Don’t Limit Your Relationship With Jesus, WYD Pilgrims Told

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During his homily at the July 31 Papal Mass at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, Pope Francis said, “Don’t let your soul grow numb, but aim for the goal of a beautiful love which also demands sacrifice.”

The pope referenced the Gospel story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who didn’t let his lack of stature stop him from seeing Jesus.

“Even today we can risk not getting close to Jesus because we don’t feel big enough, because we don’t think ourselves worthy. This is a great temptation; it has to do not only with self-esteem, but with faith itself,” he said.

By not accepting themselves and their limitations, Christians deny their “real stature” as children of God and see themselves as unworthy of God’s love.

On the other side, “People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid and insensitive, good to the good and bad to the bad,” he told the young people.

The pope noted that Jesus looks at all people with the same gaze he looked at Zacchaeus, not taking into account his sins, wealth or social standing.

‘God counts on you for what you are, not for what you possess. In his eyes, the clothes you wear or the kind of cell phone you use are of absolutely no concern. He doesn’t care whether you are stylish or not, he cares about you! In his eyes, you are precious and your value is priceless,” the pope said.

Another obstacle, the pope continued, is the “paralysis of shame,” one that Zacchaeus overcame by climbing the sycamore tree at “the risk of appearing completely ridiculous.”

Pope Francis encouraged the young men and women to not be ashamed in bringing “everything to the Lord in confession, especially your weaknesses, your struggles and your sins.”

Zacchaeus’ final obstacle, he noted, did not come from within but from the “grumbling of the crowd” who first blocked him and then criticized him” for being a sinner.

As he did with Zacchaeus, Jesus looks beyond appearances and faults to the heart—something young people are called to imitate, the pope said.

“Don’t stop at the surface of things; distrust the worldly cult of appearances, applying makeup on our souls so we seem better than we are,” he said. “Instead, establish the most secure connection, that of the heart that sees and transmits goodness without tiring.”

Although the Mass brought the 2016 World Youth Day celebration to an end, Pope Francis invited the youths to continue along the path that began with their pilgrimage to Krakow and bring the remembrance of God’s love to others.

At the end of Mass, the pope announced that the next World Youth Day in 2019 will take place in Panama.

Reflecting on his World Youth Day experience, Vineet Aguiar, 28, who traveled with the group organized by the archdiocesan Youth Ministry Office, said, “I think the one thing that I take away from this pilgrimage experience so far is that I need to shoot higher. I felt that it has been an eye opener for me.”

“I always knew it, but I never fully focused on the fact that God has to be the center of my life,” he explained. “All the talks, all the catechesis and all the sermons I heard so far put it very nicely, God has to be the center and then everything else follows.”

Another pilgrim Griselle Ong, 26, who also traveled with the Youth Ministry group, said that the stress and anger that people have with all the little things in New York can make one forget about what is truly important.

“Taking a step back, you are here as a disciple of Christ. That message really spoke to me,” she said.

“That is a message I want to live when I get back to New York.”

Josue Rosario, a 22-year-old from St. Anthony of Padua parish in the Bronx was one of the youths who led the New York group on its seven-mile trek group to the Field of Mercy where the vigil and Mass were offered.

“Those seven miles, I did not expect to make it,” he said. “I took that as a sacrifice for the Lord to help myself spiritually.” He told CNY that he offered that hardship up as a sacrifice for his grandmother, who has cancer.

Once he saw the field, his first reaction was, “It was packed, but it was beautiful.”

Josue is a convert to the Catholic faith. “When I converted, and I started to believe in Jesus, I thought I was alone,” he said.

When he stepped onto the field for the Mass, he said, “I felt at home. I felt I was there with my family.

“When the pope started talking, that really hit me spiritually, because he is right!

“A lot of us are being couch potatoes. A lot of us can’t get off our phones,” he said. He honestly said that he sometimes doesn’t fully use the gifts that God has given him.

He said listening to the pope made him feel like putting gifts to practice.

“His words that God gave him to say to all of us, the youth, made me feel like…I can be a superhero, that I can change the world for the better.”

—CNS

Juliann DosSantos contributed to this article.