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Pope
Benedict XVI - Addresses |
"What God Wants ... for Each One of You Is
That You Should Become Holy"
Sports Arena of St Mary’s University
College in Twickenham
H.H. Benedict XVI
September 17, 2010
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Dear young friends,
First of all, I want to say how glad I am to
be here with you today. I greet you most
warmly, those who have come to Saint Mary’s
University from Catholic schools and
colleges across the United Kingdom, and all
who are watching on television and via the
internet. I thank Bishop McMahon for his
gracious welcome, I thank the choir and the
band for the lovely music which began our
celebration, and I thank Miss Bellot for her
kind words on behalf of all the young people
present. In view of London’s forthcoming
Olympic Games, it has been a pleasure to
inaugurate this Sports Foundation, named in
honour of Pope John Paul II, and I pray that
all who come here will give glory to God
through their sporting activities, as well
as bringing enjoyment to themselves and to
others.
It is not often that a Pope, or indeed
anyone else, has the opportunity to speak to
the students of all the Catholic schools of
England, Wales and Scotland at the same
time. And since I have the chance now, there
is something I very much want to say to you.
I hope that among those of you listening to
me today there are some of the future saints
of the twenty-first century. What God wants
most of all for each one of you is that you
should become holy. He loves you much more
than you could ever begin to imagine, and he
wants the very best for you. And by far the
best thing for you is to grow in holiness.
Perhaps some of you have never thought about
this before. Perhaps some of you think being
a saint is not for you. Let me explain what
I mean. When we are young, we can usually
think of people that we look up to, people
we admire, people we want to be like. It
could be someone we meet in our daily lives
that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be
someone famous. We live in a celebrity
culture, and young people are often
encouraged to model themselves on figures
from the world of sport or entertainment. My
question for you is this: what are the
qualities you see in others that you would
most like to have yourselves? What kind of
person would you really like to be?
When I invite you to become saints, I am
asking you not to be content with second
best. I am asking you not to pursue one
limited goal and ignore all the others.
Having money makes it possible to be
generous and to do good in the world, but on
its own, it is not enough to make us happy.
Being highly skilled in some activity or
profession is good, but it will not satisfy
us unless we aim for something greater
still. It might make us famous, but it will
not make us happy. Happiness is something we
all want, but one of the great tragedies in
this world is that so many people never find
it, because they look for it in the wrong
places. The key to it is very simple – true
happiness is to be found in God. We need to
have the courage to place our deepest hopes
in God alone, not in money, in a career, in
worldly success, or in our relationships
with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy
the deepest needs of our hearts.
Not only does God love us with a depth and
an intensity that we can scarcely begin to
comprehend, but he invites us to respond to
that love. You all know what it is like when
you meet someone interesting and attractive,
and you want to be that person’s friend. You
always hope they will find you interesting
and attractive, and want to be your friend.
God wants your friendship. And once you
enter into friendship with God, everything
in your life begins to change. As you come
to know him better, you find you want to
reflect something of his infinite goodness
in your own life. You are attracted to the
practice of virtue. You begin to see greed
and selfishness and all the other sins for
what they really are, destructive and
dangerous tendencies that cause deep
suffering and do great damage, and you want
to avoid falling into that trap yourselves.
You begin to feel compassion for people in
difficulties and you are eager to do
something to help them. You want to come to
the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want
to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be
kind and generous. And once these things
begin to matter to you, you are well on the
way to becoming saints.
In your Catholic schools, there is always a
bigger picture over and above the individual
subjects you study, the different skills you
learn. All the work you do is placed in the
context of growing in friendship with God,
and all that flows from that friendship. So
you learn not just to be good students, but
good citizens, good people. As you move
higher up the school, you have to make
choices regarding the subjects you study,
you begin to specialize with a view to what
you are going to do later on in life. That
is right and proper. But always remember
that every subject you study is part of a
bigger picture. Never allow yourselves to
become narrow. The world needs good
scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes
dangerously narrow if it ignores the
religious or ethical dimension of life, just
as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the
legitimate contribution of science to our
understanding of the world. We need good
historians and philosophers and economists,
but if the account they give of human life
within their particular field is too
narrowly focused, they can lead us seriously
astray.
A good school provides a rounded education
for the whole person. And a good Catholic
school, over and above this, should help all
its students to become saints. I know that
there are many non-Catholics studying in the
Catholic schools in Great Britain, and I
wish to include all of you in my words
today. I pray that you too will feel
encouraged to practise virtue and to grow in
knowledge and friendship with God alongside
your Catholic classmates. You are a reminder
to them of the bigger picture that exists
outside the school, and indeed, it is only
right that respect and friendship for
members of other religious traditions should
be among the virtues learned in a Catholic
school. I hope too that you will want to
share with everyone you meet the values and
insights you have learned through the
Christian education you have received.
Dear friends, I thank you for your
attention, I promise to pray for you, and I
ask you to pray for me. I hope to see many
of you next August, at the World Youth Day
in Madrid. In the meantime, may God bless
you all!
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