ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in Christ,

I am very happy to have this opportunity to gather with you today and celebrate this liturgy closing the Archdiocesan Encuentro for Hispanic Youth and Young Adults.

During these last few weeks, you have worked hard attending workshops that focused on the Encuentro process: conversion, communion, solidarity and mission. Your participation is very valuable and I thank you for taking time to work on this important process. You have worked together to identify models of ministry that respond to the needs of youth and young adults in our Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

It is also important to reflect not only on the needs, but also, on the aspirations and contributions that our young people bring to the Church and society. You face many challenges today in this complex world we live in. For this reason this Encuentro process invites all Hispanic young people to have an evangelizing experience, an encounter with the living Jesus Christ. It is this same Jesus that asks you to "put out into the deep" for a catch (Duc in altum). After the disciples obeyed, "they caught a great number of fish"(Lk 5:6).

During these past weeks, you were invited to spend some time with the Lord Jesus in reflection. You have conversed and prayed with the Lord, you have "experienced" the living Jesus. You have also had the opportunity to share this experience of Jesus together as a community of faith. The "experience" of the living Jesus that each of you has had is not something that many of our young adults have had. It is necessary that, just like the disciples, you also go and communicate your experience to others. There are many young Hispanics that need to receive the message of Jesus through you. There are many Hispanic young adults that do not participate actively in the Church; they need to be invited; they need to encounter Jesus. This is one of the objectives of this Encuentro process that you who have "experienced" the Lord now must go out and communicate Him to others. You must invite other young adults of your age to "come and see". You are the messengers of what you have learned, you are the voice of Jesus among those with whom you come into contact. Communicate to others what you have learned. Communicate Jesus to others! In this way you will really contribute to the lives of other youth and young adults.

You have had an experience of Jesus and this is the beginning of Christian life. You have been called to a path of conversion. Christian life is a journey of faith, of learning, of constant personal conversion, seeking to know Jesus in a more personal and profound way. The faith journey is not only a faith experience, but a continuous communication with Jesus; above all you must give constant testimony, in the community where you live, of your experience with the Lord. You have been called to be disciples. To be a disciple is to be a "witness" that Jesus lives in the community that you belong to. To be a "witness" of the resurrection in the modern world is to spread the Christian message, to make the message of the Gospel shine on every aspect of modern culture. This is known as "the evangelization of culture." Each culture with its richness and diversity can be illuminated with the truth of Christ’s message.

One of the objectives of the Encuentro is "to foster a vision of Church as a family of families where diversity is seen as a gift from God and where the unity in this diversity is promoted as the one body of Christ"(Encuentro Manual). The Church, a place where we encounter the living Jesus Christ, is not simply a structure; in the most profound sense she is "a sacrament of communion and of participation." The Church is a welcoming community that accompanies us in our walk with Jesus and in our service to others. Imitating the Good Shepherd, the Church goes out to meet those dispersed and mercifully gathers them to her. For this reason your parish should be the place where each one of you, Hispanic young adults, can nourish your faith, find friends and discover in which direction your life is headed. Search and build in your parish the atmosphere needed for you and others to grow and to live the challenge of being followers of Jesus, for living the spirituality of communion.

During these workshops you have also reflected on solidarity. I believe that the need for solidarity is more urgent today than ever before. In many sectors of our society, there is the exact opposite of solidarity, which is a great insensitivity to others: not to feel as our own the problems and needs of our brothers and sisters, and a lack of interest in one another to an alarming point of exclusion. The teaching of Saint John is very profound: "Whoever does not love his brother whom he sees, cannot love God whom he does not see." If we say that we love God, it is necessary to have a spirit of solidarity with all those in need. The needy of the modern world are not only those that are hungry or suffer poverty, but also those that are lonely and abandoned; those that suffer any type of injustice, that are betrayed by unjust laws, or those that suffer discrimination, or whose basic human rights are not respected. Above all the neediest of this world are those who do not know God, those who do not experience the liberating truth of Christ, those who know nothing of His love. Solidarity with others is then an urgent dimension of our Christian message. If we truly love God, we must work to promote peace and justice in the world—the peace and justice of Christ.

My dear friends, at the end of the Encuentro Jesus sends each one of you out on a mission. "Put out into deep water" —Jesus commanded His disciples— "and lower your nets for a catch." The Church sees this mandate of Jesus as a call to a mission. Jesus is saying to each one of you: "...lower your nets for a catch." Each one of you is a missionary, a disciple of Jesus, because you have received a gift that you cannot keep to yourself. What you have seen and heard begs to be transmitted to all that will listen. You have been converted in the Church, and the Church exists to evangelize; at the center of her mission she convokes all people to have an encounter with Christ.

The missionary mandate of Jesus: "Put out into deep water and lower your nets" introduces you to the modern world, inviting you to have the same enthusiasm as the first Christians had in the early centuries. For this you can count on the power of the Holy Spirit who was sent at Pentecost, and who today sends you forth, animated with hope.

This Encuentro, like all experiences of grace, has accomplished its function, giving you new strength to follow the road that lies ahead of you. Conversion means turning to Christ, accepting His way of life. There is a new road to follow, and you must not delay your departure! Put out into the deep and cast your nets! The Gospel of Jesus offers this message that we need to hear in order to live life fully in Christ. In doing this we are nurtured by the word of God, forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession and strengthened in the banquet of the Eucharist!

Dear brothers and sisters: may the Risen Jesus, who accompanies you and walks with you, find you vigilant and ready to discover Him, so that you may run to your brothers and sisters with the great news: "We have seen the Lord!" (Jn 20:25).

To you who have accompanied these youth and young adults during this Encuentro process, I express my deep gratitude for the support that you have given them. I urge you to continue to walk with them. The young adults are a very important part of the mística that will impart momentum to the evangelizing action of the Church. Let us help them to maintain the spiritual fervor that they have received during these last few weeks, so that they never lose their enthusiasm for communicating Christ to others.