ROME — Pope Francis urged young people in Slovakia Tuesday to have the courage to dream of marriage and a family.
“Dream of a beauty that goes beyond appearances, beyond cosmetic impressions, beyond the fads of the moment,” the pontiff told youth gathered in the Lokomotiva Stadium in Košice. “Dream fearlessly of creating a family, having children and raising them well, spending your life in sharing everything with another person.”
Francis, who has often lamented Europe’s “demographic winter,” caused in part by its low birthrate, encouraged young people to embrace the beautiful risk of marriage and family.
Pope Francis (L) celebrates an open air Holy Mass at The National Shrine in Sastin-Straze, some 70 km north of the Slovakian capital Bratislava on September 15, 2021. ( JOE KLAMAR/AFP via Getty)
“Don’t be ashamed of your faults and flaws, for there is someone out there ready to accept and love them, someone who will love you just as you are,” he continued. “This is what love means: loving someone as he or she is, and this is beautiful.”
In his reflections, the pope encouraged his hearers not to “trivialize love,” insisting that “love is not simply an emotion or feeling, even though it may start that way.”
“Love is not about having everything now; it is not part of today’s throwaway culture. Love is fidelity, gift and responsibility,” he said.
“We were put in this world to be loved for who we are, and to love others in our own unique and special way,” he asserted.
“Great dreams are not about powerful cars, fashionable clothes or wild vacations,” he stated, adding that we were “created for a joy that is much greater.”
The pope also appealed to the idealism typical of the young, urging them to be “revolutionary” in a new way, by choosing to live great lives.
Pilgrims attend an open-air mass with Pope Francis on September 15, 2021 in Sastin, Slovakia. (Sean Gallup/Getty)
“Today, being really original and revolutionary means rebelling against the culture of the ephemeral, going beyond shallow instincts and momentary pleasures, and choosing to love with every fiber of your being, for the rest of your life,” he said.
“We were not put here just to make do, but to make something of our lives,” he declared, rather than letting life “pass by like so many episodes in a soap opera.”
“If you think about some of the great stories you read in novels, or see in unforgettable movies or hear in some moving tale, there are always two things that go together,” he said. “One is love, and the other is adventure, heroism.”