Why do divisions, wars and death occur?
Fanaticism and divisions among young people? Why is there that desire
to destroy? In the first page of the bible, after
all those wonderful things that God had done, a brother kills
another brother. The spirit of evil takes us to destruction. And the
spirit takes us to a lack of unity. It takes us to tribalism
corruption and drugs. It takes us to destruction out of fanaticism.
How do we make it such that fanatical idealism doesnâ??t rob us of a
brother or sister. There is a word that might seem uncomfortable to
the ear but i donâ??t want to avoid it.
A man or a woman loses their humanity
when they forget how to pray. Because they feel powerful. Because
they donâ??t feel the need to ask the Lord for help, in the face of
so many tragedies.
Life is full of difficulties. Are there
different ways of looking at difficulties? Does it stop you, or do
you regard them as as real opportunity? To all of you is open the
choice. For me, is this a path of destruction or an opportunity to
overcome this difficulty for me, my family, this country? Young people: we donâ??t live in
heaven, we live on earth. And earth is full of difficulties and
invitations that will lead you astray to evil. But there is something
all of you have. The capacity to choose. Which path do you want to
choose? Which of these two do I want?
There are some other difficulties you
mention. And before that a question. Do you want to overcome
challenges or be overcome by them? Are you like the sportsman who come
here. Or those who sold the tickets to others and
put the money in their pockets. You have to choose.
Tribalism. It can destroy. It can mean
having your hands hidden behind your backs. And have a stone in each
hand to throw to others. Tribalism can only be overcome with your
ear, your heart, and your hand.
Ask yourselves: What is your culture?
Why are you like this? Why do your cousins have these customs? Do
they feel inferior or superior? Once weâ??ve heard the response in our
ears than it passes to our hearts and then I extend my hand. If you
donâ??t dialogue with each other then youâ??re going to have division
like a worm that grows in society
Yesterday was pronounced as a day of
prayer and reconciliation. I want to invite you all today, to the
young, to invite Lineth and Manuel to come up now, and that we hold
each otherâ??s hands, letâ??s hold hands together. Letâ??s stand up
as a sign against tribalism. We are all a nation, thatâ??s how our
hearts must be.
Tribalism isnâ??t just raising our
hands today, itâ??s an expression of our desire, our hearts, and this
tribalism is a work we must carry out every day against this
tendency. You have to listen to others, itâ??s a work of opening your
heart.
On the question of corruption, I ask
myself, can we justify corruption just for the mere fact that
everyone is corrupt? How can we be christians and overcome this evil
of corruption? In my country (Argentina) a young 20 year old dedicated himself to
politics. He studied with great vigor he went here and there and he
obtained a job. And one day he had to decide: about which things he
had to buy. And he asked for three quotes. He studied these three
quotes and chose the cheapest, the easiest, and he took it to his
boss so his boss could sign off on it and he said: 'Why do you choose
this one?' 'Because you have to choose what is easiest for
the finances of a country.' 'No, you have to choose
that which gives more money in your pocket'. 'But I came to carry out
politics for the good of the nation!'. And the
boss replied: 'I do politics to rob'. One example...
And itâ??s not just in
politics, in all areas of life, also in the Vatican. These are cases
of corruption. Corruption is something that eats
inside, like sugar. Sweet, we like it, itâ??s easy. And then we end
up in a bad way. So much sugar that we end up being diabetic or our
country ends up being diabetic. Each time when we accept a bribe and
we put it in our pockets, we destroy our hearts. we destroy our
personalities, and we destroy our country. Please, donâ??t develop
that taste for that sugar which is called corruption. You might say
â??but Holy Father, I see many who are corrupt. I see so many people
who are sold. Just for a little bit of money. Without worrying about
the livelihood of others.â??
As in everything you have to make a
start. If you donâ??t want corruption in lives, hearts and country,
start now, yourselves. Because if you donâ??t start than the person
thatâ??s beside you wonâ??t start.
Corruption moreover takes away our joy,
our peace. Corrupt people donâ??t live in peace. What Iâ??m about to
tell you really happened. In my city, my home town, a man died and we
all knew that he was corrupt. I asked a few days after, â??how did
the funeral goâ??? And a lady with a great sense of humor replied:
â??they couldnâ??t close the coffin properly because they wanted to
put inside the coffin all the money he had robbed.â??
What you rob through corruption will
stay here. But also, what will remain is that the hearts of many men
and women are wounded by these examples of corruption. What will
remain behind was all the lack of good that could have been done. It
will remain in the children who suffer. Young people: corruption is not a path
to life, itâ??s a path to death.
There was one question, how to use
means of communication, to spread the message of Christ, and to
promote good initiatives so that you can make a difference. The first
means of communicating is the words, the smiles, the gestures. The
first gesture is being close to others. The first gesture to trying
look for friendship with others. If you speak well among yourselves then
you can accept each other as brothers and sisters, even if youâ??re
from different tribes. If youâ??re closest to the poor to those who
are abandoned to...those who are completely rejected, those gestures
of communication are much more contagious than any channel on TV.
These questions and these thoughts can
help you. But ask Jesus from your hearts, pray to the Lord. So that
he can give you the strength to destroy tribalism and hold each
others hand as brothers and sisters. So that you have the courage to
not be corrupted, Offering yourselves for others, by offering a
gestures, a word a smile your expressions of closeness.
In response to Manuelâ??s questions, I
am worried about the first thing he said. What can we do to stop
young people being recruited into radicalization? What can we do
after they have been recruited to try to get them to come back?
To
answer this we have to ask why do young people full of ideals allow
themselves to be radicalized in this way? They leave their friends,
their tribe, their country. They leave their lives behind in order to
learn how to kill. This is question which you yourselves must pose to
all people in authority.
If a young woman or man has no work, cannot
study, what can he or she do? A life of delinquency, falling into
drug abuse, or even into suicide. In Europe the statistics of suicide
are not published. They get involved or seduced into an activity
which leads them into a bad path. The first thing we have to do to
stop a young person from being recruited is education and work. If a young person has no work than what
future awaits him or her? And thatâ??s where the idea of being
seduced or recruited comes in. Even if there are small opportunities,
without them what can they do? That is the danger. Itâ??s a social
danger which is beyond us and itâ??s even beyond the country because
it depends on an international system that is unjust. Itâ??s the
injustice of having an economic system where the person is not the
center but rather the god of money.
Pray! But do it really hard. God is
much stronger than any recruitment champaign. And then, speak with
tenderness, understanding and love and with great patience to invite
them to come watch some football, to walk with you, to be together in
your group, don't allow them to remain on their own.
Transitory things that end up
destroying you. A question Manuel asked. Itâ??s a question that a
professor in theology might ask. How can we understand that God is
our father, how to see his hand in the tragedies of life, how can we
find Godâ??s peace? This question men and women all over the world
ask themselves. And they canâ??t find the reason. And there are some
questions that you can turn around in your minds over and over again
and never find the answer. How can I see the hand of God in tragedy?
I was going to say thereâ??s just one response but no, thereâ??s no
response. There is a path. To look at the Son of God. God endured
death to save all of us. God became a tragedy. God allowed himself to
be destroyed on the cross.
When you donâ??t understand something,
when desperation hits you then look at the cross. That is the great
failure of God, that is the destruction of God, and itâ??s a
challenge to our faith. And this is hope, because history did not end
in that failure. Rather itâ??s in the resurrection of Christ that
renewed all of us.
I am going to tell you something
personal, something
private. In my pocket I always carry two thing: a rosary to pray
something which seems odd, this is here is the history of Godâ??s
failure, itâ??s the way of the cross, a small way of the cross, as
Jesus suffered and when they condemned him right up to where he was
buried with these two things I do the best I can. And thanks to these
two things, I never lose hope.
A last question from our theologian
friend Manuel, what word can you offer to young people who donâ??t
experience love in their families. How is it possible to come out of
this experience?
Everywhere, there are abandoned
children, either at birth or as life progressed they were abandoned
and they donâ??t feel love from their families.
This is why family is so important.
Defend the family. Defend the family always. everywhere thereâ??s not
only kids who are abandoned but also elderly are abandoned with no
one to visit to them with no-one to love them.
How do you come out of this very
negative experience? There is one remedy, one remedy alone, to come
out of these experiences. To do that which you did not receive. If
you didnâ??t receive understanding, then be understanding with
others.
If you felt pain of loneliness come
close to those who are alone, flesh is cured by flesh and God became
flesh in order to cure us, letâ??s do the same ourselves.
Well then, before the umpire sounds the
bell, itâ??s time to close. I thank you from my heart, first that you
came, second that you allow me to speak in my mother tongue. I am
really grateful you prayed so many rosaries for me. And please, I ask
you to pray for me. Because I too need those prayers and very much
so. I count on your prayers and before leaving, if we stand now and
pray to our heavenly father who has only one defect - he canâ??t stop
being a father.
God bless you all, the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Thank you very much!
