Serving the Youth and serving the Church

Venerable brothers in the episcopate; dear sons and daughters through the world,

Vocations – at the very heart of the Church

      1. The XXII World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which will be celebrated as in previous years on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is an occasion on which, as Pastor of the Universal Church, I feel the urgent duty to exhort all the baptized to help with the unceasing prayer and pastoral activity in the promotion of vocations to the priesthood, vocations to the consecrated life in its multiple forms, and vocations to the missions. This is a vital problem in the heart of the Church; on its solution depends her future, her development and her universal mission of salvation.

The youth as special focus

      Since Paul VI instituted the World Day, the Pontifical Messages have been addressed to the whole people of God but with young people especially in mind. This focus takes on a particular rationale and significance in 1985, which the United Nations have proclaimed International Youth Year.

      This is an initiative from which the Church does not want to be absent. Indeed she intends to make her own contribution connected to the faith and Christian values. Numerous activities have been planned and others will be promoted whether at the level of the universal Church or at the level of the particular Church. I myself have already invited young people throughout the world to meet in Rome on Palm Sunday to proclaim together that “Christ is our peace”.

      It is my great desire that in this year a special approach will also be promoted among young people on behalf of vocations to the consecrated life. The World Day is an ideal point of reference for greater and more incisive action. This is the specific witness which Christian communities expect from the young. In this perspective my word is addressed first to the new generations, and, second, to all those invested with pastoral and educational responsibility.

Christ’s preferential love for the youth

      2. Young men, young women, Christ loves you! Behold the glad message which cannot but fill you with amazement. My message for you cannot be other than that of the Gospel itself: Christ has a preferential love for you, and provokes you to love.

      I have spoken with you along many roads across the world and everywhere I have met young people thirsty for love and for truth and assailed by many questions and problems about the meaning to give to their lives.

      Unfortunately, it is not rare for you to meet false guides and false teachers who try to falter you, to abuse your generosity and also to turn you towards activities which generates only bitterness and delusion.

Encountering the loving Master

      Now I would like to ask you: have you encountered Him who is proclaimed the only true “Master” (Mt. 23:8)? Do you know that he alone “has the message of eternal life” (Jn. 6:68) and possesses the truest answers to your problems?

      The love of Christ is the greatest strength in all the world, it is your strength. Have you made this marvelous discovery? When a young man or young woman has met Him personally and discovered His love, he or she trusts Him, listens to His voice, begins to follow Him, ready for anything, ready to give his or her life to Him.

Consider to call to priestly and consecrated life

      3. Young men, young women, Christ is calling you! Love takes various paths, so there are different tasks which He entrusts to each of you.

      In Christian life every baptized person has a “call” from the Lord, and all vocations are important, all must be heard and followed with generosity. However, the Lord Jesus, in founding the Church, decided to institute particular ministries which He entrusted to those whom He freely chose from among His disciples.

      Thus, the Divine Redeemer wants many of you, more numerous that you may think, to participate in the ministerial priesthood in order to give the Eucharist to humanity, to forgive sins, to guide the community. Christ counts on you for this marvelous mission. Priests are necessary to the world because Christ is necessary.

      The Lord Jesus asks many of you to leave everything to follow Him, poor, chase, obedient. To many young people the mysterious appeal is addressed to live a virginal, celibate life in exclusive love with Him.

Readiness and generosity

      Perhaps you think that this calls concerns others and cannot possibly be addressed to you personally? Do they seem very difficult because they involve sacrifices and even the offering of one’s life?

      Look at the readiness of the Apostles. Look at the magnificent experience of thousands and thousands of priests, deacons, religious, sisters, consecrated laity, missionaries who were heroically, before humanity, witness to Christ dead and risen.

      Look at the generosity of Thousands and thousands of young people who in seminaries, novitiates and other institutes of formation are preparing for Holy Orders, the profession of the Evangelical counsels, the missionary mandate. To all these young people goes my encouragement and the invitation to suggest to other members of their age-group the ideals which they themselves are realizing.

Go, you are sent

      4. Young men, young women, Christ sends you! “Go out into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to every creature” (Mk. 16:15). These words which were uttered by the Lord Jesus before ascending to the Father are addressed today to many of you. We are in the threshold of the third millennium since the coming of Jesus, yet a huge number of people have still not received the light of the Gospel and live in the grave conditions of injustice and misery.

Disproportion between needs and workers

      The Lord Himself reveals the disproportion between the immense needs of universal salvation and the insufficient number of co-workers. “The harvest is great but the laborers are few” (Mt. 9:37); thus He spoke seeing the crowds of every age, tired and exhausted like sheep without a shepherd. On my apostolic journeys in each part of the world this lament of the Lord seems ever more real.

God’s grace as the remedy

      Only the grace of God, sought in prayer, can remedy this sad disproportion. Will you remain indifferent, hearing the cry which rises from humanity? I exhort you to pray and also to offer yourselves if the Lord of the harvest invites you as laborers in his harvest (cf. Mt. 9:38).

      Put yourselves in the front line among those who are ready to leave their own land for the mission without borders. Through your very selves, Christ wishes to reach out to the whole of humanity.

The responsibility of Christian communities

      5. My message now turns to all Christian communities, because all bear responsibility with regard to the young. In particular, I turn to you, venerable Brothers in the Episcopate, and to the many who share with you specific pastoral and educational tasks: priests, consecrated persons, vocation animators, parents, catechists, teachers, educators.

      In this year dedicated to youth let us take note afresh of all that they mean for the Church.

      Remember: to serve the young is to serve the Church! This is a priority to which other tasks, commitments and interests must be subordinated and directed.

      Love the young as Christ loves them. get to know them and make yourselves  known personally. Go to them because often they won’t come to you spontaneously.

Courage to propose God’s call to the young

Above all, make yourselves courageous instruments of the call that the Lord addresses to the young.

      The basic pastoral life of the young would be incomplete if it is not open to consecrated vocations. I underline this emphatically in the Conclusive Document of the Second International Vocation Congress (cf. no.42) which I once again draw to your attention.

The Church’s right and duty to call and to propose consecrated vocations

      The Church has received from Christ the right and the duty to call and propose consecrated vocations: not to impose charisms and ministries on those who have not received them from the Holy Spirit, but in order to reveal the enterprise of God which is written in the hearts of so many young people and is often suffocated by surrounding circumstances. For their part young men and young women have the right and the duty to help to discover and live the call of God.

      Let there be seen in the International Youth Year a multiplication of efforts to this end. Above all may the World Day be a powerful occasion of prayer for an ever new vocational fruitfulness.

Prayer for Vocations among the youth

      6. In communion with all young people in the world, we raise our prayer to the Lord of the harvest that the Gospel laborers be increased in the certainty that He will want to hear that which the Lord Jesus has expressly commanded us to do:

      “God our Father, we entrust to you the young men and women of the world, with their problems, aspirations and hopes. Look upon them with love and make them workers for peace and builders of a loving civilization.

      “Call them to follow Jesus, your Son. Make them understand that to give one’s whole life for you and humanity is worthwhile. Grant generosity and readiness in reply.

      “Listen, Lord, to our praise and our prayer also for the young people who, after the example of Mary, Mother of the Church, have believed in your word and are preparing for Holy Orders, profession of the evangelical counsels, missionary work. Help them to understand that the call which you have made to them is ever real and urgent. Amen.”

      In the confident hope that the Lord will not fail to hear the prayer of the Church for vocations, I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you venerable brothers in the episcopate, priests, religious men, religious women, all the People of God, and especially to young men and young women who have generously heeded the divine call.

From the Vatican, 25 January 1985.