Believing in others is a challenge. Believing in young people, a vocation and task.
To grow there are necessary balance points. For full fulfilment, “it is not enough to love, a youngster must feel that he is loved” (Don Bosco). “Quality time” is not enough, it takes “all the time in the world”, the whole “village”, and everyone’s time. “Good intentions” like those that fill rosaries with spoken words are not enough, you really have to give your life. Nobody grows alone. Young people do not grow up alone. When we make ourselves available to listen to them, we realize how much they need the presence, attention and accompaniment of those who have already grown up before and can speak and share what they have experienced, in the certainty of a witness that is always possible. But “I have little to say”… or “they don’t want to listen and listen”. Maybe not? Worse than just not believing the indifference, disinterest, or thinking that “it’s not worth it”, in a tiredness that shows the little liquidity of the greater credit to be attributed to those who have so much to give and receive. A society, a country, a Church that abandons, that does not believe, that does not love, that does not welcome its youngsters “pays dearly the bill” for the loss of the future of generations. Pope Francis said to youngsters in his message for World Youth Day 2021: “When a young person falls, humanity falls in a way. But it is also true that when a young person stands up, it is as if the whole world stands up. Dear youngsters, what great potential you have in your hands! What strength do you carry in your hearts!” When we think of young people and the beauty of possibilities, the breadth of dreams to be fulfilled, the richness of what they have to give, we think of so many lives in which it is necessary to believe and raise and raise for what is worthwhile. For what it’s really worth. A potentiality raised to infinity to bear fruit in a new and happy life. The whole world rises to the rhythm of the hearts of young builders of hope, confidence and tomorrow. The path is always and only: “get up and walk”! Let’s walk together! Because as far as young people are concerned, it is simply forbidden to give up!
