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Erzbischof Dr. Robert Zollitsch |
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Fotos: wjt.schoenstatt.de © 2005 |
Sermon at the Youth Festival
Schoenstatt, 10 August 2005
Reading Prv 8, 17-21.34-35; Gospel Jn 2, 1-11
Archbishop Dr. Robert Zollitsch, Freiburg, Germany
Dear young people, valued guests from the whole world!
Esteemed brothers in the priesthood and diaconate!
Dear Schoenstatt Family, sisters and brothers in the community
of faith!
This day is like a text message from God. And this text message, this note from God, says: I have made a covenant with you – I, the great, infinite God, with you, tiny human being on insignificant planet Earth. If this thought were not somehow familiar to us or we had not heard it from at least a distance, we would probably listen and ask: God, a covenant with me? How could he think such a thing? God simply answers: Because you are beloved! Because you are special to me.
Through the greatest prophet of the Old Covenant, Isaiah, God says to us – and this means to each one of us: "I have called you by name. You are mine" (Is 43,1). In other words, God knows me personally. He knows my name and speaks to me. This, my dear young people, my sisters and brothers, is so incredible, indeed nearly inconceivable, that we pay heed and it is only now that we begin to grasp what it truly means.
There are so incredibly many inhabitants on earth – around six billion. A billion is a thousand million – a number which we cannot really imagine. God knows how nearly unbelievable his message sounds. This is why he has the same prophet say it still more urgently and ask: Can a woman forget her child or a mother forget the son born of her womb? Yet even if she would forget, I will not forget you. See, I have carved you in the palm of my hand so that I can never forget you (Is 49,15f).
God did not simply give me my life and say to me: make something of it! No, he remains interested in me and has carved me in the palm of his hand. He remains united with me, has made a covenant with me in baptism and goes the way with me each day. He is Immanuel, God with us and for us, God with me and for me. This is the foundation upon which my life is built. I can look ahead, and have a future. My life will succeed because God goes with me.
This, my dear young people, this, my dear sisters and brothers, is the foundation and underlying experience of our Schoenstatt family. We are at the place of grace, in closest proximity to the Shrine of the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt. On October 18, 1914, Schoenstatt´s founder invited his youth to entrust themselves to the Mother of God, to make a covenant with her, and with her help to shape and make fruitful their life in the baptismal covenant, in the covenant with God. From this covenant of love with Mary the Schoenstatt family was born and grew. It lives from this covenant.
Each and every one of us has the longing to be unconditionally loved and accepted. We all need someone who listens to us and understands us, who accompanies us on our way. In his message for World Youth Day in 2003, the initiator of World Youth Day, the late Holy Father Pope John Paul II, invited us to turn to Mary, to enter into her school and to learn from her. Those who meet her sense the very essence of goodness and greatness. Those who look to her experience: Her image purifies and encourages. The attachment to Mary, the covenant with her, transforms us. We see reflected in her all that is most beautiful in ourselves. On the way with her, with our hand in hers, we become more and more like her. When we let Mary inspire and lead us, the world becomes more filled with light – and warmth.
Mary, who gave birth to the Redeemer for us, leads all those who entrust themselves to her to her Son and helps them to see and understand with the eyes of our Mother, with the sympathy of love, with the eyes of the heart.
The covenant with Mary opens our eyes and helps us to see the world with her eyes, the eyes of Our Lady, and to meet others the way she did: open, interested, free. In this way we can discover the spark of God´s love in the eyes of all people in every culture and nation. Mary gives us her heart, a new heart, a heart after the image of the heart of her Son. In the covenant of love with the Blessed Mother we are not only able to gratefully receive, we can also give to others. In the covenant of love she lets us share her task.
Dear young people, dear sisters and brothers!
This Eucharist is the center and culmination of our youth festival in Schoenstatt. The commentator told us at the beginning of Mass: "As young people from the whole world we seal the covenant of love with Mary for the youth of the world -- l You and I for them!"
"You and I for them!" – we come to Our Lady, call her our own, entrust ourselves to her, and seal the covenant of love with her. We do it not only for ourselves. "You and I for them!" – we do it not only for ourselves; we do it for them, for the youth of the world.
We want to let the youth of the world participate in what we have been given, in what we have discovered and is allowed to inspire our life. We do it on behalf of the youth of the world – as their representatives – and draw them into the covenant of love with Mary, our Mother and Queen. We want to draw them into the lifestream which we have discovered for ourselves and has become a blessing in our life. We combine it with the wish spoken to our Blessed Mother -- and we tell her we are ready to help -- that the Church and world, that the coming era will be more and more shaped by a covenantal unity of the youth, of the different generations in the Church and between the peoples and cultures. This means for those of us who are here and do this that we Youth will do our part to make this a reality in the Church and that we be the yeast and leaven and let this covenant be at the heart of all we live and move, and that we do all things in the spirit of this covenant of love.
When we say this we also know that "Nothing without us," MTA, applies here! But the "Nothing without you" also applies. Both belong together. When we do our part, we can build and trust without limit in Mary and her help. In the altar area is a large jar. "Fill the jars with water!" is what we heard in the Gospel. At the offertory we will bring water as a symbol of our life, as a symbol of our contributions. Christ will transform them. The miracle is an experience of superabundance. When we place ourselves at the disposal of Our Lady and when God works, then the jars overflow and never stop flowing. The result is a stream of grace!
Dear young people, my dear sisters and brothers!
What applies to us, especially starting today, is the "for": for the Blessed Mother, for the youth of the world. For the youth – this was the fascinating vision, the driving motor of the passionate activity of Bl. Karl Leisner, whose sixtieth deathday we celebrate the day after tomorrow. His life and activity were inspired by his covenant of love with Mary; his love, his heart, his untiring activity was for the youth of the Church. For this youth he even accepted a martyr´s death. He makes it clear what "for" means: for the Blessed Mother, for the Church, for youth. I am convinced: He is in our midst as an example and patron of our covenant of love for the youth of the world. He goes with us, supports and accompanies us, united with Mary, the Mother of the Lord and our Mother. Amen.