THE GROWING TREES ARE THE FOREST

Imiti ikula, e mpanga (the growing trees are the forest) is a Bemba (from Zambia) proverb that is repeated time and again, when people speak about the youth. It means that young people are the future and that they deserve attention and care. The proverb indicates an attitude of hope and expectancy. And that is the attitude Pope Benedict presented during the just ended World Youth Day, in Madrid.

Old people like to look backwards and see the past as the golden age, when everything was good, in contrast with the present, in which plenty of problems bother us. The present is always the difficult time, because that is the time we live in, the time in which we have to make difficult decisions and bear the consequences of those decisions.

The youth cannot remember the past, because they were not there yet. They feel the pain of the present and turn themselves to the future. They want a better world and dream about it. However, many people feel them as threat to society, due to their rejection of the present. And this is made worse by the fact that a good number of young people only see ahead of them a hopeless future, full of darkness, leaving them in despair; and in their despair, they use their energy in a destructive way, causing havoc in the community, as we saw in the recent past.

Instead of blaming the youth, we should ask ourselves what kind of society we have been building, to cause so deep rejection, revealed in acts of vandalism. What do we have to offer them?

The World Youth Day showed a very different youth. They participated and they celebrated with joy. There were no disorders and no violence. There was rejoicing in peace, there was sharing, and there was prayer. The youth that went to Madrid live in the same world and face the same problems as all the other youths, but they were illumined by the light of Christ, which gives them guidance, strength and hope.

I watched with emotion the Way of the Cross, being webcasted alive; and I heard and read the words of the Pope, which were words full of hope, giving guidance to search for truth and love, and calling for witnessing and sharing of the faith, a faith that is a total commitment to Jesus Christ.

During the vigil, Pope Benedict told the youth:

“Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.”