In the course of his address, Francis quoted homilies of both Benedict XVI and St. Oscar Romero.
The Pope asked the youth to say yes to the love of Christ through a culture of encounter, which unites people from different places and cultures.
"...we know that the father of lies prefers people who are divided and quarrelling to people who have learned to work together," he said.
"You teach us that encountering one another does not mean having to look alike, or think the same way or do the same things, listening to the same music or wearing the same football jersey. No, not at all…The culture of encounter is a call inviting us to dare to keep alive a shared dream," he said.
"Yes, a great dream, a dream that has a place for everyone. The dream for which Jesus gave his life on the cross, for which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost and brought fire to the heart of every man and woman, in your hearts and mine, in the hope of finding room to grow and flourish. A dream named Jesus, sown by the Father in the confidence that it would grow and live in every heart," he said.
Just as Christ told his disciples to love one another as he loved them, Christ is calling the pilgrims of World Youth Day to love one another as Christ has loved them, the Pope noted.
"It means pursuing the dream for which he gave his life: loving with the same love with which he loved us," he said.
"We can ask: What keeps us united? Why are we united? What prompts us to encounter each other? The certainty of knowing that we have been loved with a profound love that we neither can nor want to keep quiet about a love that challenges us to respond in the same way: with love. It is the love of Christ that urges us on."
"Do you want this dream to come alive? Do you want to make it take flesh with your hands, with your feet, with your gaze, with your heart? Do you want the Father's love to open new horizons for you and bring you along paths never imagined or hoped for, dreamt or expected, making our hearts rejoice, sing and dance?" he asked the youth.
The hope of World Youth Day, the Pope noted, is not a joint document or program that will be issued at the end. Rather, it is that pilgrims will return to their homes, filled with the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ that they encountered in Panama.
"Each of you will return home with the new strength born of every encounter with others and with the Lord. You will return home filled with the Holy Spirit, so that you can cherish and keep alive the dream that makes us brothers and sisters, and that we must not let grow cold in the heart of our world," he said.
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"Wherever we may be and whatever we may do, we can always look up and say, 'Lord, teach me to love as you have loved us.'"