Mass for Youth

Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Newman College Chapel
on Saturday, 11th December, 2004, at 3.30pm

Introduction

My dear young Friends,

Advent challenges us to look towards Jesus as our Saviour. The coming of Elijah in the Old Testament and John the Baptist in the New were signposts clearly pointing to Jesus. By recognising our own weakness and sin and turning to Jesus we make the path of our life open to him so that we can welcome him with joy.

A retreat is very much like that. A recharting of our life, a looking at what we are doing here and now and where it leads: in personal life, vocation, hope for the future.

As we call to mind our sins, let us pray the words of the Psalm, “Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved.”

Homily

Dear Friends,

Jesus has spoken of John the Baptist as someone who comes to prepare the way of the Lord. He is a man of truth. His pointing to Jesus is clear and unequivocal. He is happy to be spent in the Lord’s service.

We, as young people, are challenged by this Gospel like the rich, young man, who met with Jesus and whom Jesus invited to come and see. It was a cause of regret that he did not follow because he had great possessions.

Today we spend a special time with the Lord to discover the special treasure which he has given us - who we are, what gifts he gives us, how we can use these gifts - and our plan of life and future self-fulfilment will come from that. Listening to John the Baptist calling us to prepare the way of the Lord, or the Psalm, “Lord, make us turn to you”, challenge us to ask Jesus in our time of prayer, “Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do so that my life may have full value and full meaning?”

For many of you, the course will be quite clear. We know our talents, good parents and God’s gift and their gifts to us have blessed our passage of life. We know the things of which we are capable and we can go forward. For some of us, however, life has been beset by suffering. Existence has been irked by pain. In this we become like Jesus, our Saviour. It is in our pain so often that the best witness is given, as John the Baptist witnessed by his death.

Dear young friends, our God is the basis of our existence because no one is good but God alone. Only he gives the meaning to our existence. You might ask, why is he good? Because he is love. As in Our Lord’s own words in the Gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.”

It is in coming to our God in love that we will find at the very heart the riches and anxieties that are linked with our plan for life which must be tested with God and then undertaken. This is true still more when we are tested by personal suffering, or when we are aware of the suffering of others, or challenged by the many evil things in the world, or coming face to face with sin.

Your youth offers different possibilities. I urge you today to ponder them above all with Christ, as we will do in the Eucharist together and in the silence of our hearts in Adoration. Only God is good. Therefore, only he can show us the way that will give us true happiness. Remember Jesus is the light of the world, described by Saint John as “a light that darkness cannot overpower”.

Think about morality. Are we following Jesus’ way all of our life, even the hard things? Think about Jesus’ invitation, “come and see”. How can we follow him in our life? Is our life vocation one with Christ? Has God called me to priesthood, to religious life, to marriage, to single life given for others? In all of these, the preliminary is knowing that God is good, that he is the giver of every good gift and he supports us in our readiness to follow through on that gift.

Again and again Jesus told his flock, “Do not be afraid.” It is in this spirit that Jesus wants us to live our present, to ponder our future and to hope in eternal life.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.