Christ - light of the moral life.

Christ refers his listener first to God’s Law, the Commandments. This is not surprising since the Commandments have formed the basis of the relationship between God and humanity in history. The way we live sets the direction of our lives: towards eternal life or away from it. Divine Revelation confirms the code of human morality, first in the Commandments and secondly in Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount” and in his Commandment of Love. This code is available to all men and women because it is inscribed on our hearts. Our moral conscience witnesses to this.

Christ speaks about morality to the young person in the Gospel because his life is built upon what he does with it. It is the goodness of a person’s actions which will lead him or her to eternal life. And the conscience will respond to the truth of one’s actions in every instance – to either accuse or to excuse. The value of your life will depend upon the way you relate to good and evil.

Dear young friends do not be afraid when Christ heightens your moral awareness. He knows that the plan which you are developing for your life depends upon the authenticity and rightness of your conscience. In fact, humanity reveals its true dignity through rightness of conscience – being open to the truth and acting according to the truth. History, at its heart, is the history of human consciences. Moreover, every one of us carries his or her conscience over the frontier of death when the definitive truth about our life is given at last by God. Your conscience will influence the people and culture of your time through the decisions that you will make in your life. Much depends upon each one of us.

Youth is the period for the conscience to be formed so that that young people can become people who are clear-sighted in life, people of principle, people who inspire trust and are credible. It is through rightness of conscience that young people make the most important contribution in the world and in the Church.

In fact, our families and communities have already looked for our contribution. And we know how keenly we ourselves desire to make the right choices, how keenly we desire that our lives be good and true and, how keenly we have already desired to respond with our lives to the challenge of the Gospel.