The Holy Father, Pope Francis has sent a video message to participants taking part in the IV World Meeting of Youth organized by the Scholas Occurrentes Foundation and World Ort. The Meeting is taking place in Mexico City (Mexico) from 28 to 31 October 2019.
Dear young people of Scholas Occurrentes gathered from many nations of the world, I celebrate with you the completion of this encounter. I wish I could be there, I wish I could stay there with you.
What would this encounter be if it didn't have an end? Maybe it wouldn't be an encounter. And what would this life be like if it also had no end?
I know that someone is going to say: Father, do not let this gathering become a funeral. But let's think about this. I know from a good source that they kept the question about death burning throughout your experience. There you played, thought and created based on your differences.
Well, I celebrate and thank you for this. Because, do you know something? A question about death is a question about life, and keeping our questions about death open, perhaps, is the greatest human responsibility to keep our questions about life open.
Just as words are born out of silence and there they end, allowing us to hear their meanings, the same goes for life. This may sound somewhat paradoxical, but ... it is death that allows life to remain alive!
It is the end that allows a story to be written, a painting to be painted, two bodies to embrace. But beware, the end is not alone at the end. Maybe we should pay attention to every little end of everyday life. Not only at the end of the story - for we never know when it ends - but at the end of each word, at the end of each silence, of each page being written. Only a conscious life of this moment ends, it makes this moment eternal.
On the other hand, death reminds us of the impossibility of being, understanding and encompassing everything. It is a slap to our illusion of omnipotence. It teaches us in life to relate to mystery. The confidence of jumping into the void and realizing that we don't fall, that we don't sink; that always and forever there is someone there who supports us. Before and after the end.
It is the not knowing of this questioning the place of fragility that opens us to the listening and meeting of the other; it is that arising from the shock that calls us to create; and the sense that brings us together to celebrate it.
Finally, the question of death has always formed - throughout the ages and across the land - different communities, peoples and cultures. The different stories that fight in so many corners to stay alive, and others, that have not yet been born. That is why today, perhaps as never before, we should touch upon this question.
The world is already set up, where everything is explained. There is no place for the open question. That's true? It is true but it is not true. That is our world. It has been configured and there is no place for the open question. In a world that worships autonomy, self-reliance and self-realization, there seems to be no place for the other. The world of projects and infinite acceleration, the world of increasing speed does not allow interruptions, and that is why the worldly culture that enslaves tries to anesthetize us to forget what it means to stop at last.
But the forgetfulness of death is also its beginning, and also, a culture that forgets death begins to die inside. He who forgets death has already begun to die.
That's why I thank you so much! Because you had the courage to open this question and go through the body, the three deaths that empty us, in order to fill our lives! The death of every moment. The death of the ego. And the death of a world that gives way to a new one.
Remember, if death does not have the last word, it is because in life we learned to die for another.
Finally, I would like to thank ORT Mundial and each one of the people and institutions that made this activity possible in which the culture of meeting is palpable.
And I ask each of you please, each in his own way, each according to his convictions: do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Texto original en español
Video Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis
sent to the IV World Meeting of Youth
Dear young people of Scholas Occurrentes gathered from many nations of the world, I celebrate with you the completion of this encounter. I wish I could be there, I wish I could stay there with you.
What would this encounter be if it didn't have an end? Maybe it wouldn't be an encounter. And what would this life be like if it also had no end?
I know that someone is going to say: Father, do not let this gathering become a funeral. But let's think about this. I know from a good source that they kept the question about death burning throughout your experience. There you played, thought and created based on your differences.
Well, I celebrate and thank you for this. Because, do you know something? A question about death is a question about life, and keeping our questions about death open, perhaps, is the greatest human responsibility to keep our questions about life open.
Just as words are born out of silence and there they end, allowing us to hear their meanings, the same goes for life. This may sound somewhat paradoxical, but ... it is death that allows life to remain alive!
It is the end that allows a story to be written, a painting to be painted, two bodies to embrace. But beware, the end is not alone at the end. Maybe we should pay attention to every little end of everyday life. Not only at the end of the story - for we never know when it ends - but at the end of each word, at the end of each silence, of each page being written. Only a conscious life of this moment ends, it makes this moment eternal.
On the other hand, death reminds us of the impossibility of being, understanding and encompassing everything. It is a slap to our illusion of omnipotence. It teaches us in life to relate to mystery. The confidence of jumping into the void and realizing that we don't fall, that we don't sink; that always and forever there is someone there who supports us. Before and after the end.
It is the not knowing of this questioning the place of fragility that opens us to the listening and meeting of the other; it is that arising from the shock that calls us to create; and the sense that brings us together to celebrate it.
Finally, the question of death has always formed - throughout the ages and across the land - different communities, peoples and cultures. The different stories that fight in so many corners to stay alive, and others, that have not yet been born. That is why today, perhaps as never before, we should touch upon this question.
The world is already set up, where everything is explained. There is no place for the open question. That's true? It is true but it is not true. That is our world. It has been configured and there is no place for the open question. In a world that worships autonomy, self-reliance and self-realization, there seems to be no place for the other. The world of projects and infinite acceleration, the world of increasing speed does not allow interruptions, and that is why the worldly culture that enslaves tries to anesthetize us to forget what it means to stop at last.
But the forgetfulness of death is also its beginning, and also, a culture that forgets death begins to die inside. He who forgets death has already begun to die.
That's why I thank you so much! Because you had the courage to open this question and go through the body, the three deaths that empty us, in order to fill our lives! The death of every moment. The death of the ego. And the death of a world that gives way to a new one.
Remember, if death does not have the last word, it is because in life we learned to die for another.
Finally, I would like to thank ORT Mundial and each one of the people and institutions that made this activity possible in which the culture of meeting is palpable.
And I ask each of you please, each in his own way, each according to his convictions: do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Texto original en español
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