"the
questions are on the subject of the three words of John’s Gospel that
we heard: love, life, friends. Three words that are intertwined in
John’s text, and one explains the other: one cannot speak of life in
the Gospel without speaking of love – if we speak of true life -- and
one cannot speak of love without this transformation from servants to
friends. And these three words are so important for life but all three
have a common root: the desire to live. And I permit myself to recall
here the words of
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a youth like you: 'To
live, not to live poorly!' To live!...
"it makes me very sad at
heart to see young people retire at 20!....when a youth loves, lives,
grows, he does not retire. He grows, grows, grows and gives....
"love
has two axes on which it pivots, and if a person, a youth doesn’t have
these two axes -- these two dimensions of love -- it’s not love. First
of all, love is more in works than in words: love is concrete....
"And
the second dimension, the second axis on which love pivots is that
love always communicates itself, that is, love listens and responds,
love is made in dialogue, in communion: it communicates itself....
"Love
is in the works, in communicating, but love is very respectful of
persons, it does not use persons, that is, love is chaste. And to you
young people in this world, in this hedonistic world, in this world
where only pleasure gets publicity, having a good time, having a
beautiful life, I tell you: be chaste, be chaste.
"All of us in
life have gone through moments in which this virtue was very difficult,
but it is in fact the way of genuine love, of a love that is able to
give life, which does not seek to use the other for one’s own pleasure.
It is a love that considers the life of the other person
sacred....Forgive me if I say something you didn’t expect, but I ask
you: make the effort to live love chastely....
"Look at the love
of parents, of so many mothers, of so many fathers who in the morning
arrive at work tired because they haven’t slept well to look after their
sick child – this is love! This is respect. This is not having a good
time. This is – we go to another key word – this is 'service.' Love is
service. It is to serve others. When after the washing of the feet
Jesus explained the gesture to the Apostles, He taught that we are made
to serve one another, and if I say that I love but don’t serve the
other, don’t help the other, don’t make him go forward, don’t sacrifice
myself for him, this isn’t love. You have carried the Cross [the WYD
Cross]: there is the sign of love. That history of love of God involved
in works and dialogue, with respect, with forgiveness, with patience
during so many centuries of history with His people, ends there -- His
Son on the Cross, the greatest service, which is to give one’s life, to
sacrifice oneself, to help others. It’s not easy to speak of love,
it’s not easy to live love....
"Sometimes I have said that we
are living the Third World War, but in pieces. In pieces: there is war
in Europe, there is war in Africa, there is war in the Middle East,
there is war in other countries....If you only trust men, you have
lost!....
"people, leaders, entrepreneurs that call themselves
Christians, and produce arms! This gives some mistrust: they call
themselves Christians! 'No, no, Father, I don’t produce them, no, no
.... I only have my savings, my investments in arms factories.' Ah! And
why? 'Because the interest is somewhat higher ...' And a double face
is also a current coin today: to say something and do another.
Hypocrisy ...l But let’s see what happened in the last century: in ’14,
’15, in ’15 in fact. There was that great tragedy in Armenia. So many
died. I don’t know the figure: more than a million certainly. But where
were the great powers of the time? Were they looking elsewhere? Why?
Because they were interested in war: their war! And those that died
were persons, second class human beings. Then, in the 30s and 40s the
tragedy of the Shoah. The great powers had photographs of the railroad
lines that took trains to the concentration camps, such as Auschwitz,
to kill the Jews, and also Christians, also the Roma, also homosexuals,
to kill them there. But tell me, why didn’t they bomb that? Interest!
And shortly after, almost contemporaneously, were the lager in Russia:
Stalin ... How many Christians suffered, were killed! The great powers
divided Europe among themselves as a cake. So many years had to pass
before arriving at 'certain' freedom. It’s that hypocrisy of speaking
of peace and producing arms, and even selling arms to this one who is
at war with that one, and to that one who is at war with this one!
"I
understand what you say about mistrust in life, also today when we are
living in the throwaway culture, because whatever is not of economic
usefulness is discarded. Children are disposed of, because they are not
developed or because they are killed before they are born; the elderly
are disposed of, because they are not useful or are left there, to
die, a sort of hidden euthanasia, and they are not helped to live; and
now young people are disposed of: think of that 40% of young people who
are without work. It is in fact a rejection! But why? Why are man and
woman not at the center of the global economic system, as God wants,
but the god of money. And everything is done for money.
"In
Spanish, there is a good saying that says: 'the monkey dances for
money'....with this disposable culture, can one trust life? -- with
that sense of challenge that widens, widens, widens? A youth who can’t
study, who hasn’t work, who has the shame of not feeling worthy because
he doesn’t have work, doesn’t earn his life. But how many times these
young people end in addictions? How many times do they commit suicide?
The statistics on the suicides of young people are not well known. Or
how often these young people go to fight with terrorists, at least to
do something, for an ideal. I understand this challenge. And because of
this Jesus told us not to put our security in riches, in worldly
powers. How can I trust life? What can I do, how can I live a life that
doesn’t destroy, that isn’t a life of destruction, a life that doesn’t
dispose of people? How can I live a life that won’t disappoint me?....
"We
must go ahead with our plans of construction, and this life doesn’t
disappoint. If you get involved there, in a project of construction, of
help – we think of street children, of migrants, of so many in need,
but not only to give them to eat one day, two days, but to promote them
with education, with unity in the joy of the Oratories and so many
things, but things that build, then that sense of mistrust in life
recedes, goes away. What must I do for this? Not retire too soon. Do.
Do. And I’ll say a word: to go against the current, to go against the
current. For you, young people, who are living this economic situation,
which is also cultural, hedonistic, consumerist with 'soap bubble'
values, with such values one doesn’t go forward. Do constructive
things, even if they are small, but which bring us together, which
bring us together with our ideals: this is the best antidote against
this mistrust of life, against this culture that only offers you
pleasure: to have a good time, to have money and not think of other
things....
"So often advertising wants to convince us that this
is good, that that is good, and it makes us believe that they are
'diamonds'; but be careful, we are sold glass! And we must go against
this, not be naive. Not buy filth that we are told are diamonds.
"And
to end,
I would like to repeat Pier Giorgio Frassati’s word: if you
want to do something good in life, live, don’t live poorly. Live!....
"at
the end of the 19th century there were bad conditions for the growth
of youth: there was full Masonry, even the Church couldn’t do anything,
there were priest haters, there were also Satanists ... It was one of
the worst moments and one of the worst places of the history of Italy.
However, if you would like to do a good task at home, go to see how
many men and women Saints were born at that time. Why? Because they
realized that they had to go against the current in relation to the
culture, to that way of living. Reality, live the reality. And if this
reality is glass and not diamonds, I look for the reality against the
current and I make my reality, but something that is of service to
others. Think of your Saints of this land, what they did!....
"I forgot to tell you that I will now deliver the written address" (
Pope Francis' "off the cuff" talk to Turin youth, 6/21/15).
Jesus
"shows us to what point love goes: to the total gift of Himself, to
giving His own life, as we contemplate in the mystery of the Shroud,
when we recognize in it the icon of the 'greatest love.' However, this
gift of ourselves must not be imagined as a rare heroic gesture or
reserved to some exceptional occasion....The grandeur of love is
revealed in taking care of one in need, with fidelity and patience;
therefore, great is the love that is able to make itself little for
others, like Jesus, who made Himself a servant. To love is to come
close, to touch the flesh of Christ in the poor and the least, to open
to God’s grace the needs, the appeals, the solitude of persons that
surround us. Then the love of God enters, transforms and render little
things great, it renders them the sign of His presence. Saint John Bosco
is in fact a teacher to us because of his capacity to love and to
educate from proximity, which he lived with youngsters and young
people....
"we must not wait for favorable external
circumstances to really get involved but that, on the contrary, only by
committing our life – aware of losing it! – we create for others and
for ourselves the conditions of new trust in the future. And here my
thought goes spontaneously to a youth who truly spent his life this way,
so much so as to become a model of trust and evangelical audacity for
the young generations of Italy and of the world:
Blessed Pier Giorgio
Frassati. His motto was: 'Live, not live poorly!' This is the way to
experience fully the strength and joy of the Gospel. In this way, not
only will you find trust in the future, but you will succeed in
generating hope among your friends and in the environments in which you
live....
"Turin’s men and women Saints teach us that all
renewal, also that of the Church, passes through our personal
conversion, through that openness of heart that receives and recognizes
God’s surprises, driven by the greatest love (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14),
which renders us friends also of persons who are alone, suffering and
marginalized" (
Pope Francis' prepared speech which was replaced by his "off-the-cuff" talk to Turin youth, 6/21/15).
Blessed Pier
Giorgio Frassati's mortal remains are enshrined in the same Cathedral
that is home to the Shroud of Turin; they are reported to be incorrupt.
