Pope Francis at Final WYD Mass: Aim High, Be Courageous, Take Risks to Encounter Jesus

Holy Communion during the final Mass for World Youth Day in the Campus Misericordiae field near Krakow, July 31, 2016. The archway on the Holy Door of Mercy reads in various languages: "Jesus, I Trust in You". Pope Francis and five young people representing different continents processed through the door of ‪mercy‬ during Saturday night's prayer vigil.
Holy Communion during the final Mass for World Youth Day in the Campus Misericordiae field near Krakow, July 31, 2016. The archway on the Holy Door of Mercy reads in various languages: "Jesus, I Trust in You". Pope Francis and five young people representing different continents processed through the door of ‪mercy‬ during Saturday night's prayer vigil. (photo: © Mazur/episkopat.pl)

In order to meet Jesus, aim high, overcome a paralysis of shame, and be courageous in ignoring the critics of the Gospel, Pope Francis has told young pilgrims said at the final Mass of World Youth Day in Krakow. 

In a reflection peppered with some social media references, the Holy Father reflected on the Gospel reading of Zacchaeus the tax collector whose life changed after his encounter with Jesus. But before that could happen, he had to overcome a number of obstacles.

The first of these was his smallness of stature: we, too, can risk not getting close to Jesus because we don’t feel big enough, Francis said. But this is a “great temptation” that not only has to do with “self-esteem, but with faith itself.” 

The Holy Spirit, however, “wants to dwell within us,” the Pope said. “We have been called to be happy forever with God!” That is our 'real' spiritual identity, and so not to accept that but live "glumly" and being negative “means not to recognise our deepest identity.” 

“It is like walking away when God wants to look at me, trying to spoil his dream for me,” the Pope said. “God loves us the way we are, and no sin, fault or mistake of ours makes him change his mind.”

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

God, he said, “is our biggest fan”, always “cheering us on.”  Brooding over our troubles and past injuries “is unworthy of our spiritual nature,” the Pope said. “It is a kind of virus infecting and blocking everything; it closes doors and prevents us from getting up and starting over.” God “hates to see us glum and gloomy”, he said, and instead believes “we can always get up” because we are “always his beloved sons and daughters.”

The Pope urged each person to thank the Lord each morning for His love and to ask Him to help him or her "be in love" with their own life, not with faults that “need to be corrected”, but with life itself “which is a great gift.”  

A second obstacle the Pope highlighted in encountering Jesus is “the paralysis of shame”. As Zacchaeus mastered his shame and ridicule to climb the tree to the see Jesus, so must we take a risk. “This is the secret of joy,” the Pope said. “Not to stifle a healthy curiosity, but to take a risk, because life is not meant to be tucked aways.”

The third obstacle, the Pope explained, was the “grumbling of the crowd” who first blocked Zacchaeus and then criticised him. “People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid and insensitive,” the Pope said. But God “looks beyond the faults and sees the person. He does not halt before bygone evil, but sees future good. His gaze remains constant, even when it is not met; it seeks the way of unity and communion.” 

He urged the young pilgrims to “download the best link of all: that of a heart which sees and transmits goodness without growing weary.” The joy so freely received from God, “freely give away”, he said. “So many people are waiting for it!”. 

The Pope concluded by reminding the faithful present that Jesus wants to “dwell in your daily lives” and to bring all hopes and dreams to him in prayer. 

“How much he hopes that, in all the 'contacts' and 'chats' of each day, pride of place be given to the golden thread of prayer!,” he said. 

And he added that God’s memory is “not a ‘hard disk’ that ‘saves’ and ‘archives’ all our data” but is a heart “filled with tender compassion, one that finds joy in 'erasing' in us every trace of evil.”

He closed by urging prayerful silence, “remembering and thanking the Lord wanted us to be here, and has come here to meet us.”

See the full text of the Pope's homily here.

Polish authorities said at least 1.5 million pilgrims attended the Mass this morning in the Campus Misericordiae field near Krakow, while Polish television put the figure at 2 million.

After today's Mass it was announced that the next World Youth Day will be held in Panama in 2019.