I. THE YOUTH JUBILEE

"The Rome World Youth Day in 2000 intends to be an experience of faith, understood and lived with the spirit and the significance of the Jubilee, so that it may be the Jubilee of the -Young Church-" (Pastoral Programme, 1).

The 15^th World Youth Day in Rome will take place in the context of the Great Jubilee of 2000 of which it therefore shares the significance, assuming, that is, the gifts and demands of this extraordinary event of grace. It is therefore important to grasp its meaning and operative implications.

1. World Youth Day in the context of the Jubilee

Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio adveniente (TMA) is our document of reference. It is from this Letter that the World Youth Day 2000 takes its theological-pastoral background and also its central theme (cf TMA, 3) which has a truly radical and universal importance: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1,14).

1.1. At the centre of the Jubilee and the World Youth Day there is the historical event of the Incarnation of the Son of God, and therefore His mission as Redeemer of the world. In this mystery of the Incarnation, according to the teaching of Saint Paul (cf Gal 4,6-7) we are given "the revelation of the Trinitarian mystery and the continuation of the mission of the Son, in the mission of the Holy Spirit" (TMA, 1) [cf. Outline: The mystery of the Incarnation].

Briefly we can say that at the heart of the World Youth Day there is the renewed gift which God makes of himself to the world in Jesus Christ, fully and authentically, according to biblical-Christian revelation.

Tertio Millennio adveniente, read and meditated, enriched with later interventions by the Pope, in particular his Message for World Youth Day 1999 and 2000 and articulated according to the Pastoral Program me, is the basic-document of World Youth Day 2000.

1.2. The jubilee inspiration, which, as it is known, has its roots in the Bible, receives from Tertio Millennio adveniente certain connotations to be recalled, studied and developed. We mention four:

1.2.1. The first and most central sees the Jubilee as an extraordinary religious time of gratitude for the gifts received from God (the earth and its fruits, life, freedom and dignity of the members of the People of God), and, still more, a time for regaining through the mercy of God what has been lost due to sin and evil, becoming in this way a time of jubilation, of joy (cf TMA, 9-16).

More specifically, the gift of God who, with unheard of greatness, manifests himself to mankind in the fulness of revelation of the New Testament, is the person of Jesus Christ. He is the gift of God par excellence, to be recognized, for whom we must express thanks and from whom we must accept newness of life, because in him "God, in the Incarnation, came down into human history" (TMA, 9). This is why the Jubilee is truly a "year of the Lord’s grace" (cf Lk 4,16-21) which proves that the messianic mission of Jesus continues effectively among us (cf TMA, 11).

Recognizing "Jesus received" in order to give a new welcome to "Jesus newly recognized" in the faith, as the only Saviour of the world, becomes the intimate, jubilee dynamic which pervades the objectives and the contents of the World Youth Day.

1.2.2. This joyous acceptance of Christ as total "gift" is only possible through sincere conversion of heart, through the signs of sacramental and extra-sacramental repentance, humble prayer, a resolution to return to the Lord, to renew the Covenant, broken or weakened through sin (cf TMA, 14). The one who encounters him in the mercy of the Father, truly finds God.

The penitential component is an integral part of the Jubilee dynamic and can in no way be overlooked, maintaining the sense of the great Christian tradition and adapting it in proclamation and signs to the conditions of young people.

1.2.3. The gift of the mercy of the Father is prolonged as mercy among his children.

Pertaining to the very nature of the Jubilee is a call for the re-establishment of social justice, reconciliation between opponents, for brotherhood, for the Church’s preferential option for the poor and the outcast. "Commitment to justice and peace in a world like ours, marked by so many conflicts and intolerable social and economic inequalities, is a necessary condition for the preparation and celebration of the Jubilee […]. This crisis of civilization must be countered by the civilization of love, founded on the universal values of peace, solidarity, justice and liberty, which find their full attainment in Christ" (TMA, 51-52).

The testimony of Jesus, made of words and deeds, becomes for each disciple, a life of charity, and inseparably part of the choice to have faith in Him.

Meditation of Sacred Scripture, Old and New Testaments, regarding the significance of the Jubilee, including the novelty of the "year of grace" announced by Jesus at Nazareth, with a pressing call to conversion, repentance, reconciliation, prayer and charity, will be the privileged path to acquire an authentic jubilee spirit.

1.2.4. The jubilee horizon is characterised, lastly, by a very specific feature: it is proposed to the world of youth, its interlocutors are the young men and women of the whole world and of our times.

Pope John Paul II outlines the significance which must pervade the whole of young people’s jubilee journey: "The future of the world and of the Church belongs to the younger generation". This is why the Pope entrusts them with a specific mission: "following the road which He (Christ) points out to them..., making their own contribution to his presence in the next century and in the centuries to come, until the end of time" (TMA, 58).

According to this clear and powerfully prophetic and missionary viewpoint, with regard to history and the whole of humanity, must the path of the jubilee within the World Youth Day 2000 be proclaimed, celebrated and lived. [cf Outline The Young people].

2. World Youth Day as a Jubilee event

The proposal and the experience of the faith demand to be interpreted and actuated for young people and by young people in forms and language suited to their condition.

World Youth Day 2000 highlights certain events and signs (e.g. pilgrimage, passing through the Holy Door, the profession of faith) on which to reflect and to render operative and shared in the individual groups.

2.1. The celebration of World Youth Day also includes an authentic experience of conversion and repentance, structured in a concrete and visible faith journey of prayers, signs and works, to implement the penitential proposals made by the Pope in the Tertio Millennio adveniente, with the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation received personally and lived as a community, as both goal and inspiration.

2.1. The celebration of World Youth Day also includes an authentic experience of conversion and repentance, structured in a concrete and visible faith journey of prayers, signs and works, to implement the penitential proposals made by the Pope in the Tertio Millennio adveniente, with the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation received personally and lived as a community, as both goal and inspiration.

2.2. For this context, World Youth Day has a specific icon, easily understood, charged with theological meaning and existential resonance: the "passing through the Holy Door" in St Peter’s Basilica and the other basilicas in Rome and the cathedral of every Particular Church. This rite must be suitably ‘evangelized’. Starting from the words of Jesus: "I am the gate; he who enters through me will be saved" (Jn 10,9), the aim is to foster individual and community adherence to Christ, sole Good Shepherd, as a conscious, irrevocable and faithful choice. It will be underlined that to pass through the Holy Door during the "year of the Lord’s favour" expresses also access to the Redeemer’s "over abundant mercy", in the mysterious context of the communion of saints, which heals imbalance left by sin, obtaining the grace of fervent charity, expressed in the Church’s traditional language with the term "indulgence" (cf TMA, 14).

2.3. The logic of gift which animates the whole jubilee event. Suggest a visible act of charity by young people, particularly towards young people themselves. This sign, which may also be a project to be continued after the Holy Year in one’s own Church or local community, should reflect the sense of jubilee charity, that is it should be an act of liberation, justice, reconciliation, solidarity, peace.

3. Proposals for the preparatory stage

Since World Youth Day will be celebrated in the month of August 2000, we suggest that in the phase of immediate preparation, the young people share a powerful experience of pilgrimage in their own Particular Church, perhaps to the cathedral or another important church, or diocesan shrine, where together with their Bishop they could celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation and renew their profession of faith in Christ the Lord.