I
isaacrobert
Guest
March-24-2000 Israel: ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II CALLS YOUTHS TO FOLLOW JESUS
Pope John Paul II stood on the Mount of Beatitudes and called young people to follow Jesus, confident that the kingdom of heaven can be theirs.
The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount “offer us the road map of our Christian life and a summary of our responsibilities to God and neighbor,” the pope said during the March 24 Mass.
An estimated 50,000 people, many of them young people from around the world, attended the Mass on the slope of a hill leading down to the Sea of Galilee. Hundreds of them spent the night in huge tents on the lake’s eastern shore under a heavy rain shower.
The Mass was delayed for an hour in the hopes that the weather would improve. The crowd stood in the mud or sat on whatever piece of plastic they could find while dark clouds threatened another downpour.
A strong wind came up during the Mass, and the pope’s zucchetto flew across the altar platform.
Pope John Paul invited the youths to meet Jesus just like the crowds who came to Galilee to see Jesus 2,000 years earlier, listened to him preach the Sermon on the Mount and ate the loaves and fishes he miraculously multiplied.
“In the stillness we hear his gentle and urgent voice, as gentle as this land itself and as urgent as a call to choose between life and death,” the pope said.
Pope John Paul brought two stages of his jubilee pilgrimage together in Korazim: his February trip to Mount Sinai in Egypt where Moses received the Ten Commandments and his visit to the Mount of Beatitudes.
“Jesus teaches that the way of love brings the law to fulfillment,” the pope said. “And he taught this enormously important truth on this hill here in Galilee.”
Pope John Paul said that telling people they are blessed when they are poor in spirit, or gentle or mourning, or peacemakers or persecuted “may seem strange.”
“It is strange that Jesus exalts those whom the world generally regards as weak,” the pope said. “He says to them, `Blessed are you who seem to be losers, because you are the true winners: The kingdom of heaven is yours!”’
The message of the world usually is different, the pope said. It seems to bless the strong and powerful and even the violent.
The pope told the young people, "Not far from this very place, Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now.
“His call has always demanded a choice between the two voices competing for your hearts even now on this hill, the choice between good and evil, between life and death,” he said.
Following Jesus means believing what he says no matter how strange it may seem, and it means rejecting the voices of evil no matter how reasonable they sound, the pope said.
Two thousand years ago, the disciples came to know and love Jesus and went throughout the world preaching his Good News, Pope John Paul said.
“Now, at the dawn of the third millennium, it is your turn,” he told the youths.
Pope John Paul’s voice was strong and he read his English-language homily with emotion and conviction, although he briefly lost his place at one point.
Pope John Paul II stood on the Mount of Beatitudes and called young people to follow Jesus, confident that the kingdom of heaven can be theirs.
The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount “offer us the road map of our Christian life and a summary of our responsibilities to God and neighbor,” the pope said during the March 24 Mass.
An estimated 50,000 people, many of them young people from around the world, attended the Mass on the slope of a hill leading down to the Sea of Galilee. Hundreds of them spent the night in huge tents on the lake’s eastern shore under a heavy rain shower.
The Mass was delayed for an hour in the hopes that the weather would improve. The crowd stood in the mud or sat on whatever piece of plastic they could find while dark clouds threatened another downpour.
A strong wind came up during the Mass, and the pope’s zucchetto flew across the altar platform.
Pope John Paul invited the youths to meet Jesus just like the crowds who came to Galilee to see Jesus 2,000 years earlier, listened to him preach the Sermon on the Mount and ate the loaves and fishes he miraculously multiplied.
“In the stillness we hear his gentle and urgent voice, as gentle as this land itself and as urgent as a call to choose between life and death,” the pope said.
Pope John Paul brought two stages of his jubilee pilgrimage together in Korazim: his February trip to Mount Sinai in Egypt where Moses received the Ten Commandments and his visit to the Mount of Beatitudes.
“Jesus teaches that the way of love brings the law to fulfillment,” the pope said. “And he taught this enormously important truth on this hill here in Galilee.”
Pope John Paul said that telling people they are blessed when they are poor in spirit, or gentle or mourning, or peacemakers or persecuted “may seem strange.”
“It is strange that Jesus exalts those whom the world generally regards as weak,” the pope said. “He says to them, `Blessed are you who seem to be losers, because you are the true winners: The kingdom of heaven is yours!”’
The message of the world usually is different, the pope said. It seems to bless the strong and powerful and even the violent.
The pope told the young people, "Not far from this very place, Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now.
“His call has always demanded a choice between the two voices competing for your hearts even now on this hill, the choice between good and evil, between life and death,” he said.
Following Jesus means believing what he says no matter how strange it may seem, and it means rejecting the voices of evil no matter how reasonable they sound, the pope said.
Two thousand years ago, the disciples came to know and love Jesus and went throughout the world preaching his Good News, Pope John Paul said.
“Now, at the dawn of the third millennium, it is your turn,” he told the youths.
Pope John Paul’s voice was strong and he read his English-language homily with emotion and conviction, although he briefly lost his place at one point.