On Easter Monday, Pope Francis left this world and entered into the loving arms of the Father. We mourn the death of this faithful disciple who used his global seat to share the timeless message of Jesus Christ to all people. To young people, he declared: “You are infinitely loved.” To believers, he invited us all to “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus.” And to church leaders, he urged us beyond the walls of our congregations to get involved in people’s daily lives and “take on the smell of the sheep.”
Pope Francis’ words inspire us in the mission of Young Life because he speaks in the language that has always defined our ministry. His emphasis on mercy and evangelization have helped open Catholic eyes to the ministry of Young Life and Protestant eyes to the mission of the Catholic Church.
In honor of the life and legacy of Pope Francis, may his words speak to us and remind us of the Easter hope that binds all of us together: Christ is indeed alive.
To young people:
“God loves you. It makes no difference whether you have already heard it or not. God loves you. Never doubt this, whatever may happen to you in life. At every moment, you are infinitely loved.”
“You have worth; you are not insignificant. You are important to him, for you are the work of his hands. He does not keep track of your failings. He helps you learn something even from your mistakes. Because he loves you.”
“The life that Jesus gives us is a love story, a life story that wants to blend with ours. That life is not a salvation up ‘in the cloud’ or a new ‘app’ to be discovered. The salvation that God offers us is an invitation to be part of a love story.”
To believers:
“We need to remember that all religious teaching ultimately has to be reflected in the teacher’s way of life, which awakens the assent of the heart by its nearness, love and witness.”
“The Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their pain and pleas, with their joy… The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.”
“An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! May the world of our time, which is searching, receive the Good News from ministers of the gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ.”
To the church:
“I dream of a ‘missionary option,’ one capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world.”
“The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded.”
“I see the church as a field hospital. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal the wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. You have to start from the ground up.”
Pope Francis offered a vision of incarnational evangelization par excellence, a vision shared by Young Life. His life and message revealed the face of Jesus, who “being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:6-7).
