ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

In our first reading we heard these words of the Prophet Elijah:

"Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink....
Please bring along a bit of bread."

Pope John Paul II had a great love for young people and a great confidence in them. During the twenty-six and a half years that he was Pope, he went all over the world, inviting everybody to listen to the needs of the poor and to the cry for help from millions of fellow human beings. But in a special way he appealed to young people like yourselves, because he loved the young people of the world. He believed that your energy was God-given and that you had the power—living and working with Jesus—to change the world and transform it into God’s Kingdom. He knew that, if you were going to succeed, you would have to work with Christ. And so Pope John Paul II went all over the world appealing to young people to discover Christ, to work with Christ, and to love and serve Christ in others.

One time when he was leaving the United States, he asked the young people to remember that the reason he had come to America was, as he said, to call you to Christ and invite you to pray. Tonight, dear young people, I come her with that same intention: to call you to Christ and to invite you to pray. It is in prayer that you fan the flame of God’s love, find contact with Christ, and experience the urgency of fulfilling His commandments and of loving Him in others.

Pope John Paul II wanted you to understand that there are so many people that need you, who are crying out: "Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink.... Please bring along a bit of bread." So many people, with so many needs of so many different kinds, are waiting for you. Many of them are waiting to be helped, to be loved—even to be born.

Jesus is telling you over and over again that to be his authentic follower, you must love and serve your neighbor. But where do you get the power? From Christ, who works in your hearts through His Holy Spirit given to you in Baptism and in a special way at Confirmation. But to exercise this power of love and not to grow weak you need constant contact with Christ in prayer. And in prayer Jesus leads you to the Eucharist, to His Body and Blood, the Bread of Life.

Dear young people: Let me give you an example. Let me share with you an experience that I had personally when I was working and traveling with Pope John Paul II. I was honored to travel with him to India, all throughout India and to Calcutta. There he visited Mother Teresa’s home. Actually it was the home of the dying. Every morning Mother Teresa and her Sisters would hear the cry of the dying and abandoned. They would go out to the streets and gutters of Calcutta to bring the dying into their homes. So many of these people had lived their whole lives without the recognition of their human dignity. But at least the day they died, there was someone there to hold their hand, to moisten their lips with water, to show them that they were important enough to be loved. The Sisters, by their love, showed the even greater love of God for these dying and abandoned people.

But where did the Sisters get the power to do this, day after day, year after year? From Christ and the power of His Spirit working in them, through prayer, through contact with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

Dear young people: remember the words of John Paul II: I call you to Christ, I invite you to pray. The world is waiting to know Jesus. And Jesus is asking you to be His partners, and with Him to build the Kingdom of God in this world.

Remember Jesus is counting on you and asking you to hear the words of the Prophet Elijah on the lips of so many of your brothers and sisters: "Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink.... Please bring along a bit of bread." Amen.