PENNABILLI, Italy, JUNE 20, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI encouraged the youth of the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro to grow in friendship with Christ so as to be an example for their peers and to build a more just world.
The Pope said this Sunday in an address to a gathering of youth, held in the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele of Pennabilli. The event took place at the end of the Holy Father’s one-day pastoral visit to the diocese.
The Pontiff spoke to the youth present of the fundamental questions of life, noting that not even the most advanced technical and scientific knowledge can offer «answers and solutions to all of humanity’s problems.»
He said that mankind will always ask questions about the «meaning of life and of death, on the meaning of suffering,» he explained, as they «are inscribed in the human soul, in our heart, and they surpass the sphere of necessities.»
Even in the midst of progress, and the comforts of an advanced society, he added, the individual «continues to be a being open to the whole truth of existence, who cannot stay with material things, but who opens to a much wider horizon.»
Benedict XVI told the youth that «scientific data and technological instruments cannot replace the world of life, the horizons of meaning and of liberty, the richness of relationships of friendship and love.»
The Lord is with you
In seeking answers to the fundamental questions of life, the Pope urged the young people to «grow in friendship» with Christ. He suggested reading the Gospel and frequent participation on the sacraments and spiritual direction as the means to encounter Christ.
«Transformed by the Holy Spirit,» the Pope said, «you will be able to experience genuine liberty, which is so when it is oriented to the good. In this way your life, animated by a continual search for the Lord’s face and by the sincere will to give yourselves, will be for many of your contemporaries a sign, an eloquent call to make the desire for plenitude that is in all of us be finally realized in the encounter with the Lord Jesus.»
Benedict XVI urged, «Let the mystery of Christ illumine your whole person!»
Filled with Christ, he said, «you will be able to bring to different environments that novelty that can change relations, institutions, structures to build a more just and solidaristic world, animated by the quest for the common good.»
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: www.zenit.org/article-32897?l=english
