Holy Mass for Young People in Lisbon (14 May 1982)

On Friday, 14 May 1982, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass for Young People in Lisbon. In his homily, the Pope reflected on the proclamation of Christ that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

1. The Kingdom of God is near!

Yes! “ Tell everyone: the Kingdom of God is near to you !” ( Luke 10, 9).

It was with these words that Jesus Christ, when sending the seventy-two disciples on a mission, recommended that they proclaim the Message, as we have just heard in today's Gospel.

But these words are also addressed to Christians of all times: to us, therefore, who are gathered here in the name of the Lord, in continuity with the disciples who heard them directly.

They are addressed especially to you, young people, who are here this afternoon in such large numbers, full of enthusiasm and joy, demonstrating your availability to Christ and your desire to build a more human and Christian world. You are the custodians of this great hope of humanity, the Church and the Pope. God gave me the grace to love young people very much.

Therefore, I would like to speak to you as a friend speaks to his friend, with each one individually, eye to eye, heart to heart. “The Kingdom of God is near!” And I would almost dare to say: these words are addressed especially to you young Portuguese, children of a people of missionaries who, throughout the world, carried this same message, as highlighted by the Cardinal Patriarch, Dom António Ribeiro.

Thank you, Mr Cardinal, for your words. They comfort me and I take them as a promise of continuity, as I return greetings to everyone whose feelings I have interpreted. And, at this time, I pay tribute of gratitude, in the name of the entire Church, to the great evangelizing achievement of missionary Portugal.

The Kingdom of God is truly at hand! He approached the man definitively. It is among us and it is within us.

The proximity of the Kingdom of God resides, first of all, in the fact that God has wine and has assumed human nature. It is near in Christ; is near through Christ. In Him, in fact, the Kingdom is so close to us that, in a certain sense, it becomes difficult to imagine a greater and more intimate approach. Could God be closer to man than by becoming Man?

Being so close, in Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Kingdom of God is always before man. It is proposed to men, as a mission to carry out, a goal to achieve. In the different dimensions of their existence, men can, therefore, get closer to it or move away from it. First of all, they can achieve it within themselves, and realize it within themselves.

But they can also lose sight of it, deviate from its perspective. They may even act against him. They may even tend to distance him from man; they can take the man away from him, and take him away.

And yet, Christ came into the world to introduce men into the Kingdom of God, to insert the Kingdom into the hearts of men and among them. Furthermore: Christ really entrusted this Kingdom to men. He called them to work for the Kingdom of God. And this work is called evangelization.

2. The word “evangelization” comes from “Gospel”, which means “Good News”. The Kingdom of God is built on this foundation of the Good News. Furthermore: he himself is Good News. It is the Announcement of man's definitive salvation. And here, one might ask: what is “salvation”?

Let us dwell on the words of Isaiah, heard in the first reading of today's Holy Mass:
“The spirit of the Lord rests upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He sent me to bring good news to those who suffer, to heal those with sad hearts, to proclaim freedom for captives and freedom for prisoners, to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord” ( Is. 61, 1-2) .

These words of the Prophet remained for many centuries waiting for the moment to be read, in the synagogue of Nazareth, by the One who was considered the “Son of the Carpenter”: Jesus of Nazareth. And He, after reading them, said: “Today this passage of Scripture has been fulfilled, which you have just heard with your ears” ( Luke 4:21).

The words of Isaiah, which Jesus of Nazareth would take as the program of his mission, contain precisely the good news about salvation.

What then is salvation? It is the victory of good over evil, accomplished in man, in all dimensions of his existence. Overcoming evil itself already has a salvific character. The definitive form of salvation will consist for man in completely freeing himself from evil and achieving the plenitude of good. This fullness is called and is in fact eternal salvation. It takes place in the Kingdom of God as an eschatological reality of eternal life. It is a reality of the “future time” which, through the cross of Christ, began with his Resurrection.

All men are called to eternal Life. They are called to salvation.

Are you aware of this? Are you aware of this, my young friends: that all men are called to live with God and that, without Him, they lose the key to the “mystery” of themselves?

3. This call to salvation is brought by Christ. He has for man “words of eternal life” ( Io . 6, 68); and it is addressed to man as he is, situated in very varied circumstances: it is addressed to the concrete man who lives on earth. It is particularly addressed to the man who suffers, in body or soul.

He comes, as we heard in the first reading, to “comfort those who mourn... to give those who mourn a crown instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, glory instead of despair” ( Is . 61, 2-3).

But it is also addressed to you, young people!

Yes, to you young people : because in your spirit is imprinted, in a particular way, the essential problem of salvation, with all its hopes and tensions, sufferings and victories.

It is known how sensitive you are to the temptation between good and evil, which exists in the world and in yourself. Deep within yourselves, you suffer when you see the triumph of lies and injustice; you suffer because you feel incapable of making truth and justice triumph; you suffer, because you discover yourself, at the same time, generous and selfish. You would like to always serve and collaborate with initiatives in favor of the oppressed, but... you feel betrayed by so many things and enticed by others that break your wings. Spontaneously you are led to reject evil and desire good. But sometimes you have difficulty seeing and accepting that to reach good you have to go through renunciation, effort, struggle, the cross; It happened to that young man who, desiring perfection and wanting to follow Jesus, was unable to understand and accept that it was necessary to renounce material goods.

However, dear young people, beyond these tensions, you have an almost co-natural aptitude for evangelizing. Because evangelization cannot be done without youthful enthusiasm, without youth at heart, without a set of qualities in which youth is abundant: joy, hope, transparency, audacity, creativity, idealism... Yes, your sensitivity and your generosity spontaneous, the tendency towards everything that is beautiful, makes each of you a “natural ally” of Christ. Furthermore, only in Christ will you find an answer to your problems and concerns. And you know why: He was the man who loved the most; and he left us a “code” of love, his Gospel which, read by the Council, “... proclaims the freedom of the children of God; rejects all slavery, ultimately derived from sin; fully respects the dignity of conscience and its free decision; without ceasing, he remembers that all human talents must result in the service of God and men; and, finally, he recommends charity to everyone” ( Gaudium et spes , 41).

In the end, only love saves. And I repeat: the problem of salvation – that is, the victory of good over evil – is a fundamental theme of human life. Man's life unfolds entirely within the orbit of this appeal. Therefore, the theme “salvation” is one that is inscribed, in a particular way, in the souls of young people. It is important to know how to read it with insight and develop it honestly, in life and works.

4. Salvation is a mission. Christ came to tell us that salvation – that is, the Kingdom of God – is a mission. He also came to teach us how we should perform it.

To the seventy-two disciples, whom He sends “two by two ahead of Him, to all the cities and places where He would go”, Christ says: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So ask the owner of the harvest. harvest that sends workers into his harvest” ( Luke 10, 2).

The Church reminds us of these words frequently. She remembers them, in a particular way, to invite us to pray for priestly and religious vocations, for missionary vocations.

But, dear young people, it is not enough to pray for the Lord to awaken vocations. You need to be personally attentive to the appeal He wants to make to you; You must not lack the courage to respond generously to this call. Christian communities need priests who feed them with the Word and the Body of Christ, they need religious life, which is a sign of God and an oblation to God for the benefit of their brothers. And will you not wish to prolong the presence of the Lord in today's world, to respond to the little ones who seek someone to break their bread and cannot find them? (Cfr. Lam . 4, 4)

Talking about evangelization, remembering the missionary task here, in Portugal, is to evoke one of the most positive aspects of your country's history. From here, so many missionaries, your ancestors, left to bring the Good News of salvation to other men. From East to West (Japan, India, Africa, Brazil...); and the fruits of this mission are still visible today. And many of these missionaries were young like you. How not to remember, among others, here in Lisbon, the example of São João de Brito, a young Lisboner, who, leaving the easy life of the court, left for India, to announce the gospel of salvation to the poorest and most unprotected, identifying himself as himself with them, and sealing his fidelity to Christ and his brothers with the testimony of martyrdom?

Boys and girls of Portugal: lift your eyes and see “the golden harvest ready for harvest”, waiting for hands to “work”.

5. We spoke of the priesthood, religious life and missionary work, as forms of vocation that have particular importance in terms of evangelization, and for which the Church prays in a special way. One feels called to this prayer by the words of the Lord: “I therefore ask the owner of the harvest to send workers into his harvest” ( Luke 10:2).

But the words of the Lord Jesus about the “great harvest” and the workers, we must understand them in an even more fundamental and, at the same time, broader sense than that indicated by the types of vocations in the Church that we have just mentioned.

Speaking of the “harvest”, the “great harvest” and the “workers”, Christ wants, first of all, to make his listeners understand that the “Kingdom of God”, that is, “salvation”, is the great task of every man. Each person must feel like a “worker”, the protagonist of their own salvation: the worker who is called to the “harvest”. Each person must honestly “earn” this salvation. And this is also essential for the entire work of evangelization.

“Messe” means, therefore, carrying out the mission of evangelizing in oneself. Each person is called by the word of God to this type of work; each young person is called in particular – boy or girl. We cannot evangelize others if we are not evangelized first. We cannot collaborate in the salvation of others if we do not first enter the path of salvation ourselves.

We began this journey of salvation on the day of our Baptism, when, renouncing evil, we chose good, in Jesus Christ; we begin to live the New Life, the fruit of his Death and Resurrection. This Life must always develop. For this, He stayed with us, in the Church: he stayed especially in the Sacraments; he stayed in the Eucharist and Penance.

Do you all, you young friends, appreciate these sources of Life? You know how to respond to Jesus’ invitation – the Bread of Life! – consciously participating in the Eucharist, with the desire to live fully, to overcome evil and achieve good? And, when it is necessary, because of sin, imperfection or weakness, do you know how to walk the path of conversion and reconciliation, seeking the sacrament of Penance, forgiveness and Life? Form your conscience and be faithful to the Lord, who loves and forgives!

6. As we undertake the “work on ourselves”, we see clearly that we cannot be “workers for our own salvation” without simultaneously thinking about others. The problem of one's own salvation is organically linked to the question of the salvation of others. And this is also essential for evangelization.

Man begins his life by receiving. At birth, he finds himself inserted into a world made by others, especially those closest to him: parents, brothers and sisters. The child receives practically everything there, from food to training. Then he learns to talk, to walk and to live together. By discovering their riches and capabilities, young people seek to overcome this infantile phase of receiving to move on to the phase of giving. He is not content with the world he received. He wants to create “his world”. It's the moment of life's great choice. It is the moment in which the basic orientation to be imprinted on the rest of one’s life is designed and prepared.

This transition, from receiving to giving, from dependence to assuming one's own responsibility, does not occur without crisis. But it is above all a crisis of growth and maturity. Young people are often not understood, nor do they understand themselves. He no longer wants to be treated like a child; but he feels that he is not yet an adult. He often falters within himself.

On the other hand, everything seems to awaken in him: he discovers values, sex, love and the ideal; and also discovers the true dimension of faith. Great discoveries for you, dear young people!

The world no longer appears to you as a myth, but as a great task that is imposed on you; your life no longer presents itself as just a gift. It becomes commitment. Your attitude is not reduced to waiting for everything to be ready.

Two major concerns challenge you, from the perspective of the future: preparation for the profession and preparation for the state of life. These two concerns particularly absorb you, sometimes to the point of impatience. Your tension as young people can be summed up between “already” and “not yet”. You already feel responsibility, but you still don't have opportunities to demonstrate it. You already want to contribute effectively to the common good, both with ideas and works, but you have not yet come across the opportunities.

Now it is exactly at this moment, in the great moment of choosing and preparing your future, that you need Christ most. And, guided by Him, you will be able to choose your profession and your future, keeping in mind the common good and the demands of the kingdom of God, the demands of faith. You are called to “work” on the salvation of others at the same time that you “work” on your own salvation. You are called to be apostles, to evangelize the Good News, whatever your options for the future.

Be generous: choose with love and prepare yourselves well. Prepare yourselves for the profession, honestly and with dignity; prepare yourselves for the state of life you will embrace; and if you choose marriage, do it seriously and with respect for those who will one day share with you the life and ideals of the family according to God.

7. Indeed, the “harvest is great”. It only matters that each of us becomes that authentically evangelical “worker”. The “harvest” indicates the fruit of human labor. But it indicates, at the same time, the gift that comes to us, through creation.

The salvation that Christ places before man as his mission is, at the same time, a gift, it is above all a gift.

“...You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the world” (Acts 1 , 8). These are the last words that, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the Resurrected Christ pronounced on earth, before his ascension to Heaven. We find ourselves in the liturgical period that goes from the Resurrection to the Coming of the Holy Spirit: therefore, such words are relevant. is especially topical for us.

It is from the Holy Spirit that men receive the strength to save themselves. That is, salvation, which is a personal and community task for man, must be accomplished with the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it means, above all, a gift. It is a great gift in which God shares with man something that is essentially his. In a sense, “he gives himself to man”: he gives himself in Christ.

It gives itself to be that force of truth and love, which forms the “new man”, capable of transforming the world: truth that, manifesting itself as a requirement of conscience and human dignity, dictates the options of love, love that brings together, unites, elevates, builds and saves, when we join hands with others in human, Christian and ecclesiastical fraternity. It is given, in particular, in the Sacraments – Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Eucharist – through which the gift that, from the Cenacle came to us, is conferred or increased, as the Bread of Life and as “Strength”, which enriches us, day after day. , until we are resurrected to eternal Life (Cfr. Io . 6, 51. 58), with Christ, to live with the Father.

Thus, we must always welcome salvation as a Gift, and, at the same time, we must apply ourselves to it as a mission.

The more aware we are of the greatness of the Gift, the more ardently we take on the mission, the more seriously we become “workers of the harvest”. Here is the bottom of the matter; This is the vital context of evangelization.

8. The Resurrected Christ calls his disciples to evangelization, telling them: “you will be my witnesses” ( Acts 1, 8). Here's the keyword!

We become witnesses of Christ when, like the disciples of the Gospel, the problem of salvation matures within us, the problem of the call to the Kingdom of God. When we welcome it, we appropriate it and identify with it. When it shapes our entire life and our way of acting.

Young people, boys and girls, children of Portugal today:

Look at so many who preceded you in the past, who were also children of this country. Children of their culture and their language. Of your trials and your victories.

How many of them responded, with the total donation of their lives, to Christ's call! From Queen Saint Elizabeth to João de Deus, from António de Lisboa to João de Brito – to speak only of canonized saints – along different paths, they all moved in the charity of God, in love with the ideal of truth and love, moved by the Spirit and Christ. And who can say, given your enthusiasm and joy, that young Portuguese people today are less interested, less available and less attentive to Christ than those of the past? Yes, Christ trusts in you! The Church trusts in you! The Pope trusts you!

Welcome, beloved young people, welcome once again Christ's call: Be witnesses of Him!

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