World Youth Day WYD Krakow 2016
The next World Youth Day will be held in Panama, in 2019
Homily of Pope Francis at the closing Holy Mass of WYD (Krakow, July 31, 2016)
Dear young people, you have come to Krakow to meet Jesus. And today’s Gospel tells us precisely about the meeting between Jesus and a man, Zacchaeus, in Jericho (cf. Lk 19:1-10). There, Jesus does not limit himself to preaching or greeting someone, but he wants —the Evangelist tells us— to cross the city (cf. v. 1). In other words, Jesus wants to come closer to the life of each one, to walk our path to the end, so that his life and ours really meet.
This is how the most surprising encounter takes place, the encounter with Zacchaeus, chief of the “publicans”, that is, of the tax collectors. So Zacchaeus was a rich collaborator with the hated Roman occupiers; he was an exploiter of his people, one who due to his bad reputation could not even get close to the Master. However, the encounter with Jesus changed his life, as it happened, and can happen every day, with each one of us. But Zacchaeus had to overcome some obstacles to meet Jesus: at least three, which can also teach us something.
The first is short stature: Zacchaeus could not see the Master, because he was short. Today we too can fall into the danger of staying away from Jesus because we do not feel up to the task, because we have a low opinion of ourselves. This is a great temptation, which not only has to do with self-esteem, but also affects faith. Because faith tells us that we are “children of God, well, we are!” (1 Jn 3,1): we have been created in his image; Jesus made our humanity his own and his heart will never be separated from us; the Holy Spirit wants to dwell in us; we are called to eternal joy with God. This is our “stature”, this is our spiritual identity: we are the beloved children of God, always. You understand then that not accepting yourself, living unhappy and thinking negatively means not recognizing our most authentic identity: it is like turning around when God wants to fix his eyes on me; It means wanting to prevent him from fulfilling his dream in me. God loves us just the way we are, and there is no sin, flaw or mistake that will change his mind. For Jesus —the Gospel shows us—, no one is inferior and distant, no one is insignificant, but we are all favorite and important: You are important! And God counts on you for who you are, not for what you have: before him, the clothes you wear or the mobile phone you use are worth nothing; He doesn’t care if you’re fashionable, he cares about you. In his eyes, you are worth, and what you are worth is priceless.
When it happens in life that we aim low instead of high, this great truth can help us: God is faithful in his love, and even stubborn. He will help us to think that he loves us more than we love ourselves, that he believes in us more than we believe in ourselves, that he is always on our side, like the staunchest of “fans.” He always waits for us with hope, even when we shut ourselves up in our sadness, continually ruminating on the evils suffered and the past. But indulging in sadness is not worthy of our spiritual stature. What’s more, it is a virus that infects and paralyzes everything, that closes any door, that prevents life from reviving itself, from restarting. God, however, is stubbornly hopeful: he always believes that we can get up and does not resign himself to seeing us dull and without joy. Because we are always his children loved by him. Let us remember this at the beginning of each day. It will do us good to say every morning in prayer: “Lord, I thank you because you love me; make me fall in love with my life.” Not of my defects, which must be corrected, but of life, which is a great gift: it is the time to love and be loved.
Zacchaeus had a second obstacle in the way of meeting Jesus: paralyzing shame. We can imagine what happened in the heart of Zacchaeus before climbing that fig tree, he must have had a hard fight: on the one hand, the good curiosity of knowing Jesus; on the other, the risk of making an embarrassing figure. Zacchaeus was a public figure; he knew that, by trying to climb the tree, he would make a fool of himself in front of everyone, he, a boss, a man of power. But he overcame the embarrassment, because Jesus’ attraction was stronger. You will have experienced what happens when a person is so attracted to another that he falls in love: then it happens that things are willingly done that would never have been done. Something similar happened in the heart of Zacchaeus, when he felt that Jesus was so important that he would have done anything for him, because he was the only one who could get him out of the quicksand of sin and unhappiness. And so, the paralyzing shame did not triumph: Zacchaeus, the Gospel tells us, “ran ahead”, “went up” and then, when Jesus called him, “hurried down” (vv. 4.6.). He took a risk and acted. This is also the secret of joy for us: not to extinguish good curiosity, but to participate, because life should not be locked up in a drawer. Before Jesus we cannot remain seated waiting with our arms crossed; We cannot respond to him, who gives us life, with a thought or a simple “little message”.
Dear young people, do not be ashamed to bring everything to him, especially weaknesses, difficulties and sins, in confession: he will know how to surprise you with his forgiveness and his peace. Do not be afraid to say “yes” to him with all the strength of your heart, to respond generously, to follow him. Do not let your soul anesthetize, but aspire to the goal of beautiful love, which also requires renunciation, and a strong “no” to the doping of success at any price and the drug of thinking only of oneself and one’s own comfort.
After short stature and paralyzing shame, there is a third obstacle that Zacchaeus had to face, not within himself but around him. It is the crowd that murmurs, that first blocked him and then criticized him: Jesus did not have to enter his house, the house of a sinner. How difficult it is to really welcome Jesus, how difficult it is to accept a “God, rich in mercy” (Eph 2,4). They may block you, trying to make you believe that God is distant, rigid and insensitive, good with the good and bad with the bad. Instead, our Father “makes the sun rise from him on the bad and the good” (Mt 5:45), and invites us to true courage: to be stronger than evil by loving everyone, even our enemies. They may laugh at you, because you believe in the meek and humble force of mercy. Do not be afraid, think instead of the words of these days: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7). They may judge you as dreamers, because you believe in a new humanity, which does not accept hatred between peoples, nor does it see the borders of countries as a barrier and guards its own traditions without selfishness and resentment. Do not be discouraged: with your smile and your open arms you preach hope and you are a blessing for the only human family, so well represented by you here.
That day, the crowd judged Zacchaeus, looked at him with contempt; Jesus, on the other hand, did the opposite: he looked up at him (v. 5). The look of Jesus goes beyond the defects to see the person; he does not stop at the evil of the past, but sees the good in the future; he does not resign himself to closure, but rather seeks the path of unity and communion; in the midst of all, he does not stop at appearances, but looks at the heart. Jesus looks at our heart, your heart, my heart. With this gaze of Jesus, you can give rise to a different humanity, without waiting to be told “how good you are”, but seeking good for its own sake, happy to keep a clean heart and to fight peacefully for honesty and justice. Do not stop at the surface of things and distrust the worldly liturgies of appearance, the make-up of the soul to appear to be better. On the contrary, install well the most stable connection, that of a heart that sees and transmits the good without getting tired. And that joy that you have freely received from God, give freely (cf. Mt 10,8), because many are waiting for it.
We finally hear the words of Jesus to Zacchaeus, which seem to be spoken on purpose for us at this moment: “Hurry up and come down, because today I must stay at your house” (v. 5). Hurry up, because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house. Open the door of your heart.
Jesus directs you the same invitation: «Today I have to stay at your house». World Youth Day, we could say, begins today and continues tomorrow, at home, because that is where Jesus wants to meet us from now on. The Lord does not want to stay only in this beautiful city or in fond memories, but he wants to come to your house, live your daily life: study and the first years of work, friendships and affections, projects and dreams. . How he likes that we take all this to him in prayer. He hopes that, among so many contacts and chats every day, the first place will be occupied by the golden thread of prayer. How much you want his Word to speak to each of your days, that his Gospel be yours, and become your “navigator” on the path of life.
Jesus, while asking you to go home, as he did with Zacchaeus, calls you by name. Your name is precious to him. The name of Zacchaeus evoked, in the language of the time, the memory of God.
Trust in the memory of God: his memory is not a “hard disk” that records and stores all our data, but a tender heart of compassion, which rejoices in definitively eliminating any vestige of evil. Let us also try now to imitate the faithful memory of God and guard the good that we have received in these days. In silence let us remember this encounter, let us guard the memory of the presence of God and of his Word, let us revive in us the voice of Jesus who calls us by name. So let us pray in silence, remembering, giving thanks to the Lord who has brought us here and wanted to meet us.
Homily of Pope Francis at Mass with consecrated religious (Krakow, July 30, 2016)
The passage of the Gospel that we have heard (cf. Jn 20:19-31) tells us about a place, a disciple and a book.
The place is the house in which the disciples were at sunset on the day of Passover: it is only said that its doors were closed (cf. v. 19). Eight days later, the disciples were still in that house, and its doors were also closed (cf. v. 26). Jesus enters, puts himself in the middle and brings his peace, the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins: in a word, the mercy of God. In this closed place, the message that Jesus addresses to his own resounds loudly: «As the Father has sent me, even so I send you» (v. 21).
Jesus sends. He wants from the beginning that the Church is on its way out, that it goes to…