ROME — Pope Francis urged young people in Bahrain on Sunday not to be bystanders or “tourists of life” but rather to commit themselves and take risks.

You need to “take hold of your life and not let it slip through your fingers,” the pontiff declared. “Do not be ‘tourists of life,’ who only see it from the outside, who only see the surface of things.”

You are all without exception “a treasure, a unique and precious treasure,” he said. “So, do not lock your life in a safe, thinking that it is better to save that treasure, that the time to spend it has not yet come!”

The pope noted that many young people in Bahrain are passing through because of work, a phenomenon that could tempt them to disengage, which would be a mistake.

“Yet if we live with that tourist mentality, we miss the present moment and risk throwing away whole pieces of our life!” he asserted. “How beautiful it is, on the other hand, to make a positive mark on our journey even now, by caring for our community, our classmates, our co-workers, and for the world around us.”

“You have to be a champion not only on the playing field, but in life!” he declared, while encouraging his hearers to “strive to be champions of fraternity, off the playing field!”

People wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at the Sacred Heart church in the Bahraini capital Manama, on November 6, 2022. (MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is the challenge of today that will make us winners tomorrow, the challenge faced by our increasingly globalized and multicultural societies,” he said.

This proactive attitude also means accepting “the challenge of making decisions in life,” Francis said. “You know from everyday experience there is no such thing as a life without challenges.”

“Just as when you come to a fork in the road you have to choose, so, when faced with a challenge, you always have to put yourself on the line, take risks and make a decision,” he added.

One of these challenges it that of love, the pope said, which always entails risk.

Love “is not a soap opera or a romantic film,” he said, adding that “to love is to take another person to heart, to care for others, to offer one’s time and gifts to those in need, to take risks and make life a gift that generates even greater life.”

Pope Francis speaks during his meeting with the youth at the Sacred Heart school in Isa Town, south of the capital Manama, on November 5, 2022. (MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

“Dear young people, we need you,” he concluded. “We need your creativity, your dreams and your courage, your charm and your smiles, your contagious joy and that touch of craziness that you can bring to every situation, which helps to break us out of our stale habits and ways of looking at things.”

“Never lose the courage to dream big and to live life to the full! Adopt the culture of care and spread it. Become champions of fraternity,” he said.