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Illustration: “Visitation” with donor portrait, from Altarpiece of the Virgin (St Vaast Altarpiece)
by Jacques Daret, c. 1435(Staatliche Museen, Berlin)
Pope Francis’ address at meeting with young people in Venice
Square in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute (Venice)
Fifth Sunday of the Easter Season, 28 April 2024
Mary arose and went with hast into the hill country” – The two verbs are Get up and Go!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It’s good to see you! Being together allows us to share, even if only through a prayer, a look and a smile, the miracle that we are.
In fact, we have received a great gift, that of being beloved children of God, and we are called to fulfill the Lord’s dream: to bear witness and live his joy.
There is nothing more beautiful. I don’t know if you have had some experiences that are so beautiful that you can’t keep them to yourself, but you feel the need to share them.
We all have this experience, an experience so beautiful that one feels the need to share it.
This is why we are here today: to rediscover in the Lord the beauty that we are and to rejoice in the name of Jesus, the young God who loves the young and who always surprises. Our God always surprises us.
Do you understand this? It is very important to be prepared for God’s surprises!
Friends, here in Venice, the city of beauty, we are experiencing together a beautiful moment of our meeting, but tonight, when everyone is at home, and then tomorrow and in the days to come, where do we begin again to welcome and nourish the beauty that we are, from where do we begin again to grasp this beauty?
I propose two verbs, to start again, two verbs that are practical because they are maternal: two verbs of movement that animated the young heart of Mary, Mother of God and our own.
To spread the joy of the Lord and help those in need, she “arose and went” (Lk 1:39 – Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah,).
The two verbs are Get up and Go. Do not forget these two verbs that Our Lady lived before us.
First of all, get up.
To get up from the ground, because we are made for Heaven.
To arise from sadness to look up. Get up to stand before your waist, not to sit on the couch.
Have you thought, have you imagined what a lifelong young person sitting on the couch is like?
Imagine that; and there are different sofas that grab us and don’t let us get up.
To stand up and say “here I am!” to the Lord, who believes in us.
To stand up and accept the gift that we are,
To recognize, above all, that we are precious and irreplaceable.
“But Father, Pope or Mr. Pope, no, it’s not true, I’m ugly, I’m ugly…”
No, no, no one is ugly and one each of us is beautiful, beautiful and has a treasure inside of us, a beautiful treasure that we can share and give to others.
Do you agree with that or not? Do you? And that, listen, is not self-esteem, no, it’s reality!
Recognizing this is the first step you take when you wake up in the morning: you get out of bed and welcome yourself as a gift.
You get up and, before you dive into the things you have to do, you recognize who you are by thanking the Lord.
You can say, “My God, thank you for life. My God, make me fall in love with my life.”
You recognize who you are and thank the Lord. You can say,
“My God, thank you for life. My God, make me fall in love with life, with my life.
My God, You are my life. My God, help me today for this, for that…
You know, my God, I’m in love, I’m in love, help me, help me grow this love and then end up in a happy couple.”
So many beautiful things can always be said to the Lord.
Then you pray the Our Father), where the first word is the key to joy: you say “Father” and you recognize yourself as a beloved son, beloved daughter.
You remember that for God you are not a digital profile, but a son, that you have a Father in heaven and therefore you are a child of heaven. “But Father, that is too romantic!” No, it is reality, dear one, but we must discover it in our lives, not in books, in life, in our lives.
Yet we often find ourselves fighting against a negative force of gravity that pulls us down.
It is an oppressive inertia that wants us to see everything as grey. Sometimes this happens to us.
What can we do? To get up – let us not forget this – we must first of all let ourselves get up again:
let us be taken by the hand by the Lord, who never disappoints those who trust in him, who always lifts up and forgives. You might say “But I am not up to the task: I feel fragile, weak, sinful, I often fall!!”
But when you feel this way, please, change the “frame”: don’t look at yourself with your own eyes, but think about the gaze with which God looks at you.
When you make a mistake and fall, what does He do?
He is there, next to you, smiling at you, ready to take you by the hand and lift you up.
That is a very beautiful thing: He is always there to pick you up.
I’ll tell you something that this suggests to me. Is it good to look down on a human being?
Is it nice or is it not nice? No, it’s not nice.
But when can you look down on a person, when? To help him/her get up.
The only time we can look down on a person with beauty is when we help them to lift themselves up. And that is what Jesus does with us when we have fallen. He looks down on us. That’s beautiful. Don’t you believe us? Open the Gospel and see what he did with Peter, with Mary Magdalene, with Zacchaeus, with so many others: he worked wonders with their weaknesses.
The Lord works miracles with our weakness,
And in passing, do you read the Gospel? I’ll give you some advice. Do you have a little pocket Gospel? Always carry it with you, and whenever you want, open it and read a little passage.
The little pocket gospel is always with you. Is that all right? [Answer: “Yes!”] Forward, courage!
God knows that we are not only beautiful, but also fragile, and the two things go together: a bit like Venice, which is beautiful and fragile at the same time.
It is beautiful and delicate, it has a certain fragility that needs to be taken care of.
God does not tie our mistakes to his finger: “You did this, you did that…”.
He doesn’t bind himself to this, but he stretches out his hand to us.
“But, Father, I have many, many things of which I am ashamed.”
But don’t look at yourself, look at the hand that God stretches out to you to lift you up!
Do not forget this:
When you feel the weight of your conscience, look at the Lord and let Him take you by the hand.
When we are on the ground, He sees children to be raised, not evildoers to be punished.
Please, let us trust in the Lord! It’s getting a bit long this, are you bored?
[answer: “No!”] You’re polite, all right!
And, once we get up, it’s up to us to stay on our feet. Getting up, then standing, “staying” when you want to sit down, letting go, letting go. It’s not easy, but that’s the secret.
Yes, the secret of great achievements is perseverance.
It’s true that sometimes there’s this fragility that pulls you down, but perseverance is what keeps you going, it’s the secret.
Nowadays we live on fast emotions, fleeting sensations, instincts that last for a moment.
But that won’t get you very far. Sports champions, as well as artists and scientists, show that great goals are not achieved in an instant, all at once. And if this is true for sport, art and culture, it is even more true for what matters most in life.
What matters in life?
Love, faith. And in order to grow in faith and love, we have to be constant and always move forward. The danger here is to leave everything to improvisation.
I pray when I feel like it, I go to Mass when I feel like it, I do good when I feel like it…
This does not lead to results: you have to persevere, day after day.
And to do it together, because together we can always go further. Together: When it comes to big things, “do it yourself” doesn’t work. That is why I say to you: do not isolate yourselves, seek others, experience God together, go on group journeys without getting tired.
You might say, “But everyone around me is alone with their mobile phones, connected to social media and video games”. And you fearlessly go against the tide: take your life in your hands, put yourself on the line; turn off the TV and open the Gospel – is this too much? –, put down your phone and meet people! The cell phone is very useful, to communicate, it is useful, but be careful when the cell phone prevents you from meeting people. Use your cell phone, that’s fine, but meet people!
You know what a hug, a kiss, a handshake is: people.
Don’t forget this: use your cell phone, but meet people.
I seem to hear your objection: “It’s not easy, Father, it feels like going against the tide!”
But you can’t say this here in Venice, because Venice tells us that only by rowing steadily can we go far.
If you are a Venetian citizen, learn to row consistently to go far!
Of course, to row you have to be steady, but perseverance is worth the effort. So, boys and girls, this is what it means to rise up: to let God take you by the hand to go together!
Secondly, after getting up, go.
To go is to make oneself a gift, to give oneself to others, the ability to fall in love; and this is a beautiful thing: a young person, a young person who does not feel the ability to fall in love or to be loving with others, something is missing.
To go to meet, to walk, to move forward.
Dear brothers, dear sisters, I am running out, rest assured!
Let us think of our Father, who created everything for us, God gave us everything: and we, who are his children, for whom do we create something beautiful?
We live immersed in man-made products, which make us lose our amazement at the beauty that surrounds us, yet creation invites us to be creators of beauty ourselves.
Please don’t forget: to be creators of beauty, and to do something that wasn’t there before. That’s nice!
And when married and have a son, a daughter, you will have done something that was not there before! And this is the beauty of youth, when it becomes motherhood or fatherhood: doing something that wasn’t there before. That’s nice.
Think within yourselves about the children you will have, and this must push us forward, not be professionals in compulsive typing, but creators of novelty!
A prayer made from the heart, a page you write, a dream you realize, a gesture of love for someone who cannot reciprocate: this is creating, imitating the style of God who creates.
It is the style of gratuitousness, it brings us out of the nihilistic logic of “I do to have” and “I work to earn”. This must be done – I do to have and I work to earn – but it must not be the center of your life.
The center is gratuitousness: give life to a symphony of gratuitousness in a world that seeks the useful! Then you will be revolutionary. Go, give yourselves without fear!
Young man and young woman who wants to take charge of your life, stand up!
Open your heart to God, thank him, embrace the beauty that you are. Fall in love with your life.
And then go! Get up, fall in love and go! Go out, walk with others, look for those who are alone, color the world with your creativity, paint the roads of life with the Gospel.
Please, paint the roads of life with the Gospel! Get up and go. We say it all together, for each other! [they repeat: “Get up and go!”] I didn’t hear… [they repeat loudly: “Get up and go!”] I like it!
Jesus extends this invitation to you. To the many people he helped and healed, he said: “Get up and go” (Lk 17:10-19 – On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed, Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.
”Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”).
Listen to this call, repeat it within yourself, keep it in your heart.
And what was it like? [they repeat: “Get up and go!”] Thank you!
