Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale290

III

Ad iuvenes in Portu Magno urbis « La Valletta » congregatos.*

Żgh̄ażagh̄ Maltin u Ghawdxin, jien kuntent h̄afna li ninsab maghkom,

[Dear young people of Malta and Gozo, I am very happy to be with you,]

What a joy it is for me to be with you today on your native soil! On this

significant anniversary, we thank God for sending the Apostle Paul to these

islands, which were thus among the first to receive the Good News of Our

Lord Jesus Christ.

I warmly greet Archbishop Cremona, as well as Bishop Grech whom I

thank for his kind words, and all the bishops, priests and religious who are

here. Most especially, I greet you, young people of Malta and Gozo, and I

thank you for speaking to me of the matters that concern you most deeply.

I appreciate your desire to seek and find the truth, and to know what you

must do to attain the fullness of life.

Saint Paul, as a young man, had an experience that changed him for ever.

As you know, he was once an enemy of the Church, and did all he could to

destroy it. While he was travelling to Damascus, intending to hunt down any

Christians he could find there, the Lord appeared to him in a vision. A

blinding light shone around him and he heard a voice saying, "Why do

you persecute me? ... I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting".1 Paul was

completely overcome by this encounter with the Lord, and his whole life

was transformed. He became a disciple, and went on to be a great apostle

and missionary. Here in Malta, you have particular reason to give thanks for

Paul's missionary labours, which spread the Gospel throughout the Mediter-

ranean.

Every personal encounter with Jesus is an overwhelming experience of

love. Previously, as Paul himself admits, he had "persecuted the church of

God violently and tried to destroy it".2 But the hatred and anger expressed in

those words was completely swept away by the power of Christ's love. For

the rest of his life, Paul had a burning desire to carry the news of that love to

the ends of the earth.

* Die 18 Aprilis 2010. 1 Acts 9:4-5. 2 Gal 1:13.