Vatican City (Fides Service) - "The Liturgy of Palm Sunday is almost a solemn doorway leading to Holy Week. It associates two contrasting moments: the welcoming of Jesus to Jerusalem and the tragedy of the Passion… the city in which lives the memory of David rejoices as it welcomes Jesus; the city of the prophets, many of whom suffered martyrdom for the truth; the city of peace which during the centuries has known violence, war, deportation. In a way, Jerusalem can be considered the city-Symbol of humanity, particularly in this dramatic beginning of the third millennium which we are living". With these words the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, opened his homily during the solemn celebration of Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, in St Peter's Square on April 12. It was also the 18th World Youth Day, with the motto: Behold your Mother!" (Jn 19,27) and most of the thousands who attended were young people from Rome diocese and various other dioceses of the world.
Addressing the young people the Pope said: "Down the slopes of the hillside Garden of Olives, boys and girls of Jerusalem ran to welcome Christ waving palms and branches of olive trees. Today he is welcomed by young people all over the world, who in every diocesan community are celebrating the 18th World Youth Day. I greet you with deep affection, dear young people of Rome, and also those of you who have come on pilgrimage from various countries…and how can we fail to express fraternal solidarity with your peers suffering from war and violence in Iraq, the Holy Land and various other parts of the world?"
The Pope then ideally offered to the young people of the whole world the Pacem in Terris encyclical by Blessed John XXIII, "historical document, more than ever valid today" and he said: "read it, meditate, strive to put it into practice. Then you will be "blessed" because you will be authentic children of the God of peace". "Peace is a gift of Christ, won with the sacrifice of the Cross - the Pope said -. To obtain it is necessary to accompany the Master up the hill of Calvary. And who can lead us in this ascent better than Mary who precisely at the foot of the Cross was given as mother to the faithful apostle John. <Behold your mother!> Jesus addresses these words to each of you dear friends. He asks you too to take Mary as mother, in "your home", to welcome her among the your "belongings", "because she is the one, in her maternal ministry, who educates you and shapes you until Christ is fully formed in you". May Mary help you to respond with generosity to the Lord's call to persevere with joy and fidelity in the Christian mission!"
At the end of Mass, before the Angelus prayer, the Youth Day Cross changed hands from young Canadians to young Germans from Cologne where the 20th World Youth Day will take place in 2005. The Pope also consigned to the young Germans an icon of Mary Salus Popoli Romani, venerated during the 2000 Youth Day in Rome. "To the delegation from Germany today I entrust also the Icon of Mary - the Pope said -, From now on she will accompany the Cross on World Youth Days. The icon will be a sign of Mary's maternal presence with young people called, like the apostle John, to welcome her into their lives". See homily in Italian at www.fides.org. SL (Fides Service 14/4/2003 EM lines 39 Words: 572)