In July of 2002 in Toronto, Canada, Pope John Paul II had invited the youth of the world to Cologne, Germany, for the next World Youth Day, to be held from August 16 to 21, 2005, with the theme "We have come to worship Him". (Mt 2:2). In the Cathedral of Cologne are honoured the relics of the Magi, the Wise Men from the East who followed the star which led them to Christ.
With the passing of John Paul II, Divine Providence made it so that it was a German Pope who welcomed the youth of the world in Germany, with the first official journey outside of Italy for Pope Benedict XVI. The new Pope won over the youth with his humility and profound teachings, which dealt especially with the Eucharist, in this special year dedicated to the Holy Eucharist, "source and summit of the life and mission of the Church," as says the theme of the coming Synod of Bishops in Rome. Here are large excerpts from the inspiring speeches of Pope Benedict XVI during this journey in Germany.
On arriving in Germany, Tuesday, August 18, Pope Benedict XVI was welcomed at the airport by German President Horst Köhler. The Holy Father said:
"With deep joy, I find myself for the first time, after my election to the Chair of Peter, in my beloved homeland, in Germany. With deep emotion, I thank God who has enabled me to begin my pastoral visits outside Italy with this visit to the nation of my birth. I have come to Cologne for the 20th World Youth Day, which had already been planned by my predecessor, the unforgettable Pope John Paul II.
"During this World Youth Day, we will reflect together on the theme: 'We have come to worship Him' (Matthew 2:2). This is a precious opportunity for thinking more deeply about the meaning of life as a 'pilgrimage', guided by a 'star', in search of the Lord. Together we shall consider the Magi, who, coming from various distant lands, were among the first to recognize the promised Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the Virgin Mary, and to bow down in worship before Him (cf. Matthew 2:1-12)."
In the afternoon, the Holy Father embarked on a cruise ship sailing in the Rhine River, and read a message to the 400,000 youth gathered on the banks of the river, assuring them that the happiness they seek has a name: Jesus of Nazareth:
"Dear young people, I am delighted to meet you here in Cologne on the banks of the Rhine! You have come from various parts of Germany, Europe, and the rest of the world as pilgrims in the footsteps of the Magi. Following their route, you too want to find Jesus. Like them, you have begun this journey in order to contemplate, both personally and with others, the face of God revealed by the Child in the manger. Like yourselves, I too have set out to join you in kneeling before the consecrated white Host in which the eyes of faith recognize the real presence of the Savior of the world. Together, we will continue to meditate on the theme of this World Youth Day: 'We have come to worship Him' (Matthew 2:2).
"To all of you l appeal: Open wide your hearts to God! Let yourselves be surprised by Christ! Let Him have 'the right of free speech' during these days! Open the doors of your freedom to His merciful love! Share your joys and pains with Christ, and let Him enlighten your minds with His light and touch you hearts with His grace. In these days blessed with sharing and joy, may you have a liberating experience of the Church as the place where God's merciful love reaches out to all people. In the Church and through the Church, you will meet Christ, who is waiting for you.
"Today it is my turn to take up this extraordinary spiritual legacy bequeathed to us by Pope John Paul II. He loved you – you realized that, and you returned his love with all your youthful enthusiasm. Now all of us together have to put his teaching into practice. It is this commitment which has brought us here to Cologne, as pilgrims in the footsteps of the Magi.
"According to tradition, the names of the Magi in Greek were Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar. Matthew, in his Gospel, tells of the question which burned in the hearts of the Magi: 'Where is the infant king of the Jews?' (Matthew 2:2). It was in order to search for Him that they set out on the long journey to Jerusalem. This was why they withstood hardships and sacrifices, and never yielded to discouragement or the temptation to give up and go home. Now that they were close to their goal, they had no other question than this.
"We too have come to Cologne because, in our hearts, we have the same urgent question that prompted the Magi from the East to set out on their journey, even if it is differently expressed. It is true that today we are no longer looking for a king, but we are concerned for the state of the world, and we are asking: 'Where do I find standards to live by, what are the criteria that govern responsible cooperation in building the present and the future of our world? On whom can rely? To whom shall I entrust myself? Where is the One who can offer me the response capable of satisfying my heart's deepest desires?'
"The fact that we ask questions like these means that we realize our journey is not over until we meet the One who has the power to establish that universal Kingdom of justice and peace to which all people aspire but which they are unable to build by themselves. Asking such questions also means searching for Someone who can neither deceive nor be deceived, and who therefore can offer a certainty so solid that we can live for it and, if need be, even die for it.
"Dear friends, when questions like these appear on the horizon of life, we must be able to make the necessary choices. It is like finding ourselves at a crossroads: which direction do we take? The one prompted by the passions, or the one indicated by the star which shines in your conscience? The Magi heard the answer: 'In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet' (Matthew 2:5), and, enlightened by these words, they chose to press forward to the very end. From Jerusalem they went on to Bethlehem. In other words, they went from the word which showed them where to find the King of the Jews whom they were seeking, all the way to the end, to an encounter with the King who was at the same time the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
"Those words are also spoken for us. We too have a choice to make. If we think about it, this is precisely our experience when we share in the Eucharist. For in every Mass, the liturgy of the Word introduces us to our participation in the mystery of the cross and resurrection of Christ, and hence introduces us to the Eucharistic Meal, to union with Christ. Present on the altar is the One whom the Magi saw lying in the manger: Christ, the living Bread who came down from heaven to give life to the world, the true Lamb who gives his own life for the salvation of humanity. Enlightened by the Word, it is in Bethlehem — the 'House of Bread' that we can always encounter the inconceivable greatness of a God who humbled himself even to appearing in a manger, to giving himself as food on the altar.
"We can imagine the awe which the Magi experienced before the Child in swaddling clothes. Only faith enabled them to recognize in the face of that Child the King whom they were seeking, the God to whom the star had guided them. In him, crossing the abyss between the finite and the infinite, the visible and the invisible, the Eternal entered time, the Mystery became known by entrusting himself to us in the frail body of a small child. 'The Magi are filled with awe by what they see; heaven on earth and earth in heaven; man in God and God in man; they see enclosed in a tiny body the One whom the entire world cannot contain' (St. Peter Chrysologus, Serm. 160, No. 2). In these days, during this 'Year of the Eucharist', we will turn with the same awe to Christ present in the Tabernacle of mercy, in the Sacrament of the Altar.
"Dear young people, the happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: It is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only He gives the fullness of life to humanity! With Mary, say your own 'yes' to God, for He wishes to give Himself to you. I repeat today what I said at the beginning of my pontificate: 'If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation' (Homily at the Mass of Inauguration, April 24). Be completely convinced of this: Christ takes from you nothing that is beautiful and great, but brings everything to perfection for the glory of God, the happiness of men and women, and the salvation of the world.
"In these days I encourage you to commit yourselves without reserve to serving Christ, whatever the cost. The encounter with Jesus Christ will allow you to experience in your hearts the joy of His living and life-giving presence, and enable you to bear witness to it before others. Let your presence in this city be the first sign and proclamation of the Gospel, thanks to the witness of your actions and your joy. Let us raise our hearts in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the many blessings He has given us and for the gift of faith which we will celebrate together, making it manifest to the world from this land in the heart of Europe, a Europe which owes so much to the Gospel and its witnesses down the centuries."
After disembarking the ship, the Pope went to Cologne's Cathedral with the youths carrying the World Youth Day cross. According to a pious tradition, since 1164, the cathedral has housed the relics of the Wise Kings. In his address, the Pontiff said:
"The city of Cologne would not be what it is without the Magi, who have had so great an impact on its history, its culture, and its faith. Here, in some sense, the Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany every day of the year! And so, before addressing you in the presence of this magnificent cathedral, I paused for a moment of prayer before the reliquary of the three Magi, and gave thanks to God for their witness of faith, hope and love. The relics of the Magi were brought from Milan in 1164 by the Archbishop of Cologne, Reinald von Dassel; after crossing the Alps, they were received in Cologne with great jubilation. On their pilgrimage across Europe, the relics of the Magi left traces behind them which are still evident today, both in place names and in popular devotions. In honor of the Magi, the inhabitants of Cologne produced the most exquisite reliquary of the whole Christian world, and, as if that were not sufficient, they raised above it an even greater reliquary, this stupendous Gothic cathedral which, after the ravages of war, once more stands before visitors in all the splendor of its beauty.
On Friday, the Pope began his day with a private Mass at the archbishopric of Cologne; then paid a visit to the President of Germany in Bonn; then returned to the archbishopric of Cologne for a luncheon with 12 young people, including a Canadian, Veronique Rondeau, 23, of Joliette, Que.; then met 3,000 seminarians from all over the world at St. Pantaleon's Church (with testimonies of a seminarian, a priest, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City), and ended the day with an ecumenical meeting at the archbishopric.
During the Saturday night vigil, addressing some 800,000 young people gathered in the Marienfeld ("field of Mary") esplanade, some 27 kilometers from the center of Cologne, Benedict XVI highlighted the "true revolution" which comes from God, and which is able to transform the world:
"Dear young friends, in our pilgrimage with the mysterious Magi from the East, we have arrived at the moment which Saint Matthew describes in his Gospel with these words: 'Going into the house (over which the star had halted), they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him' (Matthew 2:11). Outwardly, their journey was now over. They had reached their goal. But at this point, a new journey began for them, an inner pilgrimage which changed their whole lives. Their mental picture of the infant King they were expecting to find must have been very different.
"The new King, to whom they now paid homage, was quite unlike what they were expecting. In this way they had to learn that God is not as we usually imagine Him to be. This was where their inner journey began. It started at the very moment when they knelt down before this child and recognized Him as the promised King. But they still had to assimilate these joyful gestures internally.
"They had to change their ideas about power, about God and about man, and in so doing, they also had to change themselves. Now they were able to see that God's power is not like that of the powerful of this world. God's ways are not as we imagine them or as we might wish them to be. God does not enter into competition with earthly powers in this world. He does not marshal his divisions alongside other divisions. God did not send twelve legions of angels to assist Jesus in the Garden of Olives (cf. Matthew 26:53). He contrasts the noisy and ostentatious power of this world with the defenseless power of love, which succumbs to death on the Cross, and dies ever anew throughout history; yet it is this same love which constitutes the new divine intervention that opposes injustice, and ushers in the Kingdom of God. God is different — this is what they now come to realize. And it means that they themselves must now become different; they must learn God's ways.
"They had come to place themselves at the service of this king, to model their own kingship on His. That was the meaning of their act of homage, their adoration. Included in this were their gifts — gold, frankincense, and myrrh — gifts offered to a king held to be divine. Adoration has a content, and it involves giving. Through this act of adoration, these men from the East wished to recognize the child as their King, and to place their own power and potential at His disposal, and in this they were certainly on the right path. By serving and following Him, they wanted, together with Him, to serve the cause of good and the cause of justice in the world.
"In this they were right. Now, though, they have to learn that this cannot be achieved simply through issuing commands from a throne on high. Now they have to learn to give themselves — no lesser gift would be sufficient for this King. Now they have to learn that their lives must be conformed to this divine way of exercising power, to God's own way of being. They must become men of truth, of justice, of goodness, of forgiveness, of mercy. They will no longer ask: How can this serve me? Instead they will have to ask: How can I serve God's presence in the world? They must learn to lose their life and, in this way, to find it. Having left Jerusalem behind, they must not deviate from the path marked out by the true King, as they follow Jesus.
"Dear friends, what does all this mean for us? What we have just been saying about the nature of God being different, and about the way our lives must be shaped accordingly, sounds very fine, but remains rather vague and unfocussed. That is why God has given us examples. The Magi from the East are just the first in a long procession of men and women who have constantly tried to gaze upon God's star in their lives, going in search of the God who has drawn close to us and shows us the way. It is the great multitude of the saints — both known and unknown — in whose lives the Lord has opened up the Gospel before us and turned over the pages; He has done this throughout history, and He still does so today. In their lives, as if in a great picture-book, the riches of the Gospel are revealed. They are the shining path which God himself has traced throughout history and is still tracing today.
"My venerable predecessor Pope John Paul || — he is present with us this evening! — beatified and canonized a great many people from both the distant and the recent past. Through these individuals, he wanted to show us how to be Christian; how to live life as it should be lived according to God's way. The saints and the blessed did not doggedly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give themselves, because the light of Christ had shone upon them. They show us the way to attain happiness; they show us how to be truly human. Through all the ups and downs of history, they were the true reformers who constantly rescued it from plunging into the valley of darkness; it was they who constantly shed upon it the light that was needed to make sense — even in the midst of suffering — of God's words spoken at the end of the work of creation: 'It is very good.'
"One need only think of such figures as Saint Benedict, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Charles Borromeo, the founders of 19th-century religious orders who inspired and guided the social movement, or the saints of our own day – Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio. In contemplating these figures, we learn what it means 'to adore' and what it means to live according to the measure of the child of Bethlehem, by the measure of Jesus Christ and of God Himself.
"The saints, as we said, are the true reformers. Now I want to express this in an even more radical way: Only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come, the definitive way to change the world. In the last century, we experienced revolutions with a common program — expecting nothing more from God, they assumed total responsibility for the cause of the world in order to change it.
"And this, as we saw, meant that a human and partial point of view was always taken as an absolute guiding principle. Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism. It does not liberate man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him. It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who, at the same time, is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?
"Dear friends! Allow me to add just two brief thoughts. There are many who speak of God; some even preach hatred and perpetrate violence in God's name. So it is important to discover the true face of God. The Magi from the East found it, when they knelt down before the child of Bethlehem. 'Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father,' said Jesus to Philip (John 14:9). In Jesus Christ, who allowed His heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God is seen. We will follow Him together with the great multitude of those who went before us. Then we will be traveling along the right path.
"This means that we are not constructing a private God, a private Jesus, but that we believe and worship the Jesus who is manifested to us by the sacred Scriptures, and who reveals Himself to be alive in the great procession of the faithful called the Church, always alongside us and always before us. There is much that could be criticized in the Church. We know this, and the Lord Himself told us so: It is a net with good fish and bad fish, a field with wheat and darnel. Pope John Paul II, as well as revealing the true face of the Church in the many saints that he canonized, also asked pardon for the wrong that was done in the course of history through the words and deeds of members of the Church. In this way, he showed us our own true image, and urged us to take our place, with all our faults and weaknesses, in the procession of the saints that began with the Magi from the East.
"It is actually consoling to realize that there is darnel in the Church. In this way, despite all our defects, we can still hope to be counted among the disciples of Jesus, who came to call sinners. The Church is like a human family, but at the same time, it is also the great family of God, through which He establishes an overarching communion and unity that embraces every continent, culture, and nation. So we are glad to belong to this great family; we are glad to have brothers and friends all over the world. Here in Cologne, we discover the joy of belonging to a family as vast as the world, including heaven and earth, the past, the present, the future, and every part of the earth. In this great band of pilgrims, we walk side by side with Christ; we walk with the star that enlightens our history.
"Going into the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him' (Matthew 2:11). Dear friends, this is not a distant story that took place long ago. It is with us now. Here in the sacred Host He is present before us and in our midst. As at that time, so now He is mysteriously veiled in a sacred silence; as at that time, it is here that the true face of God is revealed. For us He became a grain of wheat that falls on the ground and dies and bears fruit until the end of the world (cf. John 12:24). He is present now as He was then in Bethlehem. He invites us to that inner pilgrimage which is called adoration. Let us set off on this pilgrimage of the spirit, and let us ask him to be our guide. Amen."
On Sunday morning, August 21, on the same Marienfeld esplanade, in front of more than 1 million young people (including the 800,000 who had attended the vigil the evening before and who slept at night on the spot), in his homily at the closing Mass of World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI urged them to become new missionaries in a world that is forgetting God, and to attend Sunday Mass regularly:
"Dear young friends, yesterday evening we came together in the presence of the Sacred Host, in which Jesus becomes for us the bread that sustains and feeds us (cf. John 6:35), and there we began our inner journey of adoration. In the Eucharist, adoration must become union. At the celebration of the Eucharist, we find ourselves in the 'hour' of Jesus, to use the language of John's Gospel. Through the Eucharist, this 'hour' of Jesus becomes our own hour, His presence in our midst. Together with the disciples, He celebrated the Passover of Israel, the memorial of God's liberating action that led Israel from slavery to freedom. Jesus follows the rites of Israel. He recites over the bread the prayer of praise and blessing.
"But then something new happens. He thanks God not only for the great works of the past; He thanks Him for His own exaltation, soon to be accomplished through the Cross and Resurrection, and He speaks to the disciples in words that sum up the whole of the Law and the Prophets: 'This is My Body, given in sacrifice for you. This cup is the New Covenant in My Blood.' He then distributes the bread and the cup, and instructs them to repeat His words and actions of that moment over and over again in His memory.
"What is happening? How can Jesus distribute His Body and His Blood? By making the bread into His Body and the wine into His Blood, He anticipates His death, He accepts it in His heart and He transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence, from within becomes an act of total self-giving love. This is the substantial transformation which was accomplished at the Last Supper and was destined to set in motion a series of transformations leading ultimately to the transformation of the world when God will be all in all (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:28). In their hearts, people always and everywhere have somehow expected a change, a transformation of the world. Here now is the central act of transformation that alone can truly renew the world: Violence is transformed into love, and death into life.
"Since this act transmutes death into love, death as such is already conquered from within, the Resurrection is already present in it. Death is, so to speak, mortally wounded, so that it can no longer have the last word. To use an image well known to us today, this is like inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being the victory of love over hatred, the victory of love over death. Only this intimate explosion of good conquering evil can then trigger off the series of transformations that, little by little, will change the world. All other changes remain superficial, and cannot save. For this reason, we speak of redemption: What had to happen at the most intimate level has indeed happened, and we can enter into its dynamic. Jesus can distribute His Body, because He truly gives Himself.
"This first fundamental transformation of violence into love, of death into life, brings other changes in its wake. Bread and wine becomes His Body and Blood. But it must not stop there; on the contrary, the process of transformation must now gather momentum. The Body and Blood of Christ are given to us so that we ourselves will be transformed in our turn. We are to become the Body of Christ, His own flesh and blood. We all eat the one bread, and this means that we ourselves become one. In this way, adoration, as we said earlier, becomes union. God no longer simply stands before us, as the one who is totally Other. He is within us, and we are in Him. His dynamic enters into us and then seeks to spread outwards to others until it fills the world, so that His love can truly become the dominant measure of the world.
"Jesus' hour is the hour in which love triumphs. In other words: it is God who has triumphed, because He is Love. Jesus' hour seeks to become our own hour, and will indeed become so if we allow ourselves, through the celebration of the Eucharist, to be drawn into that process of transformation that the Lord intends to bring about. The Eucharist must become the center of our lives.
"If the Church tells us that the Eucharist is an essential part of Sunday, this is no mere positivism or thirst for power. On Easter morning, first the women and then the disciples had the grace of seeing the Lord. From that moment on, they knew that the first day of the week, Sunday, would be His day, the day of Christ the Lord. The day when creation began became the day when creation was renewed. Creation and redemption belong together. That is why Sunday is so important. It is good that today, in many cultures, Sunday is a free day, and is often combined with Saturday so as to constitute a 'weekend' of free time. Yet this free time is empty if God is not present.
"Dear friends! Sometimes, our initial impression is that having to include time for Mass on a Sunday is rather inconvenient. But if you make the effort, you will realize that this is what gives a proper focus to your free time. Do not be deterred from taking part in Sunday Mass, and help others to discover it too! This is because the Eucharist releases the joy that we need so much, and we must learn to grasp it ever more deeply; we must learn to love it. Let us pledge ourselves to do this — it is worth the effort! Let us discover the intimate riches of the Church's liturgy and its true greatness: It is not we who are celebrating for ourselves, but it is the living God Himself who is preparing a banquet for us. Through your love for the Eucharist, you will also rediscover the sacrament of Reconciliation, in which the merciful goodness of God always allows us to make a fresh start in our lives.
"Anyone who has discovered Christ must lead others to Him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on. In vast areas of the world today there is a strange forgetfulness of God. It seems as if everything would be just the same, even without Him. But at the same time, there is a feeling of frustration, a sense of dissatisfaction with everyone and everything. People tend to exclaim: 'This cannot be what life is about!' Indeed not.
"And so, together with forgetfulness of God there is a kind of new explosion of religion. I have no wish to discredit all the manifestations of this phenomenon. There may be sincere joy in the discovery. Yet if it is pushed too far, religion becomes almost a consumer product. People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it. But religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot ultimately help us. It may be comfortable, but at times of crisis we are left to ourselves.
"Help people to discover the true star which points out the way to us: Jesus Christ! Let us seek to know Him better and better, so as to be able to guide others to Him with conviction.
"This is why love for sacred Scripture is so important, and in consequence, it is important to know the faith of the Church which opens up for us the meaning of Scripture. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church as her faith grows, causing her to enter ever more deeply into the truth (cf. John 16:13). Pope John Paul II gave us a wonderful work in which the faith of centuries is explained synthetically: the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I myself recently presented the Compendium of the Catechism, prepared at the request of the late Holy Father. These are two fundamental texts which I recommend to all of you.
"Obviously books alone are not enough. Form communities based on faith! In recent decades, movements and communities have come to birth in which the power of the Gospel is keenly felt. Seek communion in faith, like fellow travelers who continue together to follow the path of the great pilgrimage that the Magi from the East first pointed out to us. The spontaneity of new communities is important, but it is also important to preserve communion with the Pope and with the Bishops. It is they who guarantee that we are not seeking private paths, but are living as God's great family, founded by the Lord through the Twelve Apostles.
"Once again, I must return to the Eucharist. 'Because there is one bread, we, though many, are one body,' says St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10:17). By this he meant: Since we receive the same Lord, and He gathers us together and draws us into Himself, we ourselves are one. This must be evident in our lives. It must be seen in our capacity to forgive. It must be seen in our sensitivity to the needs of others. It must be seen in our willingness to share. It must be seen in our commitment to our neighbors, both those close at hand and those physically far away, whom we nevertheless consider to be close. Today there are many forms of voluntary assistance, models of mutual service, of which our society has urgent need. We must not, for example, abandon the elderly to their solitude; we must not pass by when we meet people who are suffering. If we think and live according to our communion with Christ, then our eyes will be opened.
"Then we will no longer be content to scrape a living just for ourselves, but we will see where and how we are needed. Living and acting thus, we will soon realize that it is much better to be useful and at the disposal of others than to be concerned only with the comforts that are offered to us. I know that you as young people have great aspirations, that you want to pledge yourselves to build a better world. Let others see this, let the world see it, since this is exactly the witness that the world expects from the disciples of Jesus Christ; in this way, and through your love. above all, the world will be able to discover the star that we follow as believers.
"Let us go forward with Christ, and let us live our lives as true worshippers of God! Amen."
At the end of the Mass, the Holy Father announced that the next World Youth Day will take place in Sydney, Australia, in 2008.
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