Pope Francis advised a group of French youth who made a pilgrimage to Rome by reflecting the biblical passage of the encounter of Jesus with the disciples who were walking towards Emmaus to suggest three teachings.
The Pope thanked the Catholic Action groups for their generous service to the Church and encouraged while meeting them.
“Everyone to find or rediscover the joy of knowing the friendship of Christ and announcing the Gospel.”
In his speech, the Holy Father recalled the narrative of Saint Luke that he describes when the disciples walk with Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:18-35) and stressed that they remembered the events they had lived through; then they recognized the presence of God in those events and finally, they acted and returned to Jerusalem to announce the resurrection of Christ.
In this line, the Pope pointed out that seeing is the first important stage because it is necessary “to stop and observe the events that make up our lives, what constitutes our history, our family, cultural and Christian roots” to perceive “how God was present in every instant”.
“The subtlety and delicacy of the Lord’s action in our life sometimes prevent us from understanding it at the moment, and this distance is needed to grasp its coherence,” he warned.
Then, the Holy Father suggested judging or discerning to “allow us to question” along with the reference to Sacred Scripture to “accept that one’s own life is subject to the scrutiny of the Word of God” for which he asked, “please, always leave an important place to the Word of God in the life of your groups and give space equally to prayer, to interiority, to adoration”.
In this sense, the Pope suggested using the parable of the Good Samaritan to “question our relationship with the world, with others, especially with the poorest.”
Finally, the Holy Father stressed that the third stage is action and recalled that “the Gospel teaches us that action must always have God’s initiative.”
For this reason, the Pope invited young people to be approached wherever they are to help them grow in love for Christ and their neighbor and to guide them to a greater concrete commitment so that “they may be protagonists of their lives and of the life of the Church so that the world can change”.