7 things the Pope asks of you for WYD Lisbon 2023João ChagasVatican WYD official: "Young people will be more involved than in previous editions".Lisbon will receive WYD symbols on January 27thCardinal José Tolentino Mendonça is Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. In addition to being a poet and essayist, he is a specialist in Biblical Studies. His intellectual work focuses essentially on the relationship between Christianity and culture.
The WYD organizers are encouraging Cardinal Mendonça to engage in conversations with young people of different nationalities to discuss various topics. The first video of these dialogues is already available.
Waiting time
The first young people to meet the Cardinal were Sara and David, from the local organizing committee and the diocesan organizing committee respectively. During the conversation, the Cardinal spoke about how young people should live Christmas: "Christmas asks of us a progressive interior journey, of listening, of attention, of availability to meet ourselves and availability to encounter the Word of God".
Mendonça spoke of the importance of waiting. "Who waits? The one who knows that something is missing. We all have to feel that we are incomplete, that our life is not self-sufficient, that is why we stop and wait." The time of Advent is the one that "prepares us for waiting, which is also a form of hope".
Christians, the Cardinal tells us, "do not expect immediate things. We wait for the Prince of Peace. We wait for the Lord of our life, the Lord of history, who gives meaning to what we are and what we build".
This year, in addition to the expectation of Advent, there is also the anticipation for WYD 2023 in Lisbon. In this expectation that precedes the meeting between the Pope and the youth, says Mendonça, "we are already happy, because the heart is already projected in this great moment that is lived in the heart and will mark all the participants". This should fill us with enthusiasm because "it is very beautiful to think of a global community that takes us out of loneliness and gives us the joy of being with one another to confirm our hope".
WYD and its transformative effectiveness
It is easy to wonder how hearts can change in just a few days. The cardinal believes that WYD can be more than a one-time event if "in preparation we invest ourselves seriously and take advantage of this time as a moment for growth, discovery and deepening in faith". We can also take advantage of it to unite ourselves more closely to the Church and become aware that "we are Church".
Quoting the Pope, Mendonça considers that "young people must be the new poets of history. If in this time we discover ourselves as protagonists of history, if we realize that we are the face of Christ, the meeting with the Holy Father will not be the point of arrival but a giant starting point that can project us into many creative dynamics that will undoubtedly mark the beginning of a new era.
Encountering Christ
WYD implies an encounter with Christ because "for the Church the great gatherings are encounters with Him. That is what makes the difference for us, because through faith we look at life and the world with different eyes".
"When we look deep down," says the Cardinal, "we see that it is Jesus who is the protagonist of the story and gives us boldness and courage. Christ is the springboard of our dreams, he fills our hearts with desires".
This courage on the part of young people must lead them not to be repeaters, but to dedicate themselves to recreate, dreaming of "a world of love that is not impossible. What we hear Jesus saying in the Gospel is possible, starting with the life of each one of us.
The key to this, says Mendonça without doubting it, "is Christ and, for this reason, it is so important that in this time of preparation, the discovery of Christ and his Word be at the center of everything". This implies that "before booking a trip to Lisbon we have to accept that in our life that Emmaus companion comes with us, that travel companion who is Jesus".
Santa Maria and the youth
"Mary is our teacher, in the sense that she teaches us the art of waiting." St. Mary leaves "an imprint in our hearts". Young people can look at three fundamental attitudes that the Mother of God teaches us.
"The first is her listening to God's plan". Mary gives God her attention, "opens her heart to this encounter with the Lord". In the same way, young people have to listen to what God tells them "because He has a plan in which you are the protagonist".
Secondly, we find "Mary's ability to say yes, to commit herself". Our Mother "gives us the strength to fall in love". She reminds us that "life is a waste if we live half-heartedly".
Finally, we can learn a lot about "Mary's temperament". Her way of walking, of listening, her haste... "She immerses herself in her history" and this is a sign of "Mary's young heart". The Mother of God, with her attitude, "pushes history forward. She goes fast because her heart is full of love".
Young people loved by Christ
"When we have something great in our hearts, we cannot contain ourselves, we burst if we do not tell what we carry inside". The cardinal says that this is what every young person should share with joy when he realizes that Christ loves him: "Christ is in my life, the Gospel is alive in me".
This conviction makes all of us young missionaries and "Lisbon is the place for all of us to be together saying: we want, we dream, we are here, we have this news to announce to the world". Thus, the trip to Lisbon will be an "explosion of hope that the world needs so much".
