The Holy Father, Pope Francis has sent a video message to those who are participating in the III World Meeting of Youth organized by Scholas Occurentes and World ORT. The gathering is taking place in Buenos Aires from 29 October to 1 November 2018.
Dear young members of Scholas, today we are gathered here:
I want to celebrate with you this festival of meeting, a meeting of people: each one of you is a person. Yours is an encounter of different creeds, countries, languages, realities; an encounter of different identities, because in order to meet you have to be sure of your own identity. You cannot walk without first negotiating your identity in order to meet others, you can not make up your identity, you can not disguise it, because life is not a carnival, it's something very serious. And a meeting has to be serious, with great joy, but serious: from the heart.
The word identity is not easy. It is a question about who am I. And it is one of the most important questions one can ask: in our own sight, in the eyes of others, before God, in all of history. Who I am?
This question goes hand in hand with the question regarding the meaning of my life, who I am and what meaning my life has. But be careful, it is not a question of getting rid of or responding quickly or otherwise forgetting all about it. It's a question worth always keeping, always. And keep it open, keep it close to your heart: I, who am I?
Our identity is not given data, it is not a factory number, it is not information that I can search for on the internet in order to know who I am. We are not something totally defined, established. We are on the way, we are growing, and that nucleus of identity is growing, growing, and we are walking; We are growing with our own style, with our own history, with that core of our own identity. We are witnesses, we are editors and readers of our lives and we are not the only authors: we are what God dreams for us, what we tell ourselves, what others tell us, as long as we are faithful. Faithful to our personal integrity, faithful to our inner nobility, faithful to a word that people are afraid of: faithful to coherence. There are no laboratory identities, none. Every identity has a history. And having a history, it has ownership. My identity comes from a family, a village, a community. You cannot talk about identity without talking about belonging. Identity is belonging. Belong to something that transcends me, something that is bigger than you.
The danger, so present in these times, is when an identity forgets its roots, forgets where it comes from, forgets its history, is not open to the difference of current coexistence; he sees the other with fear, sees him as an enemy, and that is where the war begins. Just grab the daily newspaper or watch the news: it starts out small at first, almost imperceptible, but in the end, it is great and terrible. Therefore, so that identity does not become violent, does not become authoritarian, does not become a denier of difference, it permanently needs the encounter with the other, it needs dialogue, it needs to grow in each encounter and it needs the memory of one's own belonging. What are my roots? Where do I come from? What is the culture of my people? There are no abstract identities. Well, there would be one, which is the identity card that is a paper. But that does not work, that does not make you grow. At most, it will leave you calm when someone asks you for security: Enough, well done. There are no identities in laboratories, no still identities. Who am I? Let's ask the question again. Let's get back on track, grow on the road, with memory, with dialogue, with belonging and with hope. And in this way, we will enrich ourselves more each day.
Identity is belonging. Please, take care of it, take care of your own property. Do not be fooled. Take care of your own property. And do so also when we see people who do not respect anything between us. How many times have we heard: You do not trust him because you sell to his mother. Everyone ask yourself: Do I sell my property? Do I sell the history of my people? Do I sell the culture of my people? Do I sell my culture and what I received from my family? Do I sell the coherence of life? Do I sell dialogue with my brother, even if I have different ideas, or do I imagine dialogue? Do not sell what is our deepest treasure, which is our belonging, the identity that is developed on the way, when there is a meeting of different identities to enrich each other. Fraternity is made.
I want to thank all those who made this meeting possible: your parents and your teachers, for allowing and accompanying you; the authorities, for opening the door and facilitating the experience; Bort schools and all religious communities who enrich the story of this meeting and each one of us through our diversities. And I want to thank you, young Scholas, for letting life tell you a new chapter at every step. Do not be afraid of that. For encouraging you to mix your languages, to tell your stories without renouncing them, for letting yourselves be rewritten by the other, by something different, by a stranger, always being different and, at the same time, always being more and more yourselves. And creating your identity, so that through belonging you have received, this is a work of art. It is what I wish you. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
(Original text in Spanish)
Video Message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the III World Meeting of Youth
organized by Scholas Occurentes
Dear young members of Scholas, today we are gathered here:
I want to celebrate with you this festival of meeting, a meeting of people: each one of you is a person. Yours is an encounter of different creeds, countries, languages, realities; an encounter of different identities, because in order to meet you have to be sure of your own identity. You cannot walk without first negotiating your identity in order to meet others, you can not make up your identity, you can not disguise it, because life is not a carnival, it's something very serious. And a meeting has to be serious, with great joy, but serious: from the heart.
The word identity is not easy. It is a question about who am I. And it is one of the most important questions one can ask: in our own sight, in the eyes of others, before God, in all of history. Who I am?
This question goes hand in hand with the question regarding the meaning of my life, who I am and what meaning my life has. But be careful, it is not a question of getting rid of or responding quickly or otherwise forgetting all about it. It's a question worth always keeping, always. And keep it open, keep it close to your heart: I, who am I?
Our identity is not given data, it is not a factory number, it is not information that I can search for on the internet in order to know who I am. We are not something totally defined, established. We are on the way, we are growing, and that nucleus of identity is growing, growing, and we are walking; We are growing with our own style, with our own history, with that core of our own identity. We are witnesses, we are editors and readers of our lives and we are not the only authors: we are what God dreams for us, what we tell ourselves, what others tell us, as long as we are faithful. Faithful to our personal integrity, faithful to our inner nobility, faithful to a word that people are afraid of: faithful to coherence. There are no laboratory identities, none. Every identity has a history. And having a history, it has ownership. My identity comes from a family, a village, a community. You cannot talk about identity without talking about belonging. Identity is belonging. Belong to something that transcends me, something that is bigger than you.
The danger, so present in these times, is when an identity forgets its roots, forgets where it comes from, forgets its history, is not open to the difference of current coexistence; he sees the other with fear, sees him as an enemy, and that is where the war begins. Just grab the daily newspaper or watch the news: it starts out small at first, almost imperceptible, but in the end, it is great and terrible. Therefore, so that identity does not become violent, does not become authoritarian, does not become a denier of difference, it permanently needs the encounter with the other, it needs dialogue, it needs to grow in each encounter and it needs the memory of one's own belonging. What are my roots? Where do I come from? What is the culture of my people? There are no abstract identities. Well, there would be one, which is the identity card that is a paper. But that does not work, that does not make you grow. At most, it will leave you calm when someone asks you for security: Enough, well done. There are no identities in laboratories, no still identities. Who am I? Let's ask the question again. Let's get back on track, grow on the road, with memory, with dialogue, with belonging and with hope. And in this way, we will enrich ourselves more each day.
Identity is belonging. Please, take care of it, take care of your own property. Do not be fooled. Take care of your own property. And do so also when we see people who do not respect anything between us. How many times have we heard: You do not trust him because you sell to his mother. Everyone ask yourself: Do I sell my property? Do I sell the history of my people? Do I sell the culture of my people? Do I sell my culture and what I received from my family? Do I sell the coherence of life? Do I sell dialogue with my brother, even if I have different ideas, or do I imagine dialogue? Do not sell what is our deepest treasure, which is our belonging, the identity that is developed on the way, when there is a meeting of different identities to enrich each other. Fraternity is made.
I want to thank all those who made this meeting possible: your parents and your teachers, for allowing and accompanying you; the authorities, for opening the door and facilitating the experience; Bort schools and all religious communities who enrich the story of this meeting and each one of us through our diversities. And I want to thank you, young Scholas, for letting life tell you a new chapter at every step. Do not be afraid of that. For encouraging you to mix your languages, to tell your stories without renouncing them, for letting yourselves be rewritten by the other, by something different, by a stranger, always being different and, at the same time, always being more and more yourselves. And creating your identity, so that through belonging you have received, this is a work of art. It is what I wish you. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
(Original text in Spanish)
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