VATICAN - Pope tells young people: “This city of Rome is in your hands. It is up to you to make it spiritually beautiful with your testimony of a life lived in the grace of God and far from sin”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Dear young people, this city of Rome is in your hands. It is up to you to make it spiritually beautiful with your testimony of a life lived in the grace of God and far from sin, responding to all that the Holy Spirit calls you to be, in the Church and the world. In this manner, you will become visible signs of the grace of Christ’s abundant mercy that flows from His side, pierced for us on the Cross.” This was the exhortation given by Pope Benedict XVI to the youth gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica in the evening on Thursday, March 13. The Holy Father heard the confessions of several of the young people present, mainly from the Diocese of Rome, in preparation for the 23rd World Youth Day, that will be celebrated on Palm Sunday with the theme: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8) and that will culminate in Sydney in the world-wide encounter in July.
In the homily, the Holy Father quoted his first encyclical: “At the roots of being a Christian is the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction (cf. Deus caritas est, 1). In order to favor this encounter you are preparing to open your hearts to God, confessing your sins and - by the action of the Holy Spirit and through the ministry of the Church - receiving forgiveness and peace. Thus, we make room in ourselves for the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity which is the 'soul' and the 'vital breath' of Christian life.” Benedict XVI also pointed out that is a man lacks a soul, “he lacks everything.”
Recalling one of his own meditations on Pentecost, as Archbishop of Monaco-Frisinga, the Pope continued, “A human being cannot throw away his own soul, in a literal sense, because it is the soul that makes him human... Yet he does have the frightening possibility of being inhuman, of remaining a person but at the same time selling or losing his own humanity. The distance between the human person and the inhuman being is immense, yet it cannot be demonstrated. Likewise, the Holy Spirit “cannot be seen with the eyes. Whether it enters into a person or not, it cannot be seen or demonstrated; but it changes and renews all the perspectives of human life. The Holy Spirit does not change the exterior situations of life, but the interior...This afternoon, the Holy Spirit wants to descend into our hearts, to forgive us our sins and renew us interiorly, filling us with a power that will make us, like the Apostles, courageous in announcing that ‘Christ has died and risen!’.”
The Pope later encouraged the young people to prepare themselves well for their confession, enabling them to experience “true joy, the joy that derives from the mercy of God, flows into our hearts and reconciles us to Him.” He told them to “be bearers of this joy,” offering a testimony with their lives to the fruits of the Spirit. “Always remember that you are 'temples of the Spirit'. Allow Him to dwell in you and humbly obey His commands, in order to make your own contribution to the building of the Church and to discern the type of vocation to which the Lord calls you.”
Benedict XVI concluded his remarks by recalling how 25 years ago John Paul II inaugurated the San Lorenzo Youth Center near the Vatican “to facilitate the welcome of young people, the sharing of experiences and the witness of faith and, above all, the prayer that helps us to discover the love of God.” He concluded his homily encouraging the youth with these words: “Look to the Cross now, and let us accept God's love which is given to us by the Cross, by the Holy Spirit which comes from the pierced side of the Lord and, as John Paul II said: ‘Yourselves become redeemers of the young people of the world.’” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 14/3/2008; righe 47, parole 686)