Zagreb, (IKA) – “Dear friends: this time of youth is given to you by the Lord to enable you to discover life’s meaning!” said Pope Benedict XVI in his address to the thousands of young people assembled at the Prayer Vigil on the first day of his apostolic visit to Croatia.
“We all know,” said the Pope in his address to young people in the suggestive atmosphere of the central main square in the capital city of Croatia, “that lodged in the heart of every person is a strong desire for happiness. Every action, every decision, every intention holds hidden within itself this deep, natural desire. But all too often we realize that we put our trust in things that cannot fulfill that desire, things that turn out to be shifting sands. At such moments we recognize our need for something “greater,”capable of giving meaning to our daily lives,” said the Pope to the young people.
He pointed out that youth is a time that the Lord gives “to enable you to discover life’s meaning,” a “time of vast horizons, powerful emotions, but also a time of concern about demanding, long-term choices, a time of challenges in your studies and in the workplace, a time of wondering about the mystery of pain and suffering. What is more, this wonderful time of life is marked by a deep longing which, far from cancelling everything else, actually lifts it up and fulfills it.”

While fully respecting your freedom,” continued the Pope, Jesus “approaches each one of you and offers himself as the authentic and decisive response to the longing deep within your hearts, to your desire for a life worth living. Let him take you by the hand! Let him become more and more your friend and companion along life’s journey. Put your trust in him and he will never disappoint you! Jesus enables you to know at first hand the love of God the Father; he helps you realize that your happiness comes from his friendship, from fellowship with him. Why? Because we have been created and saved by love, and it is only in love, the love which desires and seeks the good of others, that we truly experience the meaning of life and find happiness in living it, even amid difficulties, trials and disappointments, even when it means swimming against the tide,” said the Pope.
Reminding the young people that if they are rooted in Christ, they will full become the persons they are meant to be, the Pope said: “As you grow in friendship with the Lord through his word, the Eucharist and life in the Church, you will be able, with the help of your priests, to testify to the complete joy of having encountered the One who always stands at your side and enables you to live in confidence and hope. The Lord Jesus is not a Teacher who deceives his disciples: he tells us clearly that walking by his side calls for commitment and personal sacrifice, but it is worth the effort! Young friends: do not let yourselves be led astray by enticing promises of easy success, by lifestyles which regard appearances as more important than inner depth. Do not yield to the temptation of putting all your trust in possessions, in material things, while abandoning the search for the truth which is always “greater,” which guides us like a star high in the heavens to where Christ would lead us. Let it guide you to the very heights of God!” said the Pope. On this path, the Holy Father mentioned numerous disciples of the Lord as models, saints who “in their own days treasured the newness of the Gospel in their hearts” particularly the “brilliant young man,” the Blessed Ivan Merz. This young life, completely given over to love, bears the fragrance of Christ; it invites all of us not to be afraid and to entrust ourselves to the Lord as did the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, who is venerated and loved here under the title of Our Lady of the Stone Gate,” said the Pope. “Our entire life is a journey towards the Unity and Trinity of Love which is God; we can live our lives in the certainty that we will never be abandoned. Dear young people of Croatia, I embrace all of you as sons and daughters! You have a place in my heart and I leave you my blessing. “Rejoice in the Lord always!” May his joy, the joy of true love, be your strength,” concluded the Pope.