Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale542

praying that this time of purification will bring about healing, reconciliation

and ever greater fidelity to the moral demands of the Gospel.

I wish now to turn to the seminarians and young religious in our midst,

with a special word of affection and encouragement. Dear friends: with great

generosity you have set out on a particular path of consecration, grounded in

your Baptism and undertaken in response to the Lord's personal call. You

have committed yourselves, in different ways, to accepting Christ's invita-

tion to follow him, to leave all behind, and to devote your lives to the pursuit

of holiness and the service of his people.

In today's Gospel, the Lord calls us to "believe in the light".4 These words

have a special meaning for you, dear young seminarians and religious. They

are a summons to trust in the truth of God's word and to hope firmly in his

promises. They invite us to see, with the eyes of faith, the infallible working

of his grace all around us, even in those dark times when all our efforts seem

to be in vain. Let this altar, with its powerful image of Christ the Suffering

Servant, be a constant inspiration to you. Certainly there are times when

every faithful disciple will feel the heat and the burden of the day,5 and the

struggle of bearing prophetic witness before a world which can appear deaf to

the demands of God's word. Do not be afraid! Believe in the light! Take to

heart the truth which we have heard in today's second reading: "Jesus Christ

is the same, yesterday, today and for ever".6 The light of Easter continues to

dispel the darkness!

The Lord also calls us to walk in the light.7 Each of you has embarked on

the greatest and the most glorious of all struggles, to be consecrated in truth,

to grow in virtue, to achieve harmony between your thoughts and ideals, and

your words and actions. Enter sincerely and deeply into the discipline and

spirit of your programmes of formation. Walk in Christ's light daily through

fidelity to personal and liturgical prayer, nourished by meditation on the

inspired word of God. The Fathers of the Church loved to see the Scriptures

as a spiritual Eden, a garden where we can walk freely with God, admiring

the beauty and harmony of his saving plan as it bears fruit in our own lives,

in the life of the Church and in all of history. Let prayer, then, and medita-

4 Jn 12:36. 5 Cfr Mt 20:12. 6 Heb 13:8. 7 Cfr Jn 12:35.