Evangelizing-communal Message of the World Youth Day

Abstract

Pope Saint John Paul II was the initiator of the World Youth Day; for him the care for a man’s personal dignity was closely tied with introducing him into the world of such values as: love, freedom, responsibility, truth, good, beauty and happiness. Each Christian is called to become ever more perfect and to strive for sainthood. Education towards sainthood is supposed to aid testifying to the found truth and the development of the person in his integral dimension. Owing to Christ a man discovers his supernatural dignity and his vocation to live with God in eternity. Dignity has been given to him and at the same time set to him as a task; and this is an obligation to respect it in himself and in another man. The Pope often repeated that an unceasing work on oneself is necessary, and its aim is to form one’s humanity. A well-formed man will become engaged in building the Kingdom of God and he will feel responsible for social issues, including his neighbors’ needs. A man’s real development happens, among others, owing to his personal relations with other people. The common good is an expression of interpersonal relations; it is not opposed to the good of an individual person, as the common good contributes best to a man’s full and thorough development. Education is supposed to introduce a young man into the world of values, such as: freedom, responsibility and love. Education leading to freedom is at the same time education leading to responsibility. A man is responsible for his acts and experiences responsibility because he has the ability to respond to values with his will. Hence the postulate to educate young people for love is connected with the postulate of aiding people in discovering the objective good. Love is the foundation for observing all other values. The way that leads to the realization of the ideal of being a person is discovering the truth about oneself and about one’s own vocation.