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In which area or areas do we still feel we are like slaves?

What does 'servant' mean ? Does God want us to be slaves? Certainly not! He wants us to be autonomous, free, but for that we need a rule to live by which starts with loving and letting ourselves be loved.

What does youth expect today? What do you expect from life? 

- To be happy…

- To be happy, to be happy in the work that you seek, is that it? And what does hope mean to you? When we are not satisfied with something, we have not been as completely successful as we would like, so we are lacking some things, we are unhappy, we feel uncomfortable, or we are not quite with it… If we are like this, it is because we are missing something essential: hope.    

What does hope mean? You do not know what it is. Hope belongs to the future, to time, and time is God. Hope is to desire… We desire, we would like to have, or to be able to do, or to know, but all that is held in a single word: hope. Hope belongs to the future and you must live this future in the present by trusting the Master of life. So where is this Master of life, then? He is in you. Do not look for Him in the clouds, or on crosses or medals: the Master of life is in you.

When you came to earth you had already chosen your parents, because you chose them before coming. If you have difficulties with your parents, it is because you must pass through these difficulties to reach happiness. If we had no difficulties at school, in our families, or in our heart or feelings, happiness would have no depth, no price. So we must pass through what are called ordeals; but the French word 'ordeal' (épreuve) means ‘to love’ in Hebrew. There is no way that God ever wants to punish us. He wants to offer us the possibility of gaining our deepest desires, but for that we must be sure of what we are. And as I look at you, many of you do not know who you are. You are still searching. You search because you sometimes claim to have faith, and you try to live it, but you lack the conviction that God is in you. If God is in you, it is because He is powerful, He is Creator and He is Love. It is written in the first pages of the Bible: “And God created man in His image.” The image of God is not just a reflection! The image of God is a divine spark inside us, and this divine spark puts us into the rank of humans, because we are the beings that God chose to be His servants on this earth. 

What does servant mean?  Does God want us to be slaves? Certainly not!  He wants us to be autonomous, free, but for that we need a rule to live by which starts with loving and letting ourselves be loved. It is not an easy thing, because we may be young, but we also have pride, and God wants to tell us that pride is the destruction of man. Pride is not made for man: his enemy, Satan, produced pride in man so that we would be at his service, for the self-destruction of humanity. If there are wars, if there are killings in schools, like we saw in Finland last week, it is not the work of God, it is the work of His enemy.

So we must understand what is light, and what darkness is. Light enlightens, light allows us to see, understand, touch, feel… Our talents, which God puts inside us, are there to serve us, for you to be happy in your choices, and in what you do in your youth. Never despair, do not give up in front of difficulties. Without difficulties there would be no one left standing.

We are on an island here, in the middle of the Channel, and if there have been great navigators who discovered the world, it is because they had courage, the chance of going elsewhere, beyond their horizon: that is hope. 

Let us not get stuck on our petty trivia, our personal little grievances, let us instead look at life with different eyes.