Dear young people!
1. Again this year I address you in order to announce the next World Youth Day that will be celebrated in the local Churches Palm Sunday 1988. This time the Day will have, however, an altogether particular character, since the Church is living in the Marian year, which I have opened on the solemnity of Pentecost and I will close the 15th of August of next year, solemnity of the Assumption.
At the end of the second millennium of the Christian era, in a critical moment in the history of a world troubled by many difficult problems, the Marian year constitutes a special gift for us all. In this year Mary appears to our eyes under a new light: full mother of tender and sensitive love and teacher who precedes us in the way of the faith and indicates for us the way of life. The Marian year is therefore a year of especially listening to Mary. And thus must also be the next World Youth Day. It is Mary who this time convenes you - young people! It is she that gives the appointment to you, because she has much to give you! I am sure that - as in the previous years - you will not fail to engage yourselves actively, under the guide of your pastors, in the celebration of the World Youth Day.
2. The 1988 World Youth Day will therefore have as its center Mary, Virgin and Mother of God, and it will be a day of listening. What will Mary, our mother and teacher, say to us? In the Gospel there is one phrase in which Mary is truly shown as our teacher. It is the phrase pronounced by her during the wedding of Cana of Galilee. After she said to her Son: "they have no more wine", she says to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5).
I have chosen these words as a central thread of World Youth Day 1988. They enclose a very important message, valid for all men of all times. "Do whatever he tells you..." means: listen to Jesus my Son, follow his word and have confidence in him. Learn to say "yes" to the Lord in every circumstance of your life. It is a most comforting message, of which we all feel need.
"Do whatever he tells you..." In these words Mary has expressed above all the deepest secret of her own life. She is altogether behind these words. Her life was in fact a great "yes" to the Lord. A "yes" full of joy and of trust. Mary full of grace, Immaculate Virgin, lived all her life in a complete openness to God, in perfect consonance with his will and that even in the more difficult moments, which reached their peak on the top of the mount Calvary, at the foot of the cross. She never retracts her "yes", because she place all her life in the hands of God: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38). In the encyclical "Redemptoris Mater" I have written appropriately: "Indeed, at the Annunciation Mary entrusted herself to God completely, with the 'full submission of intellect and will,' manifesting 'the obedience of faith' to him who spoke to her through his messenger. She responded, therefore, with all her human and feminine 'I,' and this response of faith included both perfect cooperation with 'the grace of God that precedes and assists' and perfect openness." (n. 13)
"Do whatever he tells you..." In this short phrase is enclosed the whole program of life which the teacher Mary realized as the first disciple of the Lord, and who today teaches us also. It is a plan of life based on the solid and sure foundation that is called Jesus Christ.
3. The world in which we live is shaken by various crises, among which one of most dangerous is the loss of the sense of life. Many of our contemporaries have lost the true sense of life and they look for substitutes in unbridled consumerism, drugs, alcohol and eroticism. They seek happiness, but the result is a profound sadness, an emptiness in the heart and the desperation is not eliminated.
In a similar situation many young people propose fundamental questions for themselves: How must I live my life in order not to lose it? On what foundation must I construct my life so that it may be a truly happy life? What must I do in order to give meaning to my life?
As I must act in complex and often difficult situations of life - in the family, in school, the university, the job, the circle of friends... They are questions at many times dramatic, which today surely many among you youths are proposing.
I am sure that all you want to construct your life on a solid foundation, which makes one capable of resisting the tests that will never lack - a foundation of rock. And behold before you Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, the humble handmaid of the Lord, who shows her Son saying: "Do whatever he tells you", i.e. listen to Jesus, obey Jesus, his commandments, have trust in him. This is the only plan of a truly successful and happy life. This is also the only source of the more profound meaning of life.
The previous year during the World Youth Day you meditated on the words of Saint John: "We have known and believed the love which God has for us." (1 Jn 4:16). This year Mary explains to you, young people, what it means to believe and to love God. Faith and love are not reduced to words or vague feelings. To believe and to love God means a coherent life, lived completely in the light of the Gospel, it means a commitment to always do that which Jesus says to us either in Sacred Scripture or in the teaching of the Church. Yes, this is not easy, often it demands much courage to go against the currents of the fashion and opinions of this world. But this - I repeat - is properly the only plan of a truly successful and happy life.
Such is the teaching of Mary at the wedding of Cana, teaching that we wish to deepen and receive during the 1988 World Youth Day.
Most dear young people! I invite you all to participate in this most important event. Come to listen to the Mother of Jesus, your mother and teacher!
4. Every Youth World Day, in order not to become a merely exterior and superficial celebration, demands a journey of preparation in the diocesan and parochial pastoring, in the life of the groups, movements and young associations, and above all in the Lenten period.
I invite you all to undertake this way of spiritual preparation, in order to better harvest the grace of the Marian year and also the gift of 1988 World Youth Day. Meditate on the life of Mary. Meditate on it above all you girls, the young women. For you, the Immaculate Virgin constitutes a sublime model of woman aware of her own dignity and high vocation. Meditate on it also you boys, the young men! Listening to the words pronounced by Mary at Cana of Galilee: "Do whatever he tells you", all of you search to construct your life from the beginning on the solid foundation that is Jesus. I hope that your meditation on the mystery of Mary finds its result in the imitation of her life: learn from her to listen to and to follow the Word of God (cf. Lk 2:5), learn from her to be close to the Lord even if this at times can cost much (cf. Jn 19:25). I hope that your meditation on the mystery of Mary finds also its result in trusting Marian prayer. Search to discover the beauty of the rosary, that it may become a faithful companion for your entire life.
I conclude this short message with a cordial salute to all the young people of the world. You know that the Pope is close to each of you with his prayers. My apostolic blessing accompanies you in the journey of spiritual preparation and the celebration itself of the 1988 World Youth Day in your diocese.
From the Vatican, December 13, 1987, the Third Sunday of Advent.