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Illustration: Visitation by Raphael, c. 1517
Pope Francis’ address at the vigil with young people
in “Parque Tejo” (Lisbon) – Saturday, 5 August 2023
“Only one thing in life is free: the love of Jesus”
Dear brothers and sisters,
It gives me great joy to see all of you! Thank you for making the pilgrimage to be here! I think of the Virgin Mary, who also traveled, to visit Elizabeth: “Mary set out and went with haste” (Lk 1:39).
We might ask, why did Mary set out in haste to visit her cousin?
Surely, Mary had just learned that Elizabeth was pregnant, but so was she;
so why go, if no one had asked her to?
Mary did something that was not asked of her, and that she did not have to do.
Mary goes because she loves, and “whoever loves flies, runs and rejoices”
(The Imitation of Christ, III, ‘the wonderful effects of Divine Love 5.4).
That is what love does to us.
Mary’s joy was twofold: she had just received the angel’s message that she would welcome the Redeemer of the world, and she had also received the news that her cousin was pregnant.
This is interesting: instead of thinking about herself, she thinks about the other.
Why did she do that?
Because joy is missionary, joy is not just for one person, it is for sharing something with others.
Let me ask you: those who have come to meet others, to find the message of Christ, to find the beautiful meaning of life, are you going to keep all for yourselves or are you going to share it with others? What do you think? Certainly to sharing it with others, because joy is missionary! Let us all repeat this together, together: ‘joy is missionary’! And so we share this joy with others.
But, this joy that we have, others have helped us to receive it.
So let us look back, then, at all that we have received, because it has prepared our hearts for joy. Each of us, as we look back back, can reremember those who have been rays of light in our lives: parents, grandparents, friends, priests, men and women religious, catechists, youth leaders, teachers, and so on.
They are the “roots” of our joy. Let each of us take a few moments in silence to think of those who have given us something in life, who are like the roots of our joy…
Do faces and stories come to mind? The joy that has come to us, thanks to these roots, is what we in turn should share, because we have roots of joy.
In the same way, we too can be roots of joy for others.
It is not about bringing a fleeting joy, the joy of the moment; it is about bringing a joy that creates roots. Let us ask ourselves, how can we become roots of joy?
Joy is not to be found in a closed library, though study is necessary! Joy is somewhere else.
It is not kept under lock and key, but it must be sought, it must be discovered.
It must be found in dialog with others, where we share these roots of joy that we have received.
And this is sometimes tiring. Let me ask you a question: do you ever get tired?
Think about what happens when we become tired: we have no desire to do anything; we throw in the towel, because we have no desire to go on and we give up, we stop walking and we fall. Do you think that those who fall in life, who have experienced failure, who even make serious or grave mistakes, that their lives are over? No!
So what should they do? They should get back up!
Now there is something very profound that I want you to take away with you and remember: Those who come from the Alps, who like to climb mountains, have a very beautiful song that goes like this: “In the art of mountain climbing, it’s not about not falling, it’s about not staying fallen.” This is beautiful!
Those who remain fallen have already withdrawn from life, have closed themselves off from hope and desire, and remain on the ground.
And when we see some of our friends who have fallen, what should we do?
Lift them up. When we need to lift someone up, or help them, do you notice ‘how ‘we do it? We look down on them. That is the only time, the only time that we are allowed to look down on others is when we are offering to help them up.
And yet, we often see people looking down on us, or looking over our shoulders! How sad. Instead, the only way, the only situation in which it is permissible to look down on others is… well, you tell me, out loud: to help them up.
So this is something like how the journey of life goes, how we have to keep going..
In life, in order to accomplish things, we have to train ourselves to keep going.
Sometimes, we do not feel like moving forward, we do not feel like making the effort; we copy in exams because we do not feel like studying or we did not get the results we wanted.
I am not sure if any of you like football… I do!
Think about how much training is it takes to score a goal; how much effort is takes to get a certain result.
In life, too, we cannot always do what we want, but we must do what leads us to respond to the vocation we feel deep within us – and everyone has their own vocation.
Keep going.
And if we fall, we will get up again, or someone will help us get up again; let us not stay fallen; and let us train ourselves, train ourselves to keep going.
All this is possible, not because we take a course on how to walk – there are no courses that can teach us how to walk in life – instead we learn, we learn from our parents, our grandparents, we learn from friends, we help each other.
In life you learn, and this is training for walking
I leave you with these thoughts. Keep going; if you fall, get back up; walk with a goal in mind, and train each day of your lives.
Nothing in life is free, everything has to be paid for.
Only one thing is free: the love of Jesus!
So, with this free gift that we have – the love of Jesus – and with the desire to continue the journey, let us walk in hope, let us be mindful of our roots, and let us move forwards, without fear. Do not be afraid. Thank you!
