Rome, June 1 (NE – eclesiales.org) Offer the Lord Jesus to the youth “as the definitive key to understand the meaning of life, the path to reach their personal realization, and to reach fulfillment in the definitive encounter with God” was the invitation made today by Luis Fernando Figari, Founder of the Christian Life Movement, while participating in the Second World Congress of ecclesial movements and new communities, which is being held in Rocca di Papa (Italy). The Congress, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity and taking place under the theme “The beauty of being a Christian and the joy of communicating this”, began yesterday, May 31st, and will conclude June 2nd. It constitutes a preface for the encounter of ecclesial movements with Pope Benedict XVI on June 3rd, occasion in which Luis Fernando Figari will address the Pope in St. Peter's Square.

More than 300 delegates from 80 movements and new communities approved by the Apostolic See, as well as Cardinals and Bishops members of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, attended the congress, during which L.F. Figari was asked to reflect about the theme “The Beauty and Joy of Being a Christian in the Education of Today's Youth”. In his speech he made a succinct presentation on the education of the youth in the faith “as a response to their more profound needs, daily worries, existential dilemmas and horizons” from the “light of the truth, the goodness and beauty that Jesus awakens in those who learn to respond to His call and open themselves to the dynamism of his love and reconciliation”.

Upon beginning his speech the Founder of the CLM called to mind today's world which presents a variety of obstacles, both internal and external, for those who want to adhere themselves to the Lord Jesus. This situation, he affirmed, “ought to be kept in mind so that while speaking of the education of the youth in the faith, one doesn't linger in abstractions and good intentions.” Remembering the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI, he indicated that for the education of youth in the faith it is necessary “to present to them the Lord Jesus as the one who illuminates their personal reality, their most restless questions, their horizon, and their unfolding; as the one who is the definitive key to comprehend the sense of life, the path to reach personal realization and fulfillment in the definitive encounter with God.”

Later, in a schematic way, he went deeper into various issues to be taken into account in this challenge, the first of which is the need to approach the educational process with the consciousness that the human person is created in the image and likeness of God. Approaching the theme from the faith of the Church and with a complete vision of man, he underlined that “it will be necessary for us to know the mystery of salvation and its reaching in the personalization of the human being (faith in the mind); it will be necessary to worship God, vitally adhere oneself to the Lord Jesus and let oneself configure to him (faith in the heart); and live the Christian life, giving testimony of hope and helping the transformation of society and culture according to the divine Plan (faith in action)”.

In respect to the “faith in the mind” he recalled that it “corresponds to the spirit of the cognizant subject”, covering “the intellectual aspect, not in a cold, but in a vital sense”, that reaches the “existential dimension of the human being, which results in something especially attractive to the youth.” He also emphasized that “the intellectual dimension of faith should not be put aside. Moreover, truth is the soul of beauty.” On the other hand, he indicated that “a faith badly known is a faith badly lived”, drawing attention to the negative effect of the abandonment of religious formation or of replacing it for subjective processes, “which in many cases appear with an emotive or sentimental slant, as if the faith were a matter without importance, about which everyone can make an opinion that seems correct or that corresponds to his whims.”

He pointed out, recalling the II General Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellin , that “during the whole process of Christian formation an appealing pedagogy must be developed in order to gain and maintain the interest of the one learning”. This does not require something artificial, he said, but “going deeper into the truth, letting oneself be illuminated by its splendor, emphasizing from the rich deposit of faith those accents that respond to an organic process oriented to the one learning, attending to his particular reality.”

Speaking of the “faith in the heart”, he emphasized that this “corresponds to the field of the senses and the will.” “The intellectual comprehension of the truth is not sufficient. One's vital assimilation is necessary. It ought to arrive at what is profound in the young person.” Stressing that the Lord must be announced “in the first person”, he said that the “adhesion to Jesus and one's fervent following along the path of faith are fundamental dimensions of a vital encounter and of an openness, both effective and solidly affective, to He who is the complete answer to the human being's hunger for the infinite, for goodness, for beauty, and for truth.”

About “faith in action”, he affirmed that “it is the projection, by means of the expression in daily life and testimony, of the faith in the mind and the heart. It is necessary to point out that the faith in action, in the educational aspect, does not consist only in promoting action, but fundamentally in the creation of habits of correct action and its subsequent employment in the active response to the Plan of God in order of the fulfillment of the human being in himself and in relation with other people.” In this field, “it is of utmost importance to refer to the liturgy” because, if it is well led and understood, “it produces a highly positive impact in the intellectual and affective aspects of the person, and, at the same it supports and expresses Christian life, from which it is born and to which it leads”. Equally, “it is necessary to remember the functional diaconal sense that the Christian has. Life is service.”

Upon concluding his speech L.F. Figari underlined that “all the educational efforts of the faith aims to cooperate with God's gift to the person who benefits from the educational process”, with the object of accompanying him in his path of faith. “In this sense,” he added, “education ought to express a reverence for a greater process, of which it is only one and certainly not the main factor”. “The real and effective respect for the freedom” ought to be one of its characteristics, together with not imposing one way of being or doing, “but instead a way to communicate the enthusiasm for the adhesion to the Lord Jesus and what is significant in the integral fulfillment of the person, which includes the dimension of community”. He finally stressed that the “task of active participation in the mission of the Church, contributing as such to the Kingdom, is the unifying goal that gives sense to the good works, both personal and social”.

Read the speech of L.F. Figari at the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements (PDF Format, Summarized text – Oral version)