It would have been wonderful to hear from each of you, because each person carries a different story, different struggles. Yet from what we've heard today, a remarkable diversity emerges—all these varied lives finding shelter, as it were, under the tree that is Faith and Light, rooted in the mustard seed of the Gospel. The situations are so distinct that ideally I would speak to each one, if time allowed. Instead, let me offer a few observations.
Faith and Light gathers countless sufferings and hardships: those of the young people themselves who live with disability, those of their parents, those of their siblings, those of the Christian community that struggles to accept them, those of public authorities failing in their duties, those of an uncertain future we hardly know how to address. Here is a list of anguishing problems that Faith and Light holds under its shelter, so they are not scattered and lost, so that those who bear them do not sink into despair.
Yet there are people in Faith and Light who have the courage to gather all these sorrows with tremendous hope, and we have heard testimonies of friendship, welcome, brotherhood, belonging, communion, mutual aid, hope, and comfort given. Faith and Light is all of these things—that great sum of goodness, fraternity, acceptance, generosity, and help—meeting this vast ocean of difficulty and suffering, and letting light prevail over darkness, faith over despair.
Not despair and darkness, but Faith and Light
Not despair and darkness, but Faith and LightSo not despair and darkness, but Faith and Light: that is your mission and your calling.
Someone rightly noted that young people are drawn in, but not all persevere. This, sadly, has always been true: not everyone who shows good will at first has the strength to stay the course. Yet you in Faith and Light possess an extraordinary power. I believe Faith and Light has grasped, in a sense, the heart of the Gospel—the heart of the Good News—which is the capacity to transform situations that are heavy, seemingly unbearable, not merely into situations we can endure, but into occasions of grace and into a wholly new way of seeing life.
This, I believe, is the great miracle: not simply to help us bear what is difficult, but to hear the call that comes from these young people with disabilities—a call to greater humanity, inner strength, peace of mind, mutual care, and discovery of life's deepest values. In this way we reverse the power of evil and make it the leaven of a new society. This seems to me the great evangelical secret: to transform weight and pain, not into something merely to be borne, but into an occasion to discover a new way of living and loving.
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As the priest who spoke before me rightly said, the great lesson Faith and Light offers to priests and bishops is to discover how Faith and Light and joy and life can spring precisely from the situations that seem most heavy. This is the great treasure you must preserve intact, even as you grow and develop the organization required to move forward.
I want to speak one more word about the final testimony, which moved me deeply. It weighs on my heart. When I visit families with children who have disabilities, I too ask myself instinctively: "But what comes after?" I believe we must all work on that "after." In Lombardy, for example, a foundation has already been established precisely to find adequate solutions for these families' futures.
So my appeal to you is not a vague call to trust, but to build these real structures that can examine each situation carefully and care for it in the best way possible—realizing that miracle you are already working: transforming hardship not only into something bearable, but into something capable of renewing a life and opening new horizons.
Thank God for this evangelical treasure and share it widely. Do not fear the first resistance and difficulties you encounter; your parishes, once they come to know you truly, love you and are open to you. So spread among them the good that is yours to give. And I, too, hold you dear—I always have, and even more today, seeing you here with your testimonies.
So I say to all of you with joy: "Go in peace and know the serenity and peace of God."
(Text not reviewed by the author)