Youth is power and youth with a Mission in a community is mega power, having values for global servant hood. Hundreds of young people have been challenged and equipped to represent Christ around the world.
I thank God for youth with a mission as it is a clear path for kids in a cluttered world, a clear path to Jesus Christ, to significance, Satisfaction and to discover what we are created for sacrificial service to God and man. However the youth today seem to have forgotten the above mentioned factors as mass media plays a vital role in the lives of so many thousands of youth. It influences one’s values, life-style, interest and occupation. Every minute every second it seems to be taking our young generation away from the reality of life. All in all youth today have surrendered themselves to the media. This is where we as formators got to play a very important role of guiding youth by the values of the Gospel.
I think of Jesus as Model when I think of youth today. They want relationship, reality and relevance. We see these three so clearly in Jesus: His close relationship with his disciples, His straight talk with people, and the way he related truth to people. Jesus as a model would exactly youth look for and this generation is no exception. Today’s youth are looking for an encounter with something genuine, something worth living and dying for. They long to take risks for something authentic and experience faith. Only in the Lord Jesus do we find such authenticity.
Jesus is a man rooted in God. He came into a world that has its own system of values and outlook, its own "culture", its way of looking at, evaluating and understanding people. But the Abba experience gave Jesus different identity which he constantly offers to those who seek Him. Young generation needs to be prepared to think and to reflect upon this role model of Jesus. They need to be trained to enter into the silence to help them rediscover the lost values of their lives through prayer and meditation.
Pope John Paul II when speaking to the youth said,
"Dear young people, make your generous, and responsible contribution to the constant building up of the church as a family a place of dialogue and mutual acceptance a space of peace, mercy and pardon".
My dear friends, the Holy Father believed in us. He believed that young people can make a big difference in the world and in the church. He is asking us to make the church the community of people who believe in Jesus. Are we up for the challenge?
From his very first address Pope Benedict XVI too affirmed his need to be supported in his ministry by the prayers and the contributions of all the young people. We already see signs of this concern for the young in the World Youth Day concluded last month. Situated as we are at one of the frontiers of the church, we need to venture to express our support and concern with the mission of the church ‘Cause we are the Church!
- Yuvadarshan I.C.Y.M., Vasai Diocese