In his homily of the Mass, attended by hundreds of faithful, Pope Francis said: “For us who are disciples, it is important to put our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord, to bring to him, with complete trust and utter sincerity, our whole being”.
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The pope’s call for a church that “goes into the world” had given many Polish clergy “food for reflection”, the archbishop added, but it is unclear how long Poland’s Catholic Church can continue to send priests and priests to help overseas.
Her touching testimony prompted the pontiff to tell young people that some situations can seem very “far away” and unreal just because they are only seen “on the screen of a cell phone or a computer”.
Later, in a speech, Francis called for prayers for war victims in Syria and elsewhere. “This evening, with the rain coming down, along the street there were not only young people but also little old ladies”, the pope said, referring to the crowds cheering him as he rode by.
Pope Francis stressed that now is not the time to denounce those fighting or to tear people down.
In a world beset by conflict, terror and death, he continued, brotherhood and communion remain the only true response.
“Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves”, he said.
‘No, we came for another reason: To leave a mark’.
“The Church has forged an alliance with the government because, using law, it can exert more control”, Jaroslaw Makowski, one of Poland’s best-known theologians and a frequent critic of the hierarchy, said before the visit.
A group of Palestinian Catholics and a contingent of Hebrew-speaking Catholics from Israel found themselves in the same sector at the Field of Mercy for the closing programs of World Youth Day.
“When we are paralyzed, we miss the magic of encountering others, making friends, sharing dreams, walking at the side of others”.
“Make the Gospel your own, so that it can serve as a satnav for you on the highways of life”, he said during the service.
“For many people, that is more convenient than having young people who are alert and searching, trying to respond to God’s dream and to all the restlessness present in the human heart”.
The Pope called for clergy to leave their comfort zones and tend to the needy on the peripheries of life.
“Dear young people, we didn’t come into this world to ‘vegetate, ‘ to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on”.
Francis said before the trip that he had decided to make no statement as silence was the best way to honor the dead.
Freeing himself from the imposing security laid on for his visit, Francis sat on a bench among the trees and bowed his head in prayer before meeting Holocaust survivors and Catholics who had helped save Jews.
“Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others”, he explained.
“Do you want to be hope of the future?” he asked, getting an enthusiastic “Yes!”
“God comes to break open everything that keeps you closed in”. “From the beginning, he wants his to be a Church on the move, a Church that goes out into the world”.
Francis encouraged them to continue “to be dreamers (who) believe in a new humanity, one that rejects hatred between peoples, one that refuses to see borders as barriers”.
“Today let us gratefully rekindle the memory of his call, which is stronger than any resistance and weariness on our part”.
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We may think that we are the “worst” on account of our sins and weaknesses, the Pope told the youth.
