GENERAL AUDIENCE August 23th, 2000
1. Last week Rome lived an unforgettable event: World Youth Day, which has made a great and profound impression on all. It was a pilgrimage characterized by joy, prayer, and reflection.
The first feeling that surges spontaneously from the heart is the desire to thank the Lord for this really great gift, not only to our city, and to the Church in Italy, but in the whole world. I also thank all those who co-operated in different ways in carrying out this meeting that has been held with serenity and great order. I renew my thoughts of appreciation to all: from the Pontifical Council for the Laity, to the Jubilee Central Committee, the Italian Episcopal Conference, the diocese of Rome, the civil and administrative authorities, security forces, sanitary services, Tor Vergata University, and the different volunteer organizations.
2. Naturally, my mind goes back to this really extraordinary meeting, which went beyond all our expectations and, I would also say, beyond all human expectation. I feel a very great need to reiterate my joy to these young men and women, for having been able to welcome them on the afternoon of the solemnity of the Assumption, both in St. John Lateran Square as well as St. Peter's Square.
I still feel the profound emotion with which I participated in the Saturday night Vigil at Tor Vergata and presided over the solemn closing Eucharistic celebration the following day.
Flying over that area by helicopter, I was able to admire from on high a unique and impressive spectacle: an enormous human carpet of people celebrating, happy to be together. I will never forget the enthusiasm of those youths. I would have liked to embrace them all and express to each one the affection that unites me to the youth of our time, to whom the Lord entrusts a great mission at the service of the civilization of love.
What have the youths come to look for if not Jesus Christ? What is World Youth Day if not a personal and communal encounter with the Lord, who gives real meaning to human existence? In fact, he himself has been the first to look for them and call them, as he looks for and calls every human being to lead him to salvation and the fullness of happiness. At the end of the meeting it was he who entrusted to youths the singular mission to be his witnesses in every corner of the earth. These have been days characterized by the discovery of a friendly and faithful presence, that of Jesus Christ, the 2000 years of whose birth we are celebrating.
3. With the enthusiasm typical of their age, the youths have responded that they want to follow Jesus. They want to do so, because they feel a living part of the Church. They want to do it by walking together, because they feel they are the People of God on the road.
They are not afraid of their frailty, because they count on the love and mercy of the heavenly Father, who sustains them in everyday life. Beyond all races and cultures, they feel like brothers and sisters united by the same faith, hope, and mission: to set the world on fire with the love of God. The youths have shown that there is within them a need to find meaning. They look for reasons to hope and they are hungry for genuine spiritual experiences. May the message of World Youth Day be accepted and studied in depth by those who participated, as well as by all their contemporaries, who followed the different phases and meetings through the newspapers, radio, and the television.
It is necessary that the evangelical atmosphere breathed during these days not be dissipated but that, on the contrary, it must continue to be the climate of youthful communities, associations, parishes, and dioceses, especially during this Jubilee year, which invites all believers to meet with Christ, dead and risen for us.
I want to repeat to all youths: you must feel proud of the mission the Lord has entrusted to you and carry it forward with humble and generous perseverance. May Mary's maternal help sustain you, who watched over you during the days of your Jubilee. Christ and the Church are counting on you!