VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 034   
   DATE 17-02-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - The Pope offers Mass in the Sanctae Marthae Chapel to the Copts killed in   
   Libya   
   - Pope's Message for World Youth Day: "Have the courage to be happy"   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope offers Mass in the Sanctae Marthae Chapel to the Copts killed in   
   Libya   
    Vatican City, 17 February 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis offered this morning's   
   Mass in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae to the 21 Egyptian Copts   
   murdered yesterday in Libya, whose funerals will be held today.   
    "Let us offer this Mass for our 21 brother Copts, beheaded for the simple   
   fact of being Christians. Let us pray for them, so that the Lord may welcome   
   them as martyrs, for their families, and for my brother Tawadros, who suffers   
   deeply".   
    He went on to pronounce the antiphon from Psalm 31: "For You are my rock and   
   my fortress; therefore, for Your name's sake, lead me and guide me".   
    Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father telephoned the Patriarch, His Holiness   
   Pope Tawadros II, to express his participation in the profound sorrow of the   
   Orthodox Coptic Church for the recent barbaric massacre of Egyptian Copts at   
   the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. He assured him of his prayers and today,   
   the day of the victims' funerals, joined spiritually in the prayers and the   
   suffering of the Coptic Church, in the morning Eucharistic celebration.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope's Message for World Youth Day: "Have the courage to be happy"   
    Vatican City, 17 February 2015 (VIS) - "Blessed are the pure in heart, for   
   they shall see God" is the title of the Holy Father's message for the   
   thirtieth World Youth Day, celebrated every year on Palm Sunday. The Pope   
   continues his reflection on the Beatitudes, and after referring to his   
   previous messages on "revolutionary meaning" and the "powerful summons of   
   Jesus to embark courageously upon the exciting quest for happiness", he goes   
   on to focus on "the desire for happiness", starting from the first chapters of   
   the Book of Genesis which "shows to us the splendid beatitude to which we are   
   called" and "consists in perfect communion with God, with others, with nature,   
   and with ourselves".   
    Francis divides his message into four parts. After speaking about the desire   
   for happiness, he analyses the sixth beatitude paragraph by paragraph,   
   explaining purity of heart. If the heart is considered in the Bible to be the   
   "centre of the emotions, thoughts and intentions of the human person", its   
   purity consists fundamentally in the absence of contaminants such as hate,   
   cowardice, and envy. He then turns to the care for creation, so that it does   
   not become contaminated, and invites a "human ecology" that " will help us to   
   breathe the pure air that comes from beauty, from true love, and from   
   holiness". Francis also urged the young not to allow their ability to love or   
   be loved be instrumentalised or impaired, and not to trivialise love.   
    In the third part, "... for they shall see God", he recalls that Jesus   
   "awaits us always with open arms", and calls to all "in whatever place or   
   situation you find yourself". "Encountering God in prayer, the reading of the   
   Bible and in fraternal life will help you better to know the Lord and   
   yourselves", writes the Pope. "Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, the   
   Lord's voice will make your hearts burn within you. He will open your eyes to   
   recognise his presence and to discover the loving plan he has for your life".   
    "Have the courage to be happy", Francis concludes, recalling that this year's   
   World Youth Day begins the final stage in preparation for the next great   
   global event to be held in Krakow, Poland in 2016, thirty years after St. John   
   Paul II instituted the World Youth Days in the Church. This "pilgrimage of   
   young people from every continent under the guidance of the Successor of Peter   
   has truly been a providential and prophetic initiative".   
    The full text of the message is given below: Dear Young Friends,   
    We continue our spiritual pilgrimage toward Krakow, where in July 2016 the   
   next international World Youth Day will be held. As our guide for the journey   
   we have chosen the Beatitudes. Last year we reflected on the beatitude of the   
   poor in spirit, within the greater context of the Sermon on the Mount.   
   Together we discovered the revolutionary meaning of the Beatitudes and the   
   powerful summons of Jesus to embark courageously upon the exciting quest for   
   happiness. This year we will reflect on the sixth beatitude: "Blessed are the   
   pure in heart, for they shall see God".   
    1. The desire for happiness   
    The word "blessed", or "happy", occurs nine times in this, Jesus' first great   
   sermon. It is like a refrain reminding us of the Lord's call to advance   
   together with him on a road which, for all its many challenges, leads to true   
   happiness.   
    Dear young friends, this search for happiness is shared by people of all   
   times and all ages. God has placed in the heart of every man and woman an   
   irrepressible desire for happiness, for fulfilment. Have you not noticed that   
   your hearts are restless, always searching for a treasure which can satisfy   
   their thirst for the infinite?   
    The first chapters of the Book of Genesis show us the splendid "beatitude" to   
   which we are called. It consists in perfect communion with God, with others,   
   with nature, and with ourselves. To approach God freely, to see him and to be   
   close to him, was part of his plan for us from the beginning; his divine light   
   was meant to illumine every human relationship with truth and transparency. In   
   the state of original purity, there was no need to put on masks, to engage in   
   ploys or to attempt to conceal ourselves from one another. Everything was   
   clear and pure.   
    When Adam and Eve yielded to temptation and broke off this relationship of   
   trusting communion with God, sin entered into human history. The effects were   
   immediately evident, within themselves, in their relationship with each other   
   and with nature. And how dramatic the effects are! Our original purity as   
   defiled. From that time on, we were no longer capable of closeness to God. Men   
   and women began to conceal themselves, to cover their nakedness. Lacking the   
   light which comes from seeing the Lord, they saw everything around them in a   
   distorted fashion, myopically. The inner compass which had guided them in   
   their quest for happiness lost its point of reference, and the attractions of   
   power, wealth, possessions, and a desire for pleasure at all costs, led them   
   to the abyss of sorrow and anguish.   
    In the Psalms we hear the heartfelt plea which mankind makes to God: "What   
   can bring us happiness? Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord". The   
   Father, in his infinite goodness, responded to this plea by sending his Son.   
   In Jesus, God has taken on a human face. Through his Incarnation, life, death   
   and resurrection, Jesus frees us from sin and opens new and hitherto   
   unimaginable horizons.   
    Dear young men and women, in Christ you find fulfilled your every desire for   
   goodness and happiness. He alone can satisfy your deepest longings, which are   
   so often clouded by deceptive worldly promises. As Saint John Paul II said:   
   "He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you   
   with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it   
   is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in   
   your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.   
   It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives".   
    2. Blessed are the pure in heart   
    Let us now try to understand more fully how this blessedness comes about   
   through purity of heart. First of all, we need to appreciate the biblical   
   meaning of the word heart. In Hebrew thought, the heart is the centre of the   
   emotions, thoughts and intentions of the human person. Since the Bible teaches   
   us that God does not look to appearances, but to the heart, we can also say   
   that it is from the heart that we see God. This is because the heart is really   
   the human being in his or her totality as a unity of body and soul, in his or   
   her ability to love and to be loved.   
    As for the definition of the word pure, however, the Greek word used by the   
   evangelist Matthew is katharos, which basically means clean, pure, undefiled.   
   In the Gospel we see Jesus reject a certain conception of ritual purity bound   
   to exterior practices, one which forbade all contact with things and people   
   (including lepers and strangers) considered impure. To the Pharisees who, like   
   so many Jews of their time, ate nothing without first performing ritual   
   ablutions and observing the many traditions associated with cleansing vessels,   
   Jesus responds categorically: "There is nothing outside a man which by going   
   into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what   
   defile him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts,   
   fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit,   
   licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness".   
    In what, then, does the happiness born of a pure heart consist? From Jesus'   
   list of the evils which make someone impure, we see that the question has to   
   do above all with the area of our relationships. Each one of us must learn to   
   discern what can "defile" his or her heart and to form his or her conscience   
   rightly and sensibly, so as to be capable of "discerning the will of God, what   
   is good and acceptable and perfect". We need to show a healthy concern for   
   creation, for the purity of our air, water and food, but how much more do we   
   need to protect the purity of what is most precious of all: our heart and our   
   relationships. This "human ecology" will help us to breathe the pure air that   
   comes from beauty, from true love, and from holiness.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)