![\"parkland_protest\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/71\/2018\/02\/parkland_protest.jpg\")
<\/a>Somebody once pointed out that the task of youth is heroism. Youth long for a cause they can die for. It\u2019s what JPII recognized and why he started World Youth Day. His words to youth were always a call to heroism and self-sacrifice for Jesus:<\/p>\n\u201cDo not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat really matters in life is that we are loved by Christ and that we love Him in return. In comparison to the love of Jesus, everything else is secondary. And, without the love of Jesus, everything is useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGenuine love \u2026 is demanding. But its beauty lies precisely in the demands it makes. Only those able to make demands on themselves in the name of love can then demand love from others.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no place for selfishness and no place for fear! Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already born for us, and does not now bear with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDarkness can only be scattered by light, hatred can only be conquered by love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way Jesus shows you is not easy. Rather, it is like a path winding up a mountain. Do not lose heart! The steeper the road, the faster it rises towards ever wider horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future is in your hearts and in your hands. God is entrusting to you the task, at once difficult and uplifting, of working with Him in the building of the civilization of love.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDear young people, let yourselves be taken over by the light of Christ, and spread that light wherever you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father\u2019s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGod has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most beautiful and stirring adventure that can happen to you is the personal meeting with Jesus, who is the only one who gives real meaning to our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou perceive it in the depths of your heart: all that is good on earth, all professional success, even the human love that you dream of, can never fully satisfy your deepest and most intimate desires. Only an encounter with Jesus can give full meaning to your lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question about the value of life, about the meaning of life, forms part of the singular treasure of youth. Still more so, when youth is tested by personal suffering, or is profoundly aware of the suffering of others; when it comes face to face with the mystery of sin, of human iniquity (mysterium iniquitatis). Christ\u2019s reply is this: \u2018Only God is good; only God is love.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYours is the gigantic task of overcoming all evil with good, always trying amidst the problems of life to place your trust in God, knowing that his grace supplies strength to human weakness. You must oppose every form of hatred with the invincible power of Christ\u2019s love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s an instinct that can be perverted as Hitler demonstrated. The heroic desire to die for something great can be twisted into the desire to kill for something big:<\/p>\n