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In the Heart of the Church |
MORNING WATCHMEN
Cardinal James Stafford, President, Pontifical Council for the
Laity
Reflections on Venerable John Paul II's Apostolic Letter
Novo Millennio Ineunte
At the
conclusion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Holy Father
John Paul II gave the Church the gift of the Apostolic Letter
Novo Millennio ineunte, a precious document that beginning with
a profound reflection on the Holy Year just concluded relaunches the
Church towards the future, towards the third millennium. We might
say that Novo Millennio ineunte is the navigation
chart for "putting out into the deep", Duc in altum; it is a
pastoral programme, a guide for the Church's journey.
In the Apostolic
Letter we find a strong and urgent reference to young people. The
Pope invites the young people to be "morning watchmen" at the dawn
of the new millennium. In the document the Holy Father makes an
analysis, a detailed memorandum of the Jubilee Year and in number
nine he takes into particular consideration the Jubilee of Young
People. At the beginning of the third millennium we cannot forget
that the experience of Tor Vergata was a breath of hope for
everyone. It was the largest gathering of people in Europe's
history, the largest for the number of its participants but also for
its meaning. In referring to it in Novo Millennio ineunte,
the Holy Father says "Rome became 'young with the young"' (n. 9). We
can also add that the Church became "young with the young". Once
again we realized that young people are not only the hope for the
future, but are already present and active in the Church. They
really are the "morning watchmen" at the dawn of the third
millennium.
When the Holy Father
launched the idea of World Youth Day, many critical voices were
raised, some even hoped that this papal initiative would be a great
failure. Many analysts said that the youth were unaware of the
post-war shortages and had not known the sufferings of the great
wars which destroyed Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
Others evoked the phantom of the 1968 protests and post-modern
indifferentism that was taking hold of the new generations of the
children of television, of rock 'n' roll, of internet and of the
sexual revolution. However, when my predecessor, Cardinal Eduardo
Pironio, as President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity threw
himself into this wonderful initiative that was born from the heart
of Pope John Paul II, the results were not long in coming. The
response from the young people was great and the Church was enriched
by the valid contribution of a generation that many considered lost.
Young people want to
be committed to a continuous and complete reconciliation
One could sense a
yearning for authenticity, for generosity, a strong desire to be
witnesses in the world, to draw attention not to themselves but to
certain values that seemed lost, dead. They were young people who
live in freedom (cf. John Paul II, Crossing the threshold of hope,
ch. 19), who had not experienced the extermination camps or the
trenches, but were well aware that these dangers would be lying in
wait unless they built a new model of society that was more
human and more in harmony with the will of God. The idealism of
these young people touched many consciences, it was felt by many
governments, it appeared in the streets of many cities that were
considered cold and unchangeable. I am thinking, for example, of the
"Paris revolution" of 1998, when the young people of the 13th World
Youth Day followed the Way of the Cross along the streets of the
capital of modernity before the astonished eyes of the passers-by.
The young people of
this new millennium are beginning to live more purified from the
romantic traditions and rational prejudices, more aware of the
limits of human reason and more anxious to build a society of peace
that leaves a mark in history at any cost. These are the
young people who arrived in Tor Vergata, young people who spoke of
pardon and of chastity, of prayer and of commitment, of vocational
seeking , young people for whom peace is something more than "sex,
drugs and rock 'n roll". They were all committed to a continuous and
complete reconciliation. They were young people who spoke about
martyrdom and accepted the challenges of the Pope who questioned
them from the Gospel, from the "workshop of faith", from the
workshop where the Christian generations of the third millennium are
forged.
Youth is perfect time
to present ideal of Christian holiness that is born from love
Youth is not "only a
period of life that corresponds to a certain number of years, it is
also a time given by Providence to every person and given to him
as a responsibility. During that time he searches, like
the young man in the Gospel, for answers to basic questions; he
searches not only for the meaning of life, but also for a concrete
way to go about living his life. This is the most fundamental
characteristic of youth" (Crossing the threshold of hope,
ch. 19). In fact, these words of Pope John Paul II describe very
well what youth is. It is the time of life in which the human being
establishes himself. It is, therefore, a period of work in personal
formation, in forging one's character, in deepening the values that
will sustain one's life. For this reason, if young people are a duty
in themselves, they are also a duty for the Church, a priority
choice in the commitment to the evangelization of the men and women
of our time and in the construction of a society founded on
Christian values.
Youth, moreover, is
the time when the human being seeks love as a key instrument for his
growth and self-fulfilment. It is the time when the desire to give
one's life to the other and to others is strongest. Youth is
self-giving, commitment, generosity. For this reason it is the
perfect time for presenting the ideal of Christian holiness that is
born from love. The young person seeks love and the Church,
following Christ, makes love the centre of her message and the
instrument for carrying out her mission. This priority of love is
the point where the Church and young people meet. It is a long
journey that does not end in a day, but it is a goal that harmonizes
desire and provides the courage to overcome difficulties and accept
suffering. This love is real, it is not mere sentiment. It is a love
that takes life in its entirety and impels it towards the summit of
happiness.
In his greeting for
the 15th World Youth Day, the Pope asked the young people:
"What did you come to seek? You came here to celebrate your
Jubilee; the Jubilee of the young Church. Yours is not just any
journey: if you have set out on pilgrimage, it is not just for the
sake of recreation or an interest in culture. Well then, let me ask
again: what have you come in search of? Or rather, who have you come
here to find? There can only be one answer to that:
you have come in search of Jesus Christ! But Jesus Christ has first
gone in search of you. To celebrate the Jubilee can have no other
meaning than that of celebrating and meeting Jesus Christ, the Word
who took flesh and came to dwell among us" (John Paul II, 15 August
2000). The young people of the Jubilee were seeking Christ because
this need for a sure guide is typical of young people. Young
people "need guides, and they want them close at hand"
(Crossing the threshold of hope, ch. 19). For this
reason they need Christ, his Word, his person, his testimony, but
above all his salvation. The Church continues Christ's work. Jesus
Christ is in the Church, the Church is born from him. Only she can
present Christ to the young people with certainty and truth. Christ
is the best guide, he is the only one who has words of
eternal life.
To be able to give,
we must first draw near to Christ and fully understand his message
Young people are for
the Church "a gift of the Spirit of God" (Novo Millennio
ineunte, n. 9). They make her discover the deepest reality of
her mission. The long lines of young people waiting to go to
confession in the Circus Maximus restored the confidence of
many priests in the sacrament of reconciliation. They taught us anew
to be priests or, rather, they reconfirmed us in our vocation. They
gave the world a very eloquent lesson of transcendence in presenting
themselves to the merciful judgement of the Lord of life and of
history in the magnificent setting of the Circus Maximus.
Young people invite
us with their testimony to fix our gaze on the Lord, to contemplate
his face. If we want to present to our young people an authentic
Church, based on a sincere faith, a strong hope and love that knows
no barriers, we must turn to Christ, the guide of young people, the
only Master. "The Church's joy was great this year, as she devoted
herself to contemplating the face of her Bridegroom and Lord.
She became more than ever a pilgrim people, led by him who is the
'great shepherd of the sheep' (Heb 13,20). With extraordinary
energy, involving so many of her members, the People of God here in
Rome, as well as in Jerusalem and in all the individual local
Churches, went through the 'Holy Door' that is Christ. To him who is
the goal of history and the one Saviour of the world, the Church and
the Spirit cried out: 'Marana tha—Come, Lord Jesus' (cf. Apoc
22,17.20; 1 Cor 16,22)" (Novo Millennio ineunte, n.
1). Young people ask the Church to preserve this energy, this
attitude of tireless searching for the face of Christ in all things,
in all events; this is the sign of true authenticity.
To be able to give,
we must first contemplate, draw near to Christ to attract others,
profoundly understand his message to be able to transmit it in
depth.
To follow Jesus is to
walk in his footsteps, to adopt his way of life, to believe in his
values
With their
enthusiasm, young people encourage the Church to "put out into the
deep". They tell us, with the Pope, not to be afraid to leave
our many certainties to become seriously committed to a life of
holiness and the evangelization of men. They invite us to be more
generous. They teach us to put more trust in the action of the Lord,
the only one who can change the hearts of two million young
people, than in ourselves who have spent many nights fishing
without catching even one fish. We have learned a lot from the
experience of the World Youth Days, for which the most optimistic
calculations of participation have always been exceeded by the
action of God.
We must leave the
peace of the lakeside and set out towards the encounter with God and
with men.
Before a world in
which the value of the superficial and the pleasurable holds sway,
the young pilgrims made us discover the way of the Cross which is
the way of authenticity in following Christ. To follow Jesus is to
walk in his footsteps, adopt his way of life, believe in his values
and in his convictions. It is to learn to give everything its right
place, to establish clearly the parameters of the mission that has
been entrusted to us. "Jesus is not a Messiah of triumph and power.
In fact, he did not free Israel from Roman rule and he never assured
it of political glory. As a true Servant of the Lord, he carried out
his mission in solidarity, in service, and in the humiliation of
death. He is the Messiah who did not fit into any mould and who came
without fanfare, and who cannot be 'understood' with the logic of
success and power, the kind of logic often used by the world to
verify its projects and actions" (Message for the 16th World
Youth Day, n. 2).
To follow Christ
means to deny oneself and "to deny oneself is to give up one's own
plans that are often small and petty in order to accept God's plan.
This is the path of conversion, something indispensable in a
Christian life, and that led St Paul to say, 'it is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me' (Gal 2,20). Jesus does not ask us
to give up living, but to accept a newness and fullness of life that
only he can give. The human being has a deep-rooted tendency to
'think only of self', to regard one's own person as the centre of
interest and to see oneself as the standard against which to gauge
everything. One who chooses to follow Christ, on the other hand,
avoids being wrapped up in himself and does not evaluate things
according to self interest. He looks on life in terms of gift and
gratuitousness, not in terms of conquest and possession. Life in its
fullness is only lived in self-giving, and that is the fruit of the
grace of Christ: an existence that is free and in communion with God
and neighbour (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 24)" (ibid.,
n. 4).
For disciples of
Christ the Cross is a sign of love and not of torture
To follow Christ, to
be his disciple, is to courageously take the path of the Cross. For
a disciple of Christ, the Cross is a sign of love, not of torture.
"it is not suffering for its own sake that a Christian seeks, but
love. When the cross is embraced it becomes a sign of love and of
total self-giving. To carry it behind Christ means to be united with
him in offering the greatest proof of love" (ibid., n. 5).
We should not be
afraid of proposing and of inviting young people to follow Christ.
The Holy Father has been doing so since the beginning of his
pontificate, he did it again in Tor Vergata and he asks it again in
the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte: "if Christ is
presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an
answer that is convincing and they can accept his message, even when
it is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross. For this reason, in
response to their enthusiasm, I did not hesitate to ask them to make
a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a
stupendous task: to become 'morning watchmen' (cf. Is 21,11-12) at
the dawn of the millennium" (ibid., n. 9).
These young people
are the "morning watchmen" who will awaken their brothers and
sisters and put out into the deep in this vast ocean of the third
millennium which is opening before the Church.
May Mary Most Holy,
"Star of the New Evangelization" be "the radiant dawn and sure guide
for our steps" (ibid., n. 58).
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
8/15 August 2001, page 10
L'Osservatore Romano is the
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