DISCORSO lUSTIGER - LOURDES 21/08/99

Reflections by Card. Jean-Marie Lustiger

Addressed to young Romans on pilgrimage to Lourdes

from 19 to 25 August 1999

in preparation for the 15^th World Youth Day GMG

Why? Each Youth Day is a link in the chain which has stretched across the world for more than ten years now.

The youth of the world is opening to humanity the path of hope and faith. Each Youth Day is a lap in the course of history. This is why we must remember each of these steps in order to understand where history is going and to discover the path of salvation, the path of the Jubilee, indicated by Pope John Paul II. This means that the succession of the GMGs is totally different from that of world football championships. A championship does not depend on the previous ones. Whereas each Youth Day demonstrates how the Holy Spirit builds up the Church of Christ which bears witness to God’s love for mankind.

This is the path of the future built on memory. The present day civilization is immersed in the instant. It has no memory anymore. No hope anymore. “No future”. We Christians are responsible for the future and so also for the memory of the world in Christ, Alpha and Omega. The Lord entrusts this task to us when he says “Do this in memory of me”.

On that Saturday night at Longchamps, a million people, mostly young, prayed in peace and joy with the Pope. The vast number was a surprise for many. Was it a miracle? Only in a certain sense. It was Christ’s miracle over the incredulity of the organizers. Seventy thousand French youngsters were expected. They came in seven hundred thousand. Why this mistake? Many thought young people are more interested in “rave parties” than a meeting with the Pope, than the discovery of the Gospel, than a question-time on the meaning of life. Many thought young people would prefer dancing to praying. In actual fact, the specialists of the youth market do not know youth as well as God does and the specialists of the Gospel have too little faith in the power of the Spirit, as Jesus told the Apostles: “Men of little faith…”

These seven hundred thousand young French people were not members of Catholic organizations. Many were unknown to the clergy, they were not Church goers, but neither were they complete strangers to Christianity. And this crowd felt itself at home there in the church of light, at Longchamps. The Pope’s words were immediately familiar. The silence and prayer were not heavy. Many for the first time discovered the Sacrament of forgiveness. They lived the mystery of the Church with the mystery of the living Christ.

Only a minimum part of this crowd joined the Catholic groups. And yet there is a more important result: we realized that youth is waiting for the proclamation of the Gospel, it is not closed to the Word of God. It is hesitant, it waits on the side of the road like the blind man in Jericho, Bartholomew. Like him youth cries in the dark to the Lord whom it cannot see. The question for us and for you is to know if, like the Apostles, we want to make youth be silent – because the blind man and youth are disturbing – of if we can hear Jesus saying: “let him come forward”.

Then when today we say with enthusiasm and faith “Courage, stand up!". he is calling you!” youth responds. But on one condition. The blind man was not interested in a show organized by the apostles, he was interested only in the Lord.

It is clear that the success of the GMG is the secret of John the Baptist: to prepare the ways of the Lord but not to take his place in a spectacle, even if it is edifying and about Christ…

How can this be done? Like the disciples: pray, follow Christ; we must be the first to do what we want others to discover.

Dear Friends of Rome, you have the demanding task of organizing the next GMG. Do not forget to listen to Christ. Do not forget to address all the young people of Italy and tell them: “Courage, stand up, he is calling you!” All young Italians, not just your friends and neighbours, but especially the others.

Remember the story of Jesus about the wedding guests. “Go to the cross roads” the Lord says “and invite everyone you find to the wedding…” But who is preparing the wedding? Perhaps you will answer “We Italians” or rather “we Romans”. Wrong! The Lord is preparing the wedding! And who does he invite? Perhaps you will answer: “Us” Wrong! “Then the Pope” Wrong. The Lord himself. But this is not evident for people who see the efforts being made by Rome, the Roman Committee for the Jubilee etc…

Let us refer again to the Lord. The disciples ask: “Where do you want us to prepare to eat the Passover?” Where…in Rome of course. The Lord gives precise indications for this preparation. But he does not say what he is about to do during the Passover: the gift of himself, the offering of his Body and his Blood for the salvation of all mankind. That Passover is not that of the disciples, it is Christ’s Passover for the disciples.

When today we celebrate Mass, Christ himself lets us share in the one Sacrifice. Also when the Pope celebrates it is Christ who celebrates in his Church with his Church.

The GMG is a privileged manifestation of this “Mystery” of the Church which is “in Christ as sacrament, sign or instrument” of God's action. Therefore the whole of the GMG to be true to its purpose and mission must be a sacramental celebration of the mystery of Christ’s presence among us. This was our experience of Paris.

First of all the brotherhood lived on this day must be the charity of Christ, not just natural joy stemming from music and fun. The joy of charity which unites peoples, perhaps adversaries, indeed even enemies, the joy of charity which unites young and old etc…The joy of charity which invites us to share our riches, exchange gifts, to discover, as the Lord says, there is more joy in giving than in receiving.

And then the catechesis, the teaching, the debates cannot be compared to the activity of a university or political meeting. They are rather the activity of the People of God who listen to the word of Christ, who question him, who share this treasure and awaken to the faith. Therefore the Bishops are the first to give the Word of God as the successors of the Apostles and not as professors.

Lastly, the almost sacramental character of the GMG appears still more clearly in the great assemblies with the Pope. The composition of the assembly is wonderfully ecclesial: the People of God with its ministers, deacons, priests, is gathered by the Bishops around the Pope to praise God the Father, in Christ the Son, in the power of the Spirit. The holy people will carry out this mission celebrating the Eucharist and manifesting in this way to the whole world the mystery of Christ the Redeemer, the vocation of the human race, the hope which does not disappoint.

This is what we lived to the full in Paris that night at Longchamps with the baptism the Pope gave to young people from various part of the world. In Paris the GMG was a prophetic event for the whole nation, for the Catholics, for believers but also for non Catholics and non believers It was a wonderful event of peace, hospitality perceptible along the streets of Paris, on the metro, perceptible thanks to the T. V. all over France.

many people dared to acknowledge that they are Catholics with freedom and pride, in an environment secularized and hostile. For the more committed Catholics in the Church – including the priests and bishops – the GMG showed that most French people, although not practicing, although critical of the Church, are not in fact outside the Church. The GMG showed the world that evangelization at least in the West is not to adapt the Gospel to the world, but proclaim with vigor and beauty the good news that our world awaits. The GMG was for France a gift of God, a gift surpassing all hope in a situation difficult and critical for Christianity, a sign from God.