you also go away?" (Jn 6:67).

3.  "Will you also?"  Christ's question cuts across the centuries and comes down to us; it challenges us personally and calls for a decision.  What is our answer?  Dear young people, if we are here today, it is because we identify with the Apostle Peter's reply, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have to words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).

Around you, you hear all kinds of words.  But only Christ speaks words that stand the test of time and remain for all eternity.  The time of life that you are living calls for decisive choices on your part: decisions about the direction of your studies, about work, about your role in society and in the Church.  It is important to realize that among the many questions surfacing in your minds, the decisive ones are not about "what."  The basic question is "who:" "who" am I to go to, "who" am I to follow, "to whom" should I entrust my life?

You are thinking about love and the choices it entails, and I imagine that you agree: what is really important in life is the choice of the person who will share it with you.   But be careful!  Every human person has inevitable limits: even in the most successful of marriages there is always a certain amount of disappointment.  So then, dear friends, does not this confirm what we heard the Apostle Peter say?  Every human being finds himself sooner or later saying what he said: "To whom shall se go? You have the words of eternal life."  Only Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Mary, the eternal Word of the Father born two thousand years ago at Bethlehem in Judaea, is capable of satisfying the deepest aspirations of the human heart.

In Peter's question, "To whom shall we go?" the answer regarding the path to follow is already given.  It is that path that leads to Christ.  And it is possible to meet the divine Master personally; He is in fact truly present on the altar in the reality of His Body and Blood.  In the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we can enter into contact with the person Jesus in a way that is mysterious but real, drinking at the inexhaustible fountain that is His life as the Risen Lord.

4.  The Eucharist is the sacrament of the presence of Christ, who gives Himself to us because He loves us.  He loves each one of us in a unique and personal way in our practical daily lives: in our families, among our friends, at study and work, in rest and relaxation.  He loves us when He fills our days with freshness, and also when, in times of suffering, He allows trials to weigh upon us: even in the most severe trials, He lets us hear His voice.

Yes, dear friends, Christ loves us and He loves us forever!  He loves us even when we disappoint Him, when we fail to meet His expectations for us.  He never fails to embrace us in His mercy.  How can we not be grateful to this God who has redeemed us, going so far as to accept the foolishness of the Cross?  To God who has come to be at our side and has stay with us to the end?

5.  To celebrate the Eucharist, "to eat his flesh and drink his blood," means to accept the wisdom of the Cross and the path of service.  It means that we signal our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others, as Christ has done.

Our society desperately needs this sign, and young people need it even more so, tempted as they often are by the illusion of an easy and comfortable life, by drugs and pleasure-seeking, only to find themselves in a spiral of despair, meaninglessness and violence.  It is urgent to change direction and to turn to Christ.  This is the way of justice, solidarity and commitment to building a society and a future worthy of the human person.

This is our Eucharist, this is the answer that Christ wants from us, from you young people at the closing of your Jubilee.  Jesus is not lover of half measures, and He does not hesitate to pursue us with the question: "Will you also go away?"  I the presence of Christ, the Bread of Life, we too want to say today with Peter: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).

6.  Dear friends, when you go back home, set the Eucharist at the center of your personal life and community life: love the Eucharist, adore the Eucharist, and celebrate it, especially on Sundays, the Lord's Day.  Life the Eucharist by testifying to God's love for every person.

I entrust to you, dear friends, this greatest of God's gifts to us who are pilgrims on the path of time, but who bear in our hearts a thirst for eternity.  May every community always have a priest to celebrate the Eucharist!  I ask the Lord therefore to raise up from among you many holy vocations to the priesthood.  Today, as always, the Church needs those who celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice with a pure heart.  The world must not be deprived of the gentle and liberating presence of Christ living in the Eucharist!

You yourselves must be fervent witnesses to Christ's presence on the altar.  Let the Eucharist mold your life and the life of the families you will form.  Let it guide all life's choices.  May the Eucharist, the true and living presence of the love of the Trinity, inspire in you ideals of solidarity, and may it lead you to live in communion with your brothers and sisters in every part of the world.

In a special way, may sharing in the Eucharist lead to a new flourishing of vocations to the religious life.  In this way the Church will have fresh and generous energies for the great task of the new evangelization.  If any of you, dear young men and women, hear the Lord's inner call to give yourselves completely to Him in order to love Him "with and undivided heart" (cfr 1 Cor 7:34), do not be held back by doubts or fears.  Say "yes" with courage and without reserve, trusting Him who is faithful to His promises.  Did He not assure those who had left everything for His sake that they would have a hundredfold in this life and eternal life hereafter? (cfr Mk 10:29-30).

7.  At the end of this World Youth Day, as I look at you now, at your young faces, at your genuine enthusiasm, from the depths of my heart I want to give thanks to God for the gift of youth, which continues to be present in the Church and in the world because of you.

Thank God for World Youth Days!  Thanks be to God for all the young people who have been involved in them in the past sixteen years!  Many of them now are adults who continue to live their faith in their homes and work-places.  I am sure, dear friends, that you too will be good as those who have preceded you.  You will carry the proclamation of Christ into the new millennium.  When you return home, do not grow lax.  Reinforce and deepen your bond with the Christian communities to which you belong.  From Rome, from the City of Peter and Paul, the Pope follows you with affections and, paraphrasing Saint Catherine of Siena's words, reminds you: "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!" (cfr Letter 368).

Pope John Paul II

Tor Vergata, Sunday, August 20 2000

 

 

At the conclusion of this Eucharistic celebration our thoughts turn to the "Woman" about whom Saint Paul spoke in the second reading of today's Mass (Gal 4:4): the Blessed Virgin Mary, on whose feast of the Assumption we began this Fifteenth World Youth Day.  With her loving and motherly presence, Mary has guided these days in Rome, days of an intense experience of faith.  We wish to express all our gratitude to her for her "yes" which marked the beginning of the "adventure" of our Redemption.

As I ask the Blessed Virgin to watch over all the youth of the world, boys and girls alike, I express heartfelt thanks to you who have taken part in this Fifteenth World Youth Day.

I greet and thank first of all those who organized this event: the Pontifical Council for the Laity, guided by Cardinal James Francis Stafford; the Vicariate of Rome and the Italian Episcopal Conference, led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini; the President and members of the Italian Committee for the Fifteenth World Youth Day, as well as the parish communities of Rome and neighboring Dioceses, their associations, movements and groups, which for nearly three years have prayed and worked with enthusiasm to prepare for this event.  I ask all of you to see to it that the rich legacy of good which this common undertaking has produced is not wasted.

I thank also the public authorities, who with great dedication ensured that the complex organizational machinery of the World Youth Day functioned in the best way possible.

Finally, I greet so many Cardinals, and Bishops present, as well as the priests, the Religious women and men, the teacher and all of you, young people of the world, "my joy and my crown" (Phil 4:1).

Before we leave this great and beautiful gathering, I want to announce that the next World Youth Day will be held in Toronto, Canada, in the summer of 2002.  Right from now I invite young people of the world to set out for Toronto, and I offer a special greeting to the Canadian delegation, who wanted to be here at this celebration to accept the task which will be theirs.  Upon them and all that they are undertaking, I invoke the protection of the Virgin Mary.

With affection and gratitude I greet you all!

Let us all together ask Our Lady to protect each one of us on our journey!

 

 

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Lyrics to Emmanuel (WYD 2000 Theme Song)

 

 

 

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