They waited for him all night after they prayed together looking at the ostensory that was the same in front of which the blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati knelt. Over one million young people, they estimate the authorities, after having slept in Tor Vergata, take part in the Mass with Leo XIV. The “generation of Francis”, who grew up under the pontificate of the Argentine Pope, wants to meet and praise God. Prevost looks at them from above, making the helicopter raise the helicopter for a further lap on the great esplanade, ee then greets them closely with a very long spinobile ride.
They addressed to them in several languages, as he has accustomed us to listen, to make himself understood by everyone. Italian, Spanish and English to say that true hope comes from Christ. A meeting, the one with the Risen Lord, “who changes our existence, which illuminates our affections, desires, thoughts”. Explains the readings, Pope Leo. Who tell us of our limit and our fragility, with the image of the grass that is annoyed in the evening. “Strong calls, perhaps a little shocking, which, however, must not scare us, as if they were” taboo “topics, to be avoided”, explains the pontiff. «The fragility they talk about, in fact, is part of the wonder we are. Let’s think about the grass symbol: isn’t a meadow in bloom beautiful? Of course, it is delicate, made of slender, vulnerable stems, subject to dry out, bend, break, and however at the same time immediately replaced by others who sprout after them, and of which the former generously become nourishment and fertilizer, with their consuming on the ground. This is how the field lives, renewing itself continuously, and even during the freezing months of winter, when everything seems to be silent, its energy rashes underground and prepares to explode, in spring, in a thousand colors ».
Like grass too We are made for this: “Not for a life where everything is obvious and firm, but for an existence that constantly regenerates in the gift, in love. And so we constantly aspire to a “more” that no reality created can give us; We feel a big and burning thirst for such, that no drink in this world can extinguish it ». The Pope spurs not to deceive the heart trying to turn off this thirst “with ineffective surrogates!”. Instead, at twenty, it is nice to open his heart to God “allow him to enter, and then venture with him towards the eternal spaces of the infinity”. He cites Sant’Agostino who wondered what the object of our hope is. “Is it the earth? No. Something that derives from the earth, like gold, silver, tree, masse, water (…)? These things like, these things are beautiful, these things are good ». But then he concluded that we must seek those who did all these things, “he is your hope”.
In Spanish he repeats the words of Pope Francis in Lisbon, during the 2023 GMG, precisely on August 3, when other young people like you said: «Everyone is called to confront great questions that do not have (…) a simplistic or immediate answer, but invite you to make a journey, to overcome themselves, to go further (…), to a take -off without which there is no flight. Let’s not alarmed then if we find ourselves internally thirsty, restless, unfinished, eager for meaning and future (…). We are not sick, we are alive! ».
And for this reason there is a question that lives the heart. The Pope pronounces it in English: «What is happiness really? What is the true taste of life? What free us from the ponds of non -sense, of boredom, of mediocrity? », He asks the boys. It reminds them of the beautiful experiences just made: «You met among peers from various parts of the world, belonging to different cultures. You exchanged knowledge, you shared expectations, you dialogue with the city through art, music, computer science, sport. At the Circus Maximus, then, approaching the sacrament of penance, you received the forgiveness of God and asked for his help for a good life ».
In all these experiences there is an important truth: “The fullness of our existence does not depend on what we accumulate nor, as we have heard in the Gospel, on what we possess. It is rather linked to what we joyfully welcome and share. Buying, getting into it, consuming, is not enough. We need to raise our eyes, to look up, to the “things of up there”, to realize that everything makes sense, among the realities of the world, only to the extent that it serves to unite us with God and brothers in charity, making “feelings of tenderness, goodness, humility, meekness, magnanimity” grow in us “”, of forgiveness, of peace, like those of Christ “. Only in this horizon is it clear what it means that hope does not disappoint.
“Dear young people, our hope is Jesus,” says Leone remembering the words of John Paul II. “It is he” who arouses in you the desire to make your life something great (…), to improve yourself and society, making it more human and fraternal “”.
It indicates as witnesses Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, “who will soon be proclaimed holy” and who have cultivated friendship with the Lord “with prayer, adoration, Eucharistic communion, frequent confession, generous charity”. And again, he concludes, “aspired to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Don’t satisfy you less. Then you will see the light of the Gospel grow every day, around you and around you ».
