To Be Free

Via Blessed John Paul II:

My sons and daughters, you have pointed out at your Congress the sufferings and the contradictions by which a society is seen to be overwhelmed when it moves away from God. The wisdom of Christ makes you capable of pushing on to discover the deepest source of evil existing in the world. And it also stimulates you to proclaim to all men, your companions in study today, and in work tomorrow, the truth you have learned from the, Master’s lips, that is, that evil comes “out of the heart of man” (Mk 7:21).… The root of evil is within man. The remedy, therefore, also starts from the heart.

And—I am happy to repeat—the door of our heart can be opened only by that great and definitive word of the love of Christ for us, which is his death on the Cross.

It is here that the Lord wishes to lead us: within ourselves. All this time that precedes Easter is a constant call to conversion of the heart. This is real wisdom: initium sapientiae timor Domini(Sir 1:16).

Beloved sons, have, therefore, the courage to repent; and have also the courage to draw God’s grace from sacramental Confession. This will make you free!

Speech to University Students

Rome

April 10, 1979