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Pope Benedict XVI- Addresses |
"Go in the Footsteps of
Christ"
Papal Message to Madrid Youth
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
On the Reception of the Cross for World Youth Day 2011
April 6, 2009
Dear Friends:
It is a very great joy for me to receive in this audience such a
numerous group from Madrid and Spain, who have come to collect
the youth cross, which will be taken to several cities until
World Youth Day in Madrid, in the year 2011. I cordially greet
the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela,
who presides over this pilgrimage, the general coordinator of
Madrid, Auxiliary Bishop César Augusto Franco Martínez, and the
other bishops, priests and catechists who have wished to be
here. I especially greet you with affection, dear young people,
who, on taking the cross, confess your faith in him who loves
you without measure, the Lord Jesus, whose Paschal mystery we
celebrate in these holy days. As I said on another occasion,
"faith, in its way, needs to see and touch. The encounter with
the cross, which is touched and carried, is transformed into an
interior encounter with Him who died on the cross for us. The
encounter with the cross awakens in the depth of young people
the memory of the God who willed to become man and suffer with
us" (To the Members of the Roman Curia, Dec. 22, 2008). I am
happy to know that this cross you have received will be taken in
procession on Good Friday through the streets of Madrid to be
acclaimed and venerated.
Therefore, I encourage you to discover in the cross the infinite
measure of Christ's love, and thus be able to say, with St.
Paul: "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Yes, dear young people, Christ
gave himself for each one of you and loves you in a unique and
personal way. Respond to Christ's love by offering him your life
with love. In this way, the preparation for World Youth Day,
whose works you have begun with much hope and dedication, will
be recompensed with the fruits intended by these Days: to renew
and strengthen the experience of the encounter with Christ who
died and rose from the dead for us.
Go in the footsteps of Christ. He is your end, your way and also
your prize. In the motto I chose for Madrid's Day, the Apostle
Paul invites us to walk "rooted and built up in Him and
established in the faith" (Colossians 2:7). Life is a journey,
certainly. But it is not an uncertain journey without a fixed
destiny; it leads to Christ, the end of human life and history.
On this journey you will meet with Him who gave his life for
love, and opens to you the doors of eternal life. I invite you,
therefore, to be formed in the faith that gives meaning to your
life and strengthens your convictions, so as to be able to
remain firm in the difficulties of each day. Moreover, I exhort
you, on your journey to Christ, to be able to attract your young
friends, your study and work companions, so that they too will
know him and confess him as Lord of their lives. To do this, let
the force from on high, which is within you, the Holy Spirit,
manifest himself with his immense attractiveness. Young people
of today need to discover the new life that comes from God, to
be satiated by the truth that has its source in Christ who died
and was resurrected and who the Church has received as a
treasure for all men.
Dear young people, this time of preparation for the youth day of
Madrid is, in addition, an extraordinary occasion to experience
the grace of belonging to the Church, Body of Christ. World
Youth Days manifest the dynamism of the Church and her eternal
youth. He who loves Christ, loves the Church with the same
passion, as she enables us to live in a close relationship with
the Lord. Hence, cultivate the initiatives that enable young
people to feel they are members of the Church, in full communion
with their pastors and with the Successor of Peter. Pray in
common, opening the doors of your parishes, associations and
movements so that all can feel at home in the Church, in which
they are loved with the very love of God. Celebrate and live
your faith with immense joy, which is a gift of the Spirit. In
this way your hearts and your friends will prepare to celebrate
the great feast that youth day is and we will all experience a
new epiphany of the youth of the Church.
In these very beautiful days of Holy Week, which we began
yesterday, I encourage you to contemplate Christ in the
mysteries of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. In them you
will find what surpasses all wisdom and knowledge, namely, the
love of God manifested in Christ. Learn from him, who did not
come "to be served but to serve, and to give his life as ransom
for many" (Mark 10:45). This is the style of Christ's love,
marked with the sign of the glorious cross, in which Christ is
exalted, in the sight of all, with his open heart, so that the
world can look and see, through his perfect humanity, the love
that saves us. Thus the cross becomes the very sign of life, as
on it Christ overcomes sin and death through the total giving of
himself. That is why we must embrace and adore the cross of the
Lord, make it our own, accept its weight as the Cyrenean to
participate in the only thing that can redeem the whole of
humanity (cf. Colossians 1:24). In baptism you were marked with
the cross of Christ and you belong to him totally. Make
yourselves ever more worthy of it and never be ashamed of this
supreme sign of love.
With this profound Christian attitude, you will carry forward
the works of preparation for World Youth Day with success and
fruitfulness because, as St. Paul says, we can do all things in
him who strengthens us (cf. Philippians 4:13). And, manifested
to us in Christ crucified is the strength and wisdom of God (cf.
1 Colossians 1:24). Let yourselves be invaded by this strength
and wisdom, communicate it to others and, under the protection
of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, prepare the World Youth Day with
dedication and joy which will make of Madrid a place radiant of
faith and life, where young people from the whole world
celebrate Christ with enthusiasm.
Take my affectionate greeting to your families, friends and
companions who have been unable to come today, whom I also bless
from my heart.
Happy Easter
Thank you very much.
[Translation by ZENIT]
Look at the One they
Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
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