WELCOMING CEREMONY FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE
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GREETING OF POPE
FRANCIS
Waterfront of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro
Thursday, 25 July 2013
Thursday, 25 July 2013
Dear Young Friends,
Good evening! First of all, I want to thank you for
the testimony you are giving to the world. I always heard it said that the
people of Rio didn’t like the cold and rain, but you are showing that your
faith is stronger than the cold and rain. Congratulations! You are true
heroes!
In you I see the beauty of Christ’s young face and I am
filled with joy. I recall the
first World Youth Day on an international level.
It was celebrated in 1987 in Argentina, in my home city of Buenos Aires. I
still cherish the words of Blessed
John Paul II to the young people on that occasion: “I have great hope in you! I hope
above all that you will renew your fidelity to Jesus Christ and to his
redeeming Cross” (Address to Young People, Buenos Aires, 11 April
1987).
Before I continue, I would like to call to mind the
tragic accident in French Guiana, that the young people suffered on their
way to this World Youth Day. There young Sophie Morinière was killed
and other young people were wounded. I invite all of you to observe a
moment of silence and of prayer to God, Our Father, for Sophie,
for the wounded, and for their families.
This year, World Youth Day comes to Latin America for the
second time. And you, young people, have responded in great number to the
invitation extended by Pope
Benedict XVI to celebrate this occasion. We thank him with all our hearts! We send
our greeting and our enthusiastic applause to him who brought us together
here today. You know that, before coming to Brazil, I spoke with him, and I
asked him to accompany me in prayer on this trip. And he said to me: I
will accompany all of you in prayer and I will follow you on television.
So, at this moment, he is watching us. We express to him our heartfelt
thanks. I am looking at the large crowd before me – there are so many of
you! And you have come from every continent! In many cases you have come
from afar, not only geographically, but also existentially, culturally,
socially and humanly. But today you are all here, or better yet, we are all
here together as one, in order to share the faith and the joy of an
encounter with Christ, of being his disciples. This week Rio has become the
centre of the Church, its heart both youthful and vibrant, because you have
responded generously and courageously to the invitation that Christ has made
to you to be with him and to become his friends.
The train of this World Youth Day has come from afar and
has travelled across all of Brazil following the stages of the project
entitled “Bota fé – put on faith!” Today the train has arrived at
Rio de Janeiro. From Corcovado, Christ the Redeemer embraces us and blesses
us. Looking out to this sea, the beach and all of you gathered here, I am
reminded of the moment when Jesus called the first disciples to follow him
by the shores of Lake Tiberias. Today Christ asks each of us again: Do you
want to be my disciple? Do you want to be my friend? Do you want to be a
witness to my Gospel? In the spirit of The Year of Faith, these
questions invite us to renew our commitment as Christians. Your
families
and local communities have passed on to you the great gift of faith,
Christ
has grown in you. Today he desires to come here to confirm you in
this faith, faith in the living Christ who dwells within you, but I
have come as well to be confirmed by the enthusiasm of your
faith! You know that in the life of a Bishop there are many problems
that need to be resolved. And with these problems and difficulties, a
Bishop’s faith can grow sad. How horrible is a sad Bishop! How bad is
that! So that my faith might not be sad, I came here to be filled with
your
contagious enthusiasm!
I greet you with affection. All of you assembled
here from the five continents and, through you, all young people of the
world, in particular to those who wanted to come to
Rio de Janeiro but weren’t able to come. To those who are following
us by means of radio, television and internet, to everyone I say:
Welcome to this feast of faith! In several parts of the world, at this very
moment, many young people have come together to share this event with us:
let us all experience the joy of being united with each other in friendship
and faith. And be sure of this: my heart embraces all of you with universal
affection. Because what is most important today is your gathering here
and the gathering together of all the young people who are following us
through various forms of media. From the summit of the mountain of
Corcovado, Christ the Redeemer welcomes you and embraces you in to
this beautiful city of Rio!
A particular greeting to
the President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the untiring
Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, and to all who work with him. I thank Archbishop
Orani João Tempesta, of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, for the warm
welcome given to me – I wish to say here that the people of Rio know well
how to welcome, they know how to offer a great welcome – and I thank
the Archbishop for the considerable work of realizing this World
Youth Day, together with his Auxiliary Bishops and with the many
Dioceses of this vast country of Brazil. I would also like to express my
gratitude to all the national, state and local authorities and to those who
have worked to make possible this unique moment of celebration of unity,
faith and fraternity. Thank you to my brother Bishops, to the priests,
seminarians, consecrated persons and the lay faithful that have accompanied
the young from various parts of the world on their pilgrimage to Jesus. To
each and every one of you I offer an affectionate embrace in Jesus
and with Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, dear friends, welcome to the XXVIII
World Youth Day in this marvellous city of Rio de Janeiro!
Dear Friends,
“It is good for us
to be here!”, Peter cries out after seeing the Lord Jesus transfigured in
glory. Are we able to repeat these words with him?
I think the answer is yes, because here today, it is good for all of us to
be together around Jesus! It is he who welcomes us and who
is present in our midst here in Rio. In the Gospel we have heard God the
Father say: “This is my Son, my chosen one; listen to him!” (Lk
9:35). If it is Jesus who welcomes us, we too want to
welcome him and listen to his words; it is precisely through the welcome we
give to Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, that the Holy Spirit transforms
us, lights up our way to the future, and enables us joyfully to advance
along that way with wings of hope (cf. Lumen
Fidei, 7).
But what can we do?
“Bota fé – put on faith”. The World Youth Day Cross has proclaimed
these words throughout its pilgrimage in Brazil. “Put on faith”: what does
this mean? When we prepare a plate of food and we see that it needs salt,
well, we “put on” salt; when it needs oil, then you “put on” oil. “To put
on”, that is, to place on top of, to pour over. And so it is in our life,
dear young friends: if we want it to have real meaning and fulfilment, as
you want and as you deserve, I say to each one of you, “Put on faith”, and life will take on a new flavour, life will have
a compass to show you the way; “put on hope” and every one of your days will
be enlightened and your horizon will no longer be dark, but luminous; “put
on love”, and your life will be like a house built on rock, your journey
will be joyful, because you will find many friends to journey with you. Put
on faith, put on hope, put on love! All together: “put on faith”, “put
on hope”, “put on love”.
But who can give us
all this? In the Gospel we hear the answer:
Christ. “This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him!” Jesus brings God to us and us to God. With him, our life is
transformed and renewed, and we can see reality with new eyes, from Jesus’
standpoint, with his own eyes (cf. Lumen
Fidei, 18). For this
reason, I say to every one of you today:
“Put on Christ!” in your life, and you will find a friend in whom you can
always trust; “put on Christ” and you will see the wings of hope spreading
and letting you journey with joy towards the future; “put on Christ” and
your life will be full of his love; it will be a fruitful life. Because
we all want to have a fruitful life, one that is life-giving for others.
Today, it would be good for all of us to ask
ourselves sincerely: in whom do we place our trust? In ourselves, in
material things, or in Jesus? We all have the
temptation often to put ourselves at the centre, to believe that we
are the axis of the universe, to believe that we
alone build our lives or to think that our life can only be happy if
built on possessions, money, or power. But we all know that it is
not so. Certainly, possessions, money and power can give a momentary thrill,
the illusion of being happy, but they end up possessing us and making us
always want to have more, never satisfied. And we end up “full”, but not
nourished, and it is very sad to see young people “full”, but weak.
Young people must be strong, nourished by the faith and not filled with other things! “Put on Christ” in your
life, place your trust in him and you will never be disappointed! You see
how faith accomplishes a revolution in us, one which we can call Copernican; it removes us from the centre and
puts God at the centre; faith immerses us in his love and gives
us security, strength, and hope. Seemingly,
nothing has changed; yet, in the depths of our being, everything is
different. With God, peace, consolation, gentleness,
courage, serenity and joy, which are all fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf.
Gal 5:22), find a home in our heart; then our very
being is transformed; our way of thinking and acting is made new, it becomes
Jesus’ own, God’s own, way of thinking and acting. Dear friends, faith
is revolutionary and today I ask you: are you open to entering into this
revolutionary wave of faith? Only by entering into this wave will your
young lives make sense and so be fruitful!
Dear young people:
“Put on Christ” in your lives. In these days, Christ awaits you in his
word; listen carefully to him and his presence will arouse your heart; “Put on Christ”: he awaits
you in the sacrament of Penance, with his mercy
he will cure all the wounds caused by sin. Do not be afraid to ask
God’s forgiveness, because he never tires of
forgiving us, like a father who loves us. God is pure mercy! “Put on
Christ”: he is waiting for you also in the
Eucharist, the sacrament of his presence and his sacrifice of love, and
he is waiting for you also in the humanity of the many young people who
will enrich you with their friendship, encourage you by their witness to the
faith, and teach you the language of love, goodness
and service.
You too, dear young
people, can be joyful witnesses of his love, courageous witnesses of his
Gospel, carrying to this world a ray of his light. Let yourselves be
loved by Christ, he is a friend that will not disappoint.
“It is good for us
to be here”, putting on Christ in our lives, putting on the faith, hope and
love which he gives us. Dear friends, in this celebration we have welcomed
the image of Our Lady of Aparecida. In our prayer to Mary,
we ask her to teach us to follow Jesus, that she may teach us to be disciples and missionaries. Like her, may we say “Yes” to
God. Let us ask that her maternal heart intercede for us, so that our
hearts may be open to loving Jesus and making others love him. Dear
young people, Jesus is waiting for us. Jesus is counting on us. Amen.
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