To Young People in the Parish of St Mary the Consoler in Vaduz

On Sunday, 8 September 1985, the Holy Father met with young people in the parish of Santa Maria Consolatrice, in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The Pope led them in a meditation on the Magnificat.

Dear friends from the Principality of Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, wherever you are: “Hoi zemma!”. Warmest greetings to you all!

I am happy that you have come here this evening to be together with the Pope and to pray with him. We want to be a mutual stimulus to faith and to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to God. We do this on the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, here, in the Dux Chapel, where she is especially venerated as “Our Beloved Lady of Liechtenstein”.

You have chosen as the main text of prayer and meditation for our meeting his praise of God, his Magnificat. Let us try together to understand more deeply this exaltation of the greatness and goodness of God, and in this way to know God better also in our lives.

1. “My soul magnifies the Lord”, thus Mary begins her song ( Lk 1:46). Her exaltation of the greatness of God springs from her faith and personal experience. In fact, God is great as the Creator; he called the world into existence. The enchanting beauty of creation, like that of the mountains of your homeland, reveals something of the magnificence of the Creator himself. God is great in the history of humanity. He causes peoples to be born and to disappear. He leads the chosen people from their slavery to the Promised Land. God is great in the life of every man, in the life of Mary herself and of so many saints who have passed into history as shining examples. But God is also great in my own life, in the life of each one of us. He made us exist, he gives us at every moment all that we are and have, and he invites us to the eternal community of life with him.

Your spokesmen have just confessed how difficult it is for them to believe in the presence of God in their lives; especially when something bad happens to them, or when they have lost a loved one. Of course, it is a nagging question: if God is so great and powerful, and so full of love for us, where is he then when something bad happens to us? Where was God in Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Where is God when children die of hunger, when men and women are tortured, when young people full of hope must die? While creation, so to speak, opens our eyes to the existence of God, to his wisdom, power and goodness: evil and pain instead seem to obscure his image, especially in the daily drama suffered by so many innocent people.

The particular difficulty of the answer lies in the fact that what makes your faith difficult, suffering, can be illuminated and more deeply understood only by faith. As we learn from the first pages of Sacred Scripture, God in the beginning created all “good things”. Evil and all misfortunes came into the world because of man’s original sin. The first man made bad use of his freedom and distanced himself from God. He wanted to be like God, but without God! Since then the whole of creation, as Saint Paul says, “has been subjected to futility; it has been groaning in travail until now” (cf. Rom 8:20-22). All the suffering in the world participates in this disorder for which man himself is responsible. God allows evil to exist in men and among men because he respects their freedom, and because, for those who love him, everything – even the most serious things – can be transformed into something good.

2. Mary tells us this with the words: “My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior” ( Lk 1:47). Men who are in difficulty can continually know God as their Savior. God is not only great as a creator, God is also great as a Savior. God is great in mercy. He turns his eyes especially to the humble and the humiliated (cf. Lk 1:52).

But how does God save us from the power of evil? With the redemption in Jesus Christ, God himself, through his inscrutable love, becomes a man, a “God with us.” He shares our life with us men, and takes our fate upon himself. He repairs our disobedience with his obedience (cf. Phil 2:5-11), our lack of love with his love, with his passion on the cross he atones for our sin, with his death he wins for us a new, eternal life.

To the question of the meaning of suffering and death in our lives, Jesus Christ gives us a far better answer than any man could ever have imagined. His cross answers the question of the meaning of suffering, his resurrection the question of the meaning of death. Seen externally, the capital punishment inflicted on the innocent Jesus of Nazareth is completely meaningless. With the eyes of faith, however, we realize that this passion has a redemptive force and therefore a very profound meaning.

Apparently, death is stronger than life. But because Jesus Christ is risen, we realize with the eyes of faith that he gives a life that is stronger than death. With his cross and his resurrection, Christ has become for us the one who saves us from the powers of sin and death. Through the suffering of Jesus, our suffering also acquires meaning; through the resurrection of Jesus, our death is also conquered (cf. Rom 6:5). “In the cross of Christ, not only was redemption accomplished through suffering, but human suffering itself was redeemed” (John Paul II, Salvifici doloris , 19). From now on, therefore, suffering must no longer cloud our vision of God; on the contrary, it can even be a sign of a special presence of God in our lives, an invitation to us to follow Christ even more closely.

3. God is great as creator and redeemer. But God is also great through Jesus Christ in his Church. Because Christ is and remains forever present in the Church (cf. Mt 28:20). In it he gives his divine life to those who have faith in him and sanctifies them.

In the Church there are certainly some things to criticize, sometimes there are unpleasant and painful things in her; because she too is a community of erring and sinful men. And yet I exhort you today: love your Church! Because despite all her shortcomings she lovingly proclaims the word of God to you, she gives you extraordinary encounters with Jesus Christ in the sacraments, she helps you to bear your life worthily and in a Christian manner even in the midst of trials. What is true first of all for Mary is also true for the Church, it is true for all those who have become members of her through Baptism. “From now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Almighty has done great things for me” ( Lk 1:48-49).

Through Christ in the Church, God has filled us with gifts. And if this is the case, what better can we do than to be grateful and to exalt him? “My soul magnifies the Lord,” says Mary. Praising God is the highest task entrusted to us in life. Praising God, this is the deepest meaning of our life! But how can we do it?

4. We praise God when we pray. A Christian life without prayer is unimaginable. Jesus himself spent much time in prayer (cf. Mt 14:23; Lk 6:12). Prayer is the greatest force that we Christians can counter the forces of evil in the world. Praying does not only mean that we can tell God everything that troubles us. Praying also means being silent and listening to what God wants to tell us. So have the courage to pray and also to listen in silence to the gentle voice of God.

We praise the Lord when we attend Holy Mass on Sunday. There is no better way to celebrate Sunday as the Lord's day. In every Holy Mass we listen to the word of God together, we expressly thank God for the great things he has done for us, we pray to him in the name of Jesus to give us the strength to lead a truly Christian life. In every Holy Mass we celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord. In every Mass we can learn to know Jesus better. I know that participation in the Sunday divine service sometimes disturbs you, and yet I would like you to take this duty very much to heart. An athlete who neglects the hours of training jeopardises his competitions. You jeopardise the deepening of your faith when you miss the Sunday encounter with Jesus Christ. Seek conversation with those who care for your souls, so that they can help you to deepen ever more the mysteries of the faith that we celebrate.

We praise God when we confess regularly. We can confess our sins because we know that God is great in his mercy. In every confession of sins we exalt the mercy of God. I also know that many young people today know little about and practice personal confession. I would like to encourage you to rediscover this sacrament that has been so forgotten. These efforts will have their reward. Jesus, who forgives your sins, will give you the strength to overcome the difficulties of life. The priest who cares to understand you, will help you to better understand God's will for your life.

5. Our whole life must be in accordance with our praise of God. Not only on Sundays, but also on working days, people must sense something of your faith. In your environment, which often no longer thinks and acts in a Christian way, it takes courage to remain in the faith.

Have this courage! Maybe you will be mocked because you love religious education, maybe you will be teased because you go to Church or openly recognize its doctrine. Do not care! Seek out those who think the same way! Form groups, to strengthen each other in the faith!

Dear young friends! You live in a wealthy country. Rejoice in it and make use of the opportunities it offers you. But at the same time be aware of the responsibility that this entails for you. Can we not praise God even in our wealth? The Magnificat gives us a serious warning when it says: “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” ( Lk 1:53). Material wealth is in itself something good, to the extent that we do not let it steal our hearts. Consumption is in itself nothing bad, as long as we do not drown our noblest aspirations in it. But since we are always in danger of becoming dependent on what we possess, we must consciously exercise the spirit of renunciation. Through an unbridled lust for enjoyment, man can destroy himself and his environment. Aspire to a simple lifestyle! Let your wealth and well-being become a blessing to others by sharing it with those in need! In this way you will also fulfill God's promise: "He has filled the hungry with good things." You can count on it: God will reward your sacrifices beyond measure.

6. In these years you choose your profession. It is not easy to make the right decisions in this field. It is not even a given that you will immediately find a suitable position on the job market. Unemployment is a big problem in many countries. I sincerely hope that you can learn and practice a profession that gives you joy and in which you can fulfill yourself.

In these years, most of you are also looking for or choosing a life partner, because you want to start your own family. Love between a man and a woman is a great and beautiful gift from God. For this reason, a responsible attitude towards it is required on your part. For us Christians, it is not a private matter. According to the testimony of the Bible, conjugal love is a representation of God's love for men (cf. Hos 2:18-25), an image of Christ's love for the Church (cf. Eph 5:21-33). God is faithful and Christ's love is irrevocable (cf. Heb 9:11-10, 18). For this reason, a Christian can practice conjugal love only in the bond of marriage, that is, after that definitive promise given to his or her spouse before God and the Church. Experience also teaches that premarital sexual relations, rather than facilitating it, make it more difficult to choose the right life partner.

To prepare for a good marriage, it is appropriate that you form and strengthen your character. And you will also have to refine those forms of love and affection that are appropriate to the temporary nature of your friendship. The ability to wait and to give up will then make it easier for you to have loving consideration for your partner. To prepare for a good marriage, it is also appropriate that – if this already concerns you – you deepen your knowledge of the appropriate methods for responsible procreation, which the Church permits and favors. Become acquainted with the entire doctrine of the Church on Christian marriage, recently set out in the important document Familiaris consortio drawn up by our Episcopal Synod.

I know, dear young Christians, that today there are many who think differently from the Church on these and similar issues. I know that it takes a lot of courage to swim against the current. However, I remind you of these principles not to make your life more difficult than it is. Rather, I am convinced that these principles are adequate to the dignity of the human person, and therefore, ultimately, serve temporal happiness and eternal health.

7. But you must not forget that today there is another way of realizing love in life. It is the vocation to follow Christ in the priestly and religious life, in freely chosen celibacy or in virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. I ask each of you to ask yourself seriously whether God is not calling you towards one of these paths. To all those who believe they have received such a personal vocation, I say: pray tenaciously to have the necessary clarity! But then say a joyful yes! Even the renunciation that is linked to this way of life is richly compensated by God. Mary placed herself throughout her life at the disposal of God as Virgin and Mother (cf. Lk 1:26-38). We praise God in a very special way when we ourselves live without detaching ourselves from him, like Mary.

In a few weeks, the mission to the people will begin here with you in Liechtenstein. It is carried out according to the motto: Awakening to life. This expression refers to the life that God will give us through Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. You have asked me about the meaning of life. This meaning is neither an idea nor something, but rather a person. His name is: Jesus Christ! If you also want to awaken to life, you must awaken to Jesus Christ. He gives meaning to your life on good days and on difficult days. You will certainly find Jesus if you let yourself be led to him by Mary, and you will never lose him again if you make Mary's attitude your own and unite yourself fully every day of your life in her praise of God: "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior", Magnificat anima mea Dominum! Amen.

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