Every year the Pope writes a message to young people all over the world. The tradition was started by Pope John Paul II in 1987 for the 2nd World Youth Day celebration and has since been continued by his successors.
Pope Francis’ message for the 36th World Youth Day addresses young people after the difficulties that have arisen during the pandemic. As with past messages he takes the opportunity to break open the Word as relevant to the theme, in this case Paul’s Testimony to King Agrippa from Acts 26.
This message has been instrumental in inspiring the WYD planning team, not only for the event preparations, but as a reminder to what we are called to do as Christians. St Paul’s testimony outlines a path to being missionary disciples that we can all endeavour to follow. It begins with being truly seen and known by God, it involves a change of perspective, and it ends with a new path, or calling, to ‘Stand Up!’ and witness to those with whom we come in contact with.
What has become very clear in conversations with the planning team is the understanding shared by all of us that we are called to witness in different ways. We all have different gifts to offer, none of which are better than any other person’s gifts. For some of the young people who attend the Sandhurst World Youth Day celebrations, Social and Ecological Justice will be a way for them to Stand Up and share their experience of God and faith. For others, it will be joining with other people to form or continue local groups to share their faith journey together in prayer. And for some, it will mean they Stand Up and take the next step towards discernment of their personal vocation. There are countless ways we, as missionary disciples, are asked to Stand Up and no one’s experience and way of moving forward will look the same. But it all comes from the same place that St Paul’s mission began; a place of being seen, known and called by God.
We bring young people together as a community to provide the opportunity for them to encounter God through music, speakers, workshops and, most importantly, each other. It is a step along the journey that attempts to brings people together and sends them out again to Stand Up and share their experience in whatever way is true to them.
I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from Pope Francis’ message that summarises what he has written.
“Arise and bear witness!”
When we embrace the new life bestowed on us in baptism, the Lord gives us an important and life-changing mission: “You are to be my witness!”
Today Christ speaks to you the same words that he spoke to Paul: Arise! Do not remain downcast or caught up in yourself: a mission awaits you! You too can testify to what Jesus has begun to accomplish in your lives. In Jesus’ name, I ask you:
- Arise! Testify that you too were blind and encountered the light. You too have seen God’s goodness and beauty in yourself, in others and in the communion of the Church, where all loneliness is overcome.
- Arise! Testify to the love and respect it is possible to instil in human relationships, in the lives of our families, in the dialogue between parents and children, between the young and the elderly.
- Arise! Uphold social justice, truth and integrity, human rights. Protect the persecuted, the poor and the vulnerable, those who have no voice in society, immigrants.
- Arise! Testify to the new way of looking at things that enables you to view creation with eyes brimming with wonder, that makes you see the Earth as our common home, and gives you the courage to promote an integral ecology.
- Arise! Testify that lives of failure can be rebuilt, that persons spiritually dead can rise anew, that those in bondage can once more be free, that hearts overwhelmed by sorrow can rediscover hope.
- Arise! Testify joyfully that Christ is alive! Spread his message of love and salvation among your contemporaries, at school and in the university, at work, in the digital world, everywhere.
The Lord, the Church and the Pope trust you and appoint you to bear witness before all those other young people whom you will encounter on today’s “roads to Damascus”. Never forget that “anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Evangelii Gaudium, 120).
The full text can be found on the Vatican website:
XXXVI World Youth Day, 2021: “Stand up. I appoint you as a witness of what you have seen." (cf. Acts 26:16) | Francis (vatican.va)