VATICAN - Papal Message for 19th World Youth Day: “If we want to see Jesus we must let ourselves be seen by him! Dear young people, let Jesus look into your eyes so that you have will have an ever greater longing to see the Light to savour the splendour of Truth.”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The year 2004 is the final lap before the important appointment of the 20th World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005. I therefore ask you to intensify your spiritual preparation by studying the theme I have chosen for this 19th World Youth Day: "We want to see Jesus " (Jn 12,21).” This is how Pope John Paul II begins his message to the young people of the world for the 19th World Youth Day which will be celebrated on April 4, Palm Sunday, by young people and their bishops as a diocesan event all over the world.
The theme was the question made to the Apostles by a group of Greek scholars who were certain that Jesus had the answer to their fundamental questions about life. “Dear young people - the Pope writes -, I invite you to imitate those "Greeks" who spoke to Philip because they wanted to "see Jesus". May your searching be prompted not merely by intellectual curiosity, which is unquestionably of great value, but rather by a deep desire to find the answer to the question about the meaning of life.”
“To see Jesus we must let him look at us!” the message continues. “ The desire to see God lies in the heart of every man and woman. Let Jesus look into your eyes so that you will have an ever greater longing to see the Light, to savour the splendour of the Truth. Whether we realise it or not God created us because he loves us and he wants us to love Him in return. This explains the insuppressible longing for God that lies in the human heart:”
In order to contemplate the beauty of the Face of Jesus we must first of all make room for inward silence in order to hear “in the depth of our heart this ardent desire to see God, a desire sometimes suffocated by the noise of the world and the seduction of pleasure”. We must look for Jesus in the events of life, in the faces of people we meet; and also in prayer and meditation on the Word of God. “To see Jesus, to contemplate his Face is an insuppressible desire but it is a desire which man can unfortunately also deform. This is caused by sin, the essence of which is taking our eyes from the Creator to turn them to the creature.”... “To be truly free means having the strength to choose the One for whom we are created and to recognise his Lordship over our life. You sense this deep in your hearts: all the goods of the earth, professional success, even the human love of which you dream, can never fully satisfy your deepest longings.”
The Pope urges young people to seek Jesus in the Eucharist, who “received with love and adored with fervour becomes a school of freedom and charity for the fulfilling of the commandment of love”, in the faces of the poor (“reach out to all human suffering with the impulse of your generosity and with the love that God pours in your heart by means of the Holy Spirit”) and in the Church: “The Church is a prolonging of his work of salvation in time and space. It is in the Church and through the Church that Jesus continues to make himself visible today and where he can be encountered.” Lastly the Pope urges young people not to be surprised to find the Cross on their path: “When Jesus accepted death on the cross, and he made the Cross the source of life and the sign of love, it was not out of weakness or for the sake of suffering, it was to win salvation for us and allow us to share already here and now in his divine life.” The Pope ends his message to young people as follows: “Put your talents and your youthful ardour at the service of the proclamation of the Good News. Be enthusiastic friends of Jesus ready to introduce the Lord to those who ask to see him, and also to those who are furthest away.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 1/3/2004; Righe 42 - Parole 636)