The Evangelical Pope | What Constitutes Life?

Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love

               ”Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben“

               _ John 14: 6

Sportplatz der Benediktinerabtei Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 15 Juni 1984 | You often ask yourself, alone or in the community:

               "What ultimately constitutes my life?

               Where can I find something desirable that gives my life meaning, support, stability, and reliability?"

With a unique sensitivity to young people, you wrestle with the more profound questions about where life comes from, what it is for, and where it is going.

Are you looking for values that are important to you? Do you look for ideals that enrich your life and for which you are ready to fight? I call to you:

               Don't deter yourself from your search, don't be satisfied with cheap answers, and check with alert eyes what will lead you to true happiness.

Another thing: You young people feel primarily responsible for the lives and survival of people in our endangered world. That is why you express your fears very freely and openly:

               Your fear of the ever-increasing gap of injustice between rich and poor, your fear of the threat to peace in our world due to the enormous nuclear armament, and your fear of the loss of the meaning of life due to the widespread consumerism in our societies.

I share your anxious worries and fears because they are also my worries, which I have expressed many times. 

Keep the courage to ask and search anxiously! It is unreasonable not to want to have fear or suppress it, as fear is necessary for us humans when looking at our world. Young people are sometimes the only ones who express their fears and anxieties.

This is your right and your duty towards a world and society for which you still need to be responsible and for which many things do not correspond to your legitimate hopes and ideals.

Excerpted from:

ASTORALBESUCH IN DER SCHWEIZ, ANSPRACHE VON JOHANNES PAUL II. AN DIE JUGENDLICHEN AUS DER DEUTSCHSPRACHIGEN SCHWEIZ, Sportplatz der Benediktinerabtei Einsiedeln, Freitag, 15. Juni 1984

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/de/speeches/1984/june/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19840615_giovani.html