Mass for the Young People of World Youth Day

Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Friday, 4th November, 2005, at 6.30pm

Introduction

My dear young people,

Welcome to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral as we gather to thank God for the wonderful experience of World Youth Day.  Truly we can say, ‘we have come to worship Him’. 

Through Pope Benedict we have learned how the Lord sees and loves each of us and makes us the living Church for each other. 

This is a moment when God once again is giving us the gift of the mystery of his presence and the possibility of being one with him.

Homily

My dear young friends,

  In Rome, Toronto and Cologne I have been united with young people from Melbourne and beyond in our common search for Jesus Christ.

After the three wise men from the East, we have joined a long procession of men and women “who have constantly tried to gaze upon God’s star in their lives”, going in search of the God who has drawn close to us and shown us the way.

For me World Youth Day has always been a shining invitation to holiness.  This time, as previously, I have seen young people being open with surprise and joy to knowing Jesus, seeing the depth of their faith, often for the first time, and being touched by the love that only God can give, supported by Mary and the saints.

In the great multitude of saints, both known and unknown, the Lord opens up the Gospels before us and turns over the pages, showing us the shining path of what God has chosen for us in history if we say yes to him.  Indeed, the saints and blesseds did not just seek their own happiness, but wanted to give themselves because the light of Christ had shone upon them.

Whether Saint Dominic, Saint Francis, Saint Charles Borromeo, Saint Catherine, Saint Claire, Blessed Mary MacKillop or the parents and young people of today, the magnetism of Jesus Christ is ever strong.

When we say we adore Jesus as the Lord of all history, on the cross and present with us, speaking in his word at Mass, present in his body and blood, whom we offer and receive and whom we adore in our times of adoration, it means that we choose to live according to the measure of Jesus Christ and of God himself.

My dear young friends, I invite you through prayer, faithfulness to the Mass, regular Confession, to be so strongly one with Jesus that we can take up his invitation in changing the world. 

In the last hundred years some people have expected nothing from God and reducing everything to what can be known by human beings.  This is totalitarianism.  Yet it is only God who guarantees our freedom and shows us what is good and true.

As I thank each of you for your generosity and your openness to the call of Jesus Christ, truly changing the world means turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting life.

In the words of Pope Benedict at Marianfeld on 20th August, “The magi from the east found the true face of God when they knelt down before the child of Bethlehem.  ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, said Jesus to Philip.’  (John 14.9)

In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God is seen.  We will follow him together with the great multitude of those who went before us, then we will be travelling along the right path.”

Finally, the Pope invites us to know who we are as we walk with Christ.  “Here in Cologne we discover the joy of belonging to a family as vast as the world, including heaven and earth, the past, the present, the future and every part of the earth.  In this great band of pilgrims we walk side by side with Christ, we walk with the star that enlightens our history.”  We too have our part in making our world, our city and our family new.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.