Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 547

even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to

young people yet to come? What difference will you make?

The power of the Holy Spirit does not only enlighten and console us. It

also points us to the future, to the coming of God's Kingdom. What a mag-

nificent vision of a humanity redeemed and renewed we see in the new age

promised by today's Gospel! Saint Luke tells us that Jesus Christ is the

fulfilment of all God's promises, the Messiah who fully possesses the Holy

Spirit in order to bestow that gift upon all mankind. The outpouring of

Christ's Spirit upon humanity is a pledge of hope and deliverance from every-

thing that impoverishes us. It gives the blind new sight; it sets the down-

trodden free, and it creates unity in and through diversity.6 This power can

create a new world: it can "renew the face of the earth"! 7

Empowered by the Spirit, and drawing upon faith's rich vision, a new

generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God's

gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished - not rejected, feared as a

threat and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking,

but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their

dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty. A new age in which

hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which

deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Dear young friends, the Lord

is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of his love, drawing

people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.

The world needs this renewal! In so many of our societies, side by side

with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior empti-

ness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair. How many of our contem-

poraries have built broken and empty cisterns 8 in a desperate search for

meaning - the ultimate meaning that only love can give? This is the great

and liberating gift which the Gospel brings: it reveals our dignity as men and

women created in the image and likeness of God. It reveals humanity's sub-

lime calling, which is to find fulfilment in love. It discloses the truth about

man and the truth about life.

6 Cfr Lk 4:18-19; Is 61:1-2. 7 Cfr Ps 104:30. 8 Cfr Jer 2:13.