ROME – In a message to Catholics in Chicago, directed especially at young people, Pope Leo XIV urged them to become “beacons of hope” in the world by drawing close to God and forming a community of faith and peace amid life’s challenges.

In his June 14 message, the pope told young people that they are “the promise of hope for so many of us.”

“The world looks to you, as you look around yourselves, and says, we need you, we want you to come together to share with us this common mission, as a church, and in this society, of announcing a message of true hope, and of promoting peace, of promoting harmony among all peoples,” he said.

Pope Leo insisted on the need to “look beyond our own egotistical ways” and to instead seek ways “of coming together and promoting a message of hope.”

His remarks were made in a video message played at the “Chicago Celebrates Pope Leo XIV” event, held Saturday at Rate Field, the home field of the Chicago White Sox, and which was organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The event, organized by Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich, began at 12:30 local time and culminated with a Mass celebrated by Cupich at the stadium. It was emceed by Chicago Bulls announcer Chuck Swirsky.

Leo, a Chicago native, sent his message of hope and peace after the White Sox experienced its worst year in recent baseball history, and also the same day that United States President Donald Trump held the U.S.’s first military parade since 1991, under former U.S. President George HW Bush to mark the end of the Gulf War.

At the same time, a series of ‘No Kings’ protests against the Trump administration were scheduled to be held in more than 1,500 cities across the U.S. as an act of defiance against what protesters say is government corruption.

In his video message, Pope Leo noted that the celebration at Rate Field coincided with the Catholic feast of the Most Holy Trinity, saying the Trinity itself is “the model of God’s love for us.”

“God, Father, Son and Spirit, three persons in one God live united in the depth of love in community, sharing that communion with all of us,” he said, voicing his gratitude to Chicago Catholics for their support, and his encouragement “to continue to build up community, friendship, as brothers and sisters in your daily lives, in your families, in your parishes, in the archdiocese, and throughout our world.”

He offered a special greeting to young people, those present and those following the event online, saying difficult experiences in recent years, including the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation many faced, as well as familial tensions, perhaps made it difficult to live their faith or to live it in community.

“I would like to take this opportunity to invite each one of you to look into your own hearts and to recognize that God is present, and that perhaps in many different ways God is reaching out to you, calling you, inviting you to know his Son Jesus Christ,” through the scriptures, or through a friend or relative who is a person of faith, he said.

Leo stressed the importance for young people of paying attention “to the presence of God in our own hearts, to that longing for love in our lives, for searching, a true searching, for finding the ways that we may be able to do something with our own lives to serve others.”

By doing so, it will be possible to come together in friendship and build a community, so that those experiencing anxiety, loneliness, depression or sadness “can discover that the love of God is truly healing, that it brings hope,” he said.

“Actually, coming together as friends, as brothers and sisters, in a community, in a parish, in an experience of living our faith together, we can find that the Lord’s grace,” he said, saying God’s love can heal and provide the strength needed to be “the source of that hope that we all need in our lives.”

Sharing this message of hope with one another in both outreach and service, and identifying ways to make the world a better place, the pope said, “gives true life to all of us, and is a sign of hope for the whole world.”

Leo said young people are a sign of hope, and they are called to be witnesses of hope in the world, a process he said begins “with our own lives, our own hearts.”

“In this sense, as you gather together as a faith community, as you celebrate in the Archdiocese of Chicago, as you offer your own experience of joy and of hope, you can find out, you can discover, that you too are indeed beacons of hope,” he said.

While this beacon might seem like a small light on the horizon that is difficult to see, “as we grow in our unity, as we come together in communion, we can discover that that light will grow brighter and brighter.”

That light, he said, is faith Jesus Christ, and by drawing near to Christ and keeping the faith, “we can become that message of hope to promote peace and unity throughout our world.”

Pope Leo XIV said it s normal to have questions, and quoted Saint Augustine’s famed declaration that “our hearts are restless until they rest in you, oh God.”

“That restlessness is not a bad thing, and we shouldn’t look for ways to put out the fire, to eliminate or even numb ourselves to the tensions that we feel, the difficulties that we experience,” the pope said, urging youth to instead “get in touch with our own hearts and recognize that God can work in our lives, through our lives, and through us, reach out to other people.”

He closed his roughly 7-minute video message inviting young people to be the “light of hope” that does not disappoint to others.

“When I see each and every one of you, when I see how people gather together to celebrate their faith, I discover how much hope there is in the world,” Leo said, saying the ongoing Jubilee Hope is a reminder that all hope rests in Christ.

Christ, in turn, “calls all of us to come together, that we might be that true living example, the light of hope in the world today,” he said, and urged Chicago Catholics “to take a moment to open up your own hearts to God, to God’s love, to that peace which only the Lord can give us, to feel how deeply beautiful, how strong, how meaningful the love of God is in our lives.”

God’s love is a gift which he gives, asking only for believers “to be generous and to share what he has given us with others,” he said.

“May you indeed be blessed as you gather together for this celebration. May the Lord’s love

and peace come upon each and every one of you, upon your families, and may God bless all of you,

so that you might always be beacons of hope, a sign of hope and peace throughout our world,” the pope said.

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