In his homily at Campo San Juan Pablo II, Metro Park, Panama, last Sunday, Pope Francis said: “The enrichment of intergenerational dialogue, the enrichment of exchange and the value of realising that we need one another, that we have to work to create channels and spaces that encourage dreaming of and working for tomorrow, start today.
“And this, not in isolation, but rather side by side, creating a common space. A space that is not simply taken for granted, or won in a lottery, but a space for which you too must fight. You young people must fight for your space today, because life is living for today.
“You, dear young people, are not the future. No, you are the present. You are not the future of God, you young people are the now of God.”
Give me a drink
At the cathedral of Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama last Saturday week, the Pope said: “‘Give me a drink’ means finding the courage to be purified and to recapture the most authentic part of our founding charisms – which are not only for religious life but for the life of Church as a whole – and to see how they can find expression today. This means not only looking back on the past with gratitude, but seeking the roots of their inspiration and letting them resound forcefully once again in our midst.
“‘Give me a drink’ means recognising that we need the Spirit to make us women and men mindful of an encounter and of a passage, the salvific passage of God. And trusting that, as He did yesterday, He will still do tomorrow.
“Going to the roots helps us without a doubt to live in the present without fear. We need to live without fear, responding to life with the passion of being engaged with history, immersed in things. With the passion of lovers”.
We have a horizon
At the Centro de Cumplimiento de Menores Las Garzas de Pacora, Panama, last Friday week, the Pope said: “And whereas these people were content to grumble or complain because Jesus was meeting people who were marked by some kind of social error, some sin, and closed the doors on conversion, on dialogue with him – Jesus approaches and engages, Jesus puts his reputation at risk.
“He asks us, as he always does, to lift our eyes to a horizon that can renew our life, that can renew our history. All of us, all have a horizon. All of us. Someone may say: ‘I do not have one’. Open the window and you will find it, open the window of love which is Jesus and you will find him. We all have a horizon.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)