International Youth Day is an opportunity for young people to make their voices heard and participate in the political, economic, and social life and processes that affect every nation. It is precisely their status as young people that gives them a responsibility toward the future: “To you young people: always keep your eyes turned toward the future. Be fertile ground moving forward with humanity; be a force for renewal in culture, society, and the Church. Courage, humility, and listening are needed to give expression to renewal” (Pope Francis).
This observance began in 1999, on the initiative of the UN General Assembly, which approved the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, August 8-12, 1998), establishing International Youth Day on August 12 each year.
From Saint Aloysius Gonzaga to Saint Carlo Acutis: young people conquering heaven
There are young saints and patrons of young people who show us that holiness is not a matter of age and is always capable of tracing paths of light with the power to reach us.
One of them is certainly Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591): the son of the Duke of Mantua, from childhood he was trained by his father in the art of war, so much so that at the age of 5 he was already wearing a small breastplate and helmet and risked being crushed while firing a cannon.
At the age of 10, Luigi decided that his path was a different one: the path that, through humility, the vow of chastity, and a life devoted to others, would lead him to God. At 12, he received his First Communion from Saint Charles Borromeo, who was visiting Brescia. He then decided to join the Society of Jesus, and to do so he had to endure two years of conflict with his father. He renounced his title and inheritance and entered the Jesuit Collegio Romano, dedicating himself to the poor and the sick and distinguishing himself especially during the plague epidemic that struck Rome in 1590. On that occasion, while he was on his way to a hospital to visit the sick, he saw a terminally ill patient abandoned in the street. He hoisted him onto his shoulders and carried him to the hospital. The man had the plague, and Luigi contracted the disease, which led to his death within a few months, at just 23 years of age.
To this young man, who courageously devoted himself to others to the point of sacrificing his life, Pope Benedict XIII granted the title of protector of students, while Pius XI named him in 1926 patron of Catholic youth. Then, in 1991, John Paul II granted him the patronage of AIDS patients and said of him: «Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, a model young man for youth, who lived long ago but remains highly relevant today because he devoted himself to values that never fade. He was a heroic apostle of charity. He separated himself from everything to embrace the All […] he did not despise the world; rather, he consecrated himself to God in order to love it more and better. May his example enlighten you».
Another young man who was proclaimed a saint was Carlo Acutis: «Why do people worry so much about the beauty of their bodies and then not worry about the beauty of their souls?». Carlo asked himself this question as his sense of the beauty of heavenly things grew stronger every day. His docility to God's grace and his love for others also led him to say: «A life is truly beautiful only if one comes to love God above all things and one's neighbor as oneself».
A cheerful and straightforward boy - who knew how to live and die as an original, not a copy - strengthened his spirituality precisely during adolescence. He prayed the Rosary every day and often attended Eucharistic adoration. In fact, he was convinced that when «we stand in the sun, we get tanned... but when we place ourselves before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints». He was a catechist, helped the poor through Caritas, was a much-loved youth leader at the oratory, played the saxophone, played soccer and video games... That was Carlo, an overflowing river who, in his brief life of just 15 years, filled with joy the lives of everyone he came into contact with. He would accept and offer up his illness, which would lead to his death in 2006, for the Pope and the Church.
These young people truly knew how to be the salt of the earth; let us pray to them and learn from them, holding them up as role models for our children, because the saints help us understand that we have the opportunity to make our lives a masterpiece, whatever our age, if only we entrust ourselves to God.
