Jul
22
The Holy Father at WYD2008 Sydney
July 22, 2008 |
The following are excerpts from the Holy Father’s homily at the closing Mass for WYD 2008. These thoughts are meant for all of us - not just the youth present Down Under.
“God’s love can only unleash its power when it is allowed to change us from within. We have to let it break through the hard crust of our indifference, our spiritual weariness, our blind conformity to the spirit of this age. Only then can we let it ignite our imagination and shape our deepest desires. That is why prayer is so important: daily prayer, private prayer in the quiet of our hearts and before the Blessed Sacrament, and liturgical prayer in the heart of the Church.”
“What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects Him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the ‘power’ which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you?”
“Empowered by the Spirit, and drawing upon faith’s rich vision, a new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished - not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty. A new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships. . . . the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of His love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.
“The world needs this renewal! In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair. How many of our contemporaries have built broken and empty cisterns in a desperate search for meaning, the ultimate meaning that only love can give?”
“The Church also needs this renewal! She needs your faith, your idealism and your generosity, so that she can always be young in the Spirit!” (Source: Vatican Information Service)
We are all “prophets of this new age.” We are “messengers of His love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.” We are the spigot providing water for that “spiritual desert” which has spread to too much of our world. And through us, the Spirit continues to work to fill in the emptiness, calm the fears, elate the despair, and provide the meaning hungered for by so many in today’s world.
Prophets of This New Age! I like that!
