Arming the youth
We need to reach out to the youth and really take care of them. It’s worth all the effort and sacrifice. Especially these days when confusing elements abound in the world, we need in fact to arm them to face the many challenges in life.
The Church annually celebrates the World Youth Day precisely to give due attention to this most special duty. This year it is held on March 28, Palm Sunday, at the diocesan level.
The Pope’s message again focuses on that gospel story of the rich young man who asked our Lord: “What must I do to inherit eternal life” (Mk 10,17-22). It’s a beautiful story that reflects the life of a typical youth, often fired up by great ideals but does not know how to pursue and attain them.
With this story, the Pope tries to invite the youth all over the world to discover the importance of taking care of their spiritual life by developing an appropriate plan of life that nourishes their faith and spirituality, and keys and locks their attention and interest in eternal life, beyond the merely earthly.
This is a tall order indeed! But again it’s all worthwhile. I just hope and pray that more and more of us, the elders, in the great variety of our positions and circumstances, as parents, teachers, public officials, priests, etc., can dedicate time and effort to practically arming our youth for life’s warfare.
Yes, we should not forget this particular aspect of our life. In the first place, no one likes to see, much less talk about life under that aspect. That’s understandable. But it’s also undeniable.
While we have to respect everyone’s, and especially the youth’s fondness for a good time, we should also make it a point to remind all about life as a continuing struggle. We would be unrealistic and doing a disservice if we fail to give this reminder in an engaging and continuing way.
My experience in dealing with the youth has always been meaningful and often moving. I consider it a great privilege to be able to enter into their lives and even to take part in their dramas, at once amusing and stimulating.
They have to be helped to understand and appreciate the value of prayer, sacrifice, the sacraments, the different virtues. This is not easy at all, since the youth suffer a certain instability that needs precisely to be settled. A lot of patience is needed here. Also a sense of humor and sportsmanship.
They can be enthusiastic at one time, and then lethargic the next. They often get inspired and easily encouraged, but are notorious for lacking in perseverance. Their sense of freedom is often restrictive and certainly needs to be broadened.
It’s a painstaking job to deal with them. They have to be taught the proper criteria so they can have some sense of priorities, a sharpened sense of right and wrong, and can use their time, money and energies auspiciously. For this, we often need to walk the talk with them, ready to get dirty and all.
The proper doctrines have to be imparted and received well. Some tricky parts may arise in this regard, since the youth can be very spontaneous and fiercely sure of their opinions that actually need to be corrected.
Among the virtues to be given special attention is chastity. Given their condition, they are most vulnerable to sensual stimuli, both within them and outside. And so this topic has to be handled with utmost care and refinement.
They have to realize the precedence of the spiritual over the material, study and work over sports and gimmicks, contemplation over action.
But once successfully managed, this virtue facilitates all other virtues—humility, obedience and docility, temperance and fortitude, etc. Everything has to be done to win their confidence so they lose the fear of talking about this most intimate topic.
They have to be slowly taught about developing a sense of commitment and vocation. The idea is to make them fly or swim on their own later on. How important therefore is the role of friendship! Friendly chats should be fostered and hopefully these develop into spiritual direction and confession.
It’s in this setting that delicate and complicated issues are sorted out and clarified, pieces of advice, suggestions and words of encouragement are given. Truth is the environment is full of confusing elements, and many times the youth without malice easily fall into many traps, some of which can be truly vicious.
Going through all this is all worthwhile!
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
