Pope’s Youth Day Message: Stay Connected, But More Importantly Communicate

By Verghese V Joseph –

Rome: The Holy Father on Friday exhorted the youth to take a decisive step and follow Christ. In a message to Young People for the XXXV World Youth Day 2020 which will be celebrated at a diocesan level worldwide is centered on the theme: “Young, I say to you, get up!” (cf.Lk 7:14), opens a cycle of three messages dedicated to young people on the way between WYD Panama 2019 and WYD Lisbon 2022.

The text, signed by the Holy Father on the day of memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes, explains the key word that connects the three stages of this itinerary of the Church together with the young people is the verb “to get up” present in the three themes chosen by the Holy Father for the following WYDs.

His words of advice had a message for today’s youth. “Today, we are often “connected” but not communicating. The indiscriminate use of electronic devices can keep us constantly glued to the screen. With this Message, I would like to join you, young people, in calling for a cultural change, based on Jesus’ command to “arise”. In a culture that makes young people isolated and withdrawn into virtual worlds, let us spread Jesus’ invitation: “Arise!” He calls us to embrace a reality that is so much more than virtual. This does not involve rejecting technology, but rather using it as a means and not as an end. “Arise!” is also an invitation to “dream”, to “take a risk”, to be “committed to changing the world”, to rekindle your hopes and aspirations, and to contemplate the heavens, the stars and the world around you. “Arise and become what you are!”

In his speech Pope Francis reminds young people that that verb “also takes on the meaning of resurrecting, awakening to life” and proposes to read the passage of the Gospel on the resurrection of the young man of Nain as a personal invitation to take the decisive step to follow Christ.

“The Gospel does not say the name of that boy raised from Jesus in Nain. This is an invitation to the reader to identify with him. Jesus speaks to you, to me, to each of us, and says: ‘ Get up! ‘. We know well that we Christians also fall and we must always get up. Only those who do not walk do not fall, but do not go on either. This is why we must welcome Christ’s intervention and make an act of faith in God. The first step is to accept to get up,” says the Holy Father.

Pope Francis also recalled that the invitation to get up appears several times in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation “Christus vivit”. Thus he underlines the link between the synodal process dedicated to young people and the journey of WYD and invites the young people themselves and the actors of youth ministry to strengthen their commitment to the implementation of this exhortation together with the Final Document of the Synod in daily pastoral and in path to the next WYD celebrated worldwide.

The next international WYD will take place in Lisbon in 2022 and will have as its theme “Mary got up and went quickly” (Lk 1:39).

Explaining further, Pope Francis said, “As you can see, the verb ‘arise’ or ‘stand up’ appears in all three themes. These words also speak of resurrection, of awakening to new life. They are words that constantly appear in the Exhortation Christus Vivit (Christ is Alive!) That I addressed to you following the 2018 Synod and that, together with the Final Document, the Church offers you as a lamp to shed light on your path in life. I sincerely hope that the journey bringing us to Lisbon will coincide with a great effort on the part of the entire Church to implement these two documents and to let them guide the mission of those engaged in the pastoral care of young people.”

Turning to this year’s theme: “Young man, I say to you, arise!” (cf. Lk 7:14), he mentioned this verse of the Gospel in Christus Vivit : “If you have lost your vitality, your dreams, your enthusiasm, your optimism and your generosity, Jesus stands before you as once he stood before the dead son of the widow, and with all the power of his resurrection he urges you: ‘Young man, I say to you, arise!’ “(No. 20).”

“The Scriptures often speak of the feelings experienced by those who let themselves be touched “viscerally” by the pain of others. Jesus’ own feelings make him share in other people’s lives. He makes their pain his own. That mother’s grief became his own. The death of that young son became his own,” he explained.

The Pope also highlighted the compassionate aspect of youth. “As young people, you have shown over and over again that you are capable of compassion. I think of all those of you who have generously offered help whenever situations demanded it. No disaster, earthquake or flood takes place without young volunteers stepping up to offer a helping hand. The great mobilization of young people concerned about defending the environment is also a witness to your ability to hear the cry of the earth.”

The Holy Father urged the youth to be attentive to the plea of those who are suffering, and be moved by those who weep and die in today’s world. “Some realities of life are only seen with eyes cleansed by tears” (Christus Vivit , 76). If you can learn to weep with those who are weeping, you will find true happiness. So many of your contemporaries are disadvantaged and victims of violence and persecution. Let their wounds become your own, and you will be bearers of hope in this world. You will be able to say to your brother or sister: “Arise, you are not alone”, and you will help them realize that God the Father loves us, that Jesus is the hand he stretches out to us in order to raise us up.

“This life is really a new creation, a new birth, not just a form of psychological conditioning. Perhaps, in times of difficulty, many of you have heard people repeat those “magic” formulas so fashionable nowadays, formulas that are supposed to take care of everything: “You have to believe in yourself”, “You have to discover your inner resources “,” You have to become conscious of your positive energy “… But these are mere words; they do not work for someone who is truly “dead inside”. Jesus’ word has a deeper resonance; it goes infinitely deeper. It is a divine and creative word, which alone can bring the dead to life,” he urged the youth.

Drawing parallel, the Holy Father concluded, “The resurrection of that young man restored him to his mother. In that woman, we can see an image of Mary, our Mother, to whom we entrust all the young people of our world. In her, we can also recognize the Church, who wants to welcome with tender love each young person, without exception. So let us implore Mary’s intercession for the Church, that she may always be a mother for her dead children, weeping for them and asking that they be restored to life. In every one of her children who dies, the Church also dies, and in every one of her children who arises, the Church also arises.”