The theme of hope in Christ was recurrent in the Pope’s homily.
“The outpouring of Christ’s Spirit upon humanity is a pledge of hope and deliverance from everything that impoverishes us. It gives the blind new sight; it sets the downtrodden free, and it creates unity in and through diversity. This power can create a new world: it can ‘renew the face of the earth’!”
A New Age of the Holy Spirit
The Pope spoke of a “new age,” where “a new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished – not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed.”
“A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty.”
“A new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of his love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.”
The Pope proclaimed that such renewal is necessary, saying that there “is [in] so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.”
“The Church especially needs the gifts of young people, all young people.”
The Pope also called the young people to unity and to create an new era of evangelization.
“I pray that this great assembly, which unites young people ‘from every nation under heaven,’ will be a new Upper Room.”
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell also said a few words thanking the Pope and giving thanks for World Youth Day.
“Your Holiness… just a few days after your election as Bishop of Rome, you said that the historic days of April 2005 taught us that “the Church is not old and immobile; she is young.”
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
“So we give thanks for the WYD, which is a gift for the Church as a whole, for those both old and young. At WYD, the Church appears as she truly is, alive with evangelical energy!”