Pope Urges Youth to Be Missionaries in the World
Closing Mass Draws 1 Million Participants
COLOGNE, Germany, AUG. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appealed to
more
than 1 million young people to become new missionaries in a world that
is
forgetting God.
In his homily at the closing Mass of World Youth Day, the Pope said:
"Anyone
who has discovered Christ must lead others to him. A great joy cannot
be
kept to oneself. It has to be passed on."
The Mass, celebrated today in the Marienfeld esplanade, some 27
kilometers
(17 miles) from the center of Cologne, ended with the ceremony to "Hand
Over
the Cross" to the young people present and to give them a "missionary
sending" to all continents.
Youths "are ready to leave Cologne as young apostles of the third
millennium," said Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, president of the
Pontifical
Council for the Laity, in his address to the Pontiff at the opening of
the
concluding ceremony. The Council for the Laity oversees World Youth
Days.
During his homily, Benedict XVI said that in "vast areas of the world
today
there is a strange forgetfulness of God."
"It seems as if everything would be just the same even without him," he
continued. "But at the same time there is a feeling of frustration, a
sense
of dissatisfaction with everyone and everything.
"People tend to exclaim: 'This cannot be what life is about!' Indeed
not.
And so, together with forgetfulness of God there is a kind of new
explosion
of religion."
The Pope warned, however, that religion could become a "consumer
product."
"People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit
from
it," he said. "But religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis
cannot
ultimately help us. It may be comfortable, but at times of crisis we
are
left to ourselves."
Thus the Holy Father appealed to young people gathered in Cologne to
"help
people discover the true star that points out the way to us: Jesus
Christ!"
"Let us seek to know him better and better, so as to be able to guide
others
to him with conviction," he stated.
Faith in community
As a means to discover and proclaim Christ, the Pope mentioned active
participation in Sunday Mass, the sacrament of reconciliation,
meditation on
Scripture, and reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its
recently
published Compendium.
"Build communities based on faith!" exhorted Benedict XVI. "In recent
decades movements and communities have come to birth in which the power
of
the Gospel is keenly felt.
"The spontaneity of new communities is important, but it is also
important
to preserve communion with the Pope and with the bishops. It is they
who
guarantee that we are not seeking private paths, but are living as
God's
great family, founded by the Lord through the Twelve Apostles."
Benedict XVI expressed his satisfaction with the welcome that young
people
gave him. Putting his papers aside, he thanked them at the start of the
Mass, and expressed his wish to greet them personally "one by one."
The majority of young people present had spent a cold night on the
Marienfeld, after meeting with the Pope for a three-hour vigil. Their
exhaustion, and the cold and mist, did not stop them from greeting the
Pope
with applause.