Benedict XVI Tells Youth to "Dare to Love"
Hopes to Reawaken Trust With Message for Youth Day

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI exhorts young people to "dare to love," in his message for the upcoming diocesan-level World Youth Day.

"Everybody feels the longing to love and to be loved," the Pope says in his message. "Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible.

"But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become resigned?"

"No!" the Holy Father replies. "Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you -- you who are the future and hope of humanity -- trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another."

The diocesan-level World Youth Day will be held on Palm Sunday, April 1.

Benedict XVI continues in his message: "Let us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a 'discovery' of love."

3 stages

The papal message explains that the first stage is learning that God himself is love, as St. John explains.

The second stage, the Pope states, is knowing "love in all its magnitude" as revealed by Christ, especially on the cross.

The third stage, the Holy Father writes, is realizing that love longs to be shared: "Christ cried out from the cross: 'I am thirsty' (John 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us.

"It is only by coming to perceive the depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realize the need and urgency to love him as he has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for him."

The papal message ends by giving "the secret of love," namely, the "indispensable support of divine grace."

"Each one of us, my dear friends, has been given the possibility of reaching this same level of love, but only by having recourse to the indispensable support of divine grace," the message states. "Only the Lord's help will allow us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken.

"It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable. Contact with the Lord in prayer grounds us in humility and reminds us that we are 'unworthy servants.'"

Benedict XVI urges young people to discover the Eucharist.

"Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love," he explains. "When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge (cf. Ephesians 3:17-18).

"By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters of the Church community, we feel compelled, like Our Lady with Elizabeth, to render 'in haste' the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters."

In his message the Pope also invites young people to Sydney, Australia, for World Youth Day in July 2008.

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