Insights from World Youth Day 2005

One of the unifying elements of the World Youth Days of the past twenty years is a demand on the part of the pope for a response to Christ from the young people of the world. Pope John Paul II was not afraid to call youth to fulfill the mission and duty that God has entrusted to them. Pope Benedict XVI in his homilies has continued this tradition. Below are three quotes from his talks at WYD ’05 in Cologne, Germany followed by a short insight into how this could help us to fulfill our vocations.

"…[W]e are not constructing a private God, we are not constructing a private Jesus, but that we believe and worship the Jesus who is manifested to us by the Sacred Scriptures and who reveals himself to be alive in the great procession of the faithful called the Church, always alongside us and always before us.

"There is much that could be criticized in the Church. We know this and the Lord himself told us so: it is a net with good fish and bad fish, a field with wheat and darnel.

"It is actually consoling to realize that there is darnel in the Church. In this way, despite all our defects, we can still hope to be counted among the disciples of Jesus, who came to call sinners."

When we are baptized we become members of the Church. The Church is the refuge of sinners. There is no member of the Church on earth today who is not a sinner. Since the sexual abuse scandal came to light in 2002, criticism of the Church can be found all around us, even within the Church herself.

God calls each person to a different vocation even though we are all sinners. Members of the Church’s hierarchy are called out of the community to shepherd the People of God. They are sinners, constantly in need of repentance and purification. Like members of the laity, priests often fail in living their vocation. They must strive everyday to be good examples in order to lead others to Christ.

Christ is calling you to a vocation. Perhaps he is calling you to a life of service in the Church. Maybe you feel the weight of unworthiness and sinfulness. This quote from Pope Benedict reminds us that we are all sinners, but we are still called by God to grow as disciples and to work to build up the Body of Christ. We cannot let our sins impede us from following our vocation, but we must strive more and more each day to walk along the path that Christ has marked out for us.

"Dear friends! Sometimes, our initial impression is that having to include time for Mass on a Sunday is rather inconvenient. But if you make the effort, you will realize that this is what gives a proper focus to your free time.

"Do not be deterred from taking part in Sunday Mass, and help others to discover it too. This is because the Eucharist releases the joy that we need so much, and we must learn to grasp it ever more deeply, we must learn to love it.

"Let us pledge ourselves to do this - it is worth the effort! Let us discover the intimate riches of the Church's liturgy and its true greatness: it is not we who are celebrating for ourselves, but it is the living God himself who is preparing a banquet for us."

Many young people are confused about what to do with their lives. They get angry with God because they think that somehow God owes them a divine email about their vocation. They can’t imagine why God would keep such an important piece of information to himself.

If you’re not sure about your vocation, when was the last time you stopped and listened for God’s voice? He will always reveal to us in his own time what he wants of us, but sometimes we have to wait for it. Pope Benedict is reminding us that Sunday Mass is not optional. It is a vital part of our lives. If we want to know where God is calling us, we must first learn to love to spend time with him.

In the Eucharist, God speaks again to us in his language of love: the Word, Jesus Christ, his beloved Son, who became man for us and died for us. We must learn to speak this language. Sunday Mass is our classroom.

"Anyone who has discovered Christ must lead others to him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on.

"In vast areas of the world today there is a strange forgetfulness of God. It seems as if everything would be just the same even without him.

"But at the same time there is a feeling of frustration, a sense of dissatisfaction with everyone and everything.

"People tend to exclaim: "This cannot be what life is about!" Indeed not.

"Help people to discover the true star which points out the way to us: Jesus Christ! Let us seek to know him better and better, so as to be able to guide others to him with conviction.

"This is why love for Sacred Scripture is so important, and in consequence, it is important to know the faith of the Church which opens up for us the meaning of Scripture. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church as her faith grows, causing her to enter ever more deeply into the truth (cf. Jn 16: 13)."

Just like the last quote, we must know Jesus before we can introduce him to others. Sunday Mass is our weekly sacramental encounter with him not only in the Eucharist, but in the Word of God. We must have a love for the Bible.

There’s not a page in that amazing book that is not about Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament points to him. In the New Testament, we see his actions on earth and hear his words. We sit back in amazement as we watch the early Church grow and discover the riches of revelation.

The Scriptures are our blueprint. They help us to lead others to Christ. If we are to discover God’s plan for us, we must seek to know Christ more and more. We must meditate on his Word and discover the ways he comes to us right now in our daily lives. Only then will we be able to read his plan for us into the people we encounter and the events we experience each day.