In Christ you have a relationship with God.

Hope is the virtue which directs our relationship with God. It is a virtue which is very active in young people for it is hope which leads you to plan and build your life. It is hope that leads you to begin taking responsibility for your life and for what goes on in the world around you. It is hope which lies at the heart of your decisions, your relationships and the values you aspire to live by.

The greatest kind of hope is the hope that leads you to Christ and to witness to Him. Let us remember what the Apostle said:

“Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”  (1 Peter 3:15)

Your relationship with Christ is intimately connected with the way in which you embrace the Gospel. Christ speaks to speaks to you so as to draw you to embrace the whole Gospel. Your relationship with Christ contains, in a sense, the destiny of the whole human family!

Let us look at the conversation which Christ had with a young person in the Gospels – Mark10: 17 – 22, Matthew 19: 16 – 22, Luke 18: 18 – 23 – this conversation is universal and timeless in its character. Here Christ reveals the whole truth about a young person’s relationship with God. It is significant that Christ wishes young people to discover this truth!

Human life takes on an extraordinary character in the light of the Gospel. This has a particular significance for young people - youth is a very special treasure of humanity. Objectively speaking, we can say that youth is the period when we discover ourselves in a particularly rich way. It is the time when we discover our personality, our gifts, our attributes, our potential, our uniqueness; the time when we first begin to glimpse our personhood. Moreover, we discover inscribed in all of this the whole plan of our lives and the way which in which we must seek fulfilment.

The interior riches of youth are discovered in the decisions which we make about our lives and the way in which we relate with others. We should ask however, can our interior treasure alienate us in anyway from Christ?

If we look at the encounter of the young person with Christ in the Gospel we can say that the decision which he took not to follow Christ was definitely influenced by his material possessions, but not by who he was. In fact, it was who he was which led him to Christ and to ask Christ about the important questions of his life – what should he do? What should he do to inherit eternal life? What should he do so his life should have full value and meaning?

Young people often experience these questions as a matter of urgency, even though, at the same time, we realise that the answers to them cannot be given in a hurried way. These are the questions which concern the whole of life, even the whole of human existence.  

Such questions are asked in a special way by those who have suffered and whose lives are marked by the pain of human existence. Is their youth an interior treasure also? It seems that Christ alone is the competent one to ask. In saying this we are expressing a profound truth: Christ is present in suffering people all over the world.

How does Christ reply to the young person in the Gospel? He says: “No one is good, but God alone.” This reply may seem difficult, but at the same time it is firm and it is true. It bears within itself the definitive solution: only God gives full meaning to human existence. Without God everything would exist by chance; evil could be put forward as good and good could be rejected.

But why is God alone good? Christ answers this not so much with words but with the witness of his life and his death: because God is love! Whatever it is that prompts questions in young hearts about the value and meaning of life, Christ’s reply is always the same - God alone is good; only God is love. Life itself prompts us to ask important questions but we also discover that our life is a task which is set before us. In referring us to God, Christ is guiding us to the Person who is the source and foundation of our lives. We are made in the image and likeness of God; without God we can neither understand nor fulfil ourselves. Christ’s first task as the Friend and Redeemer of humanity is to restore this light to us and to help us live by it.

“The light has come into the world … and the darkness has not overcome it.” (St John)

What about our secular culture today? Secular culture doesn’t ask about eternal life and yet it provides for many of our real needs. Even so, we know that the question about eternal life is an essential question and to omit it would be an inadequate response to the needs of the human heart. Christ is the witness to man’s immortality. He is the permanent sign of contradiction before all humanity’s limitations and he says “I am the resurrection and the life.”

So, if we are to acknowledge and receive the presence of Christ, we must go beyond what the world says and does and ask the question about eternal life. We already bear within us the capacity to transcend the world - our humanity is inscribed with the image and likeness of God. It takes courage to seek beyond what the world offers, but in Christ we are called to find the fullest meaning for our lives.