Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 811

Christ's grace helps us to discover within ourselves a human desire for

solidarity and a fundamental vocation to love. His grace perfects, strength-

ens and elevates that vocation and enables us to serve others without reward,

satisfaction or any recompense. Here we see something of the grandeur of our

human calling: to serve others with the same freedom and generosity which

characterizes God himself. We also become visible instruments of his love in a

world that still profoundly yearns for that love amid the poverty, loneliness,

marginalization and ignorance that we see all around us.

Of course, Catholic volunteer work cannot respond to all these needs, but

that does not discourage us. Nor should we let ourselves be seduced by

ideologies that want to change the world according to a purely human vision.

The little that we manage to do to relieve human needs can be seen as a good

seed that will grow and bear much fruit; it is a sign of Christ's presence and

love which, like the tree in the Gospel, grows to give shelter, protection and

strength to all who require it.

This is the nature of the witness which you, in all humility and conviction,

offer to civil society. While it is the duty of public authority to acknowledge

and to appreciate this contribution without distorting it, your role as

Christians is to take an active part in the life of society, seeking to make it

ever more humane, ever more marked by authentic freedom, justice and

solidarity.

Our meeting today takes place on the liturgical memorial of Saint Martin

of Tours. Often portrayed sharing his mantle with a poor man, Martin

became a model of charity throughout Europe and indeed the whole world.

Nowadays, volunteer work as a service of charity has become a universally

recognized element of our modern culture. Nonetheless, its origins can still be

seen in the particularly Christian concern for safeguarding, without

discrimination, the dignity of the human person created in the image and

likeness of God. If these spiritual roots are denied or obscured and the criteria

of our collaboration become purely utilitarian, what is most distinctive about

the service you provide risks being lost, to the detriment of society as a

whole.

Dear friends, I would like to conclude by encouraging young people to

discover in volunteer work a way to grow in the self-giving love which gives

life its deepest meaning. Young people readily react to the call of love. Let us

help them to hear Christ who makes his call felt in their hearts and draws

them closer to himself. We must not be afraid to set before them a radical and