Pope Leo XIV at the Mass for the Jubilee of Young People at Tor Vergata in Rome on Sunday 3 August

 “It is truly beautiful, especially at a young age,” the Holy Father said, “to open wide your hearts, to allow him to enter, and to set out on this adventure with him towards eternity.” St Augustine, reflecting on his intense search for God, asked himself: ‘What, then, is the object of our hope…?’ Asking whether our source of hope is the earth or something beautiful that comes from it, he argued that these items were not, but rather ‘the One Who made them,’ ‘He is your hope.’ Like Augustine’s search for meaning, the Pope acknowledged the young people at times ponder similar questions, “There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: what is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom and mediocrity?” Pope Leo recalled the young people have had many beautiful experiences, adding that through all this, “you can grasp an important point,” namely the fullness of our existence does not depend on what we store up or, as we heard in the Gospel, on what we possess. Rather, he reminded, fullness has to do with what we joyfully welcome and share. “Buying, hoarding and consuming are not enough. We need to lift our eyes, to look upwards, to the ‘things that are above…'”

“Dear young people, Jesus is our hope,” Pope Leo insisted. “It is He, who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives… to commit… to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal…Let us remain united to Him, let us remain in His friendship, always, cultivating it through prayer, adoration, Eucharistic Communion, frequent Confession, and generous charity, following the examples of Bl Piergiorgio Frassati and Bl Carlo Acutis who will soon be declared saints.” Hence, he invited, “Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less. You will then see the light of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you.”