Pope Francis exhorts young people put themselves on the line

By Edoardo Giribaldi

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19). Pope Francis introduced his prepared remarks to the young members of Catholic Action recalling Jesus' exhortation "to every Christian in every age."

The Pope expressed his gratitude to the National President of Italian Catholic Action, Giuseppe Notarstefano; the Assistant General, Bishop Gualtiero Sigismondi; and the Catholic Action leaders and the educators, all working for younger generations' "human and Christian growth."

Pope Francis focused on the verb used by Jesus: "Go!" A crucial indication, capable of "transforming the disciple into an apostle," making him a missionary. "And you too, dear friends, are called to go, because God doesn't like it when we stay lazy on the couch."

Look for each other

The indication of "going" might raise another question: Where? Toward whom? "Toward others," Pope Francis said, "toward, as Jesus says in the Gospel, all people, excluding no one."

The Pope stressed the risk for young generations to spend their days retreating into their shells, with their eyes stuck on their phones.

"Our eyes," the Pope explained, "are made to look at each other. Not to look below to a virtual world that we keep in our hands, but to look up to the sky, to God, and in the eyes of the people living beside us."

Find life's true beauty

Our eyes become, therefore, one of the first mediums to transmit "the joy that we've experienced when we got to know Jesus," the Pope remarked. "That friendship that transforms our existence, makes us embrace life, and allows us to find its true beauty."

"Get out on the field"

To witness the love of God, it is fundamental to "go out on the field," Pope Francis stated. "Not individually, but together, as a group. It is essential, in other words, to team up, to discover ourselves as brothers and sisters in a world that tends to isolate, divide, and set us against each other."

"That's the spirit that overcomes indifference," the Pope affirmed. Thinking about "the little ones, the poor, the forgotten, the discarded, those no one cares about" is the secret to making our world "more beautiful, just, and peaceful."

Walk with God

This is also the message, according to the Pope, that the upcoming Christmas celebrations are capable of bringing: "God enters in the world and gives us the strength to move forward, to walk with Him." With His advent, He became "our traveling companion. And He will never, ever abandon us."

"He looks forward," Pope Francis said, "to accompanying us in our affairs, in all the affairs of life, to help us discover the meaning of the journey, the meaning of the every day. To infuse us with courage in trials and pain. To lift us up after every fall and protect us in the midst of every storm."

"So go, dear friends! May the vivacity and talents that each of you has - we all have them, no one is without great talents. Let us not forget that! - be available to all and bear fruit" Pope Francis said, before concluding his prepared remarks with a blessing for those present and with best wishes for a joyful Christmas.