Panama City, Panama, Jan 27, 2019 / 07:49 am
Serving God and his mission is not a passing thing, but can and should be pursued in the present, with one's entire life, Pope Francis said Sunday at the closing Mass for World Youth Day in Panama City.
"Brothers and sisters, the Lord and his mission are not a 'meantime' in our life, something temporary; they are our life!" the pope said Jan. 27. "Not tomorrow but now, for wherever your treasure is, there will your heart also be."
Jesus "wants to be our treasure, because he is not a 'meantime,' an interval in life or a passing fad; he is generous love that invites us to entrust ourselves," he continued. "You, dear young people, are not the future but the now of God."
At the end of the Mass, which officially closed World Youth Day 2019 in Panama, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, announced that the next international youth gathering will be in Lisbon, Portugal in 2022.