Without detracting from the fervor of our message to the whole of the People of God, we wish to take the time to address ourself at greater length to the world of the young. We do so with special hope.

If in fact the Church, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, in a certain sense constitutes the true youth of the world, as long as she remains faithful to her being and to her mission, how could she fail spontaneously and preferably to recognize herself in those who feel themselves to be the bearers of life and hope and of the task of ensuring that there will be a tomorrow for the history of today? And vice versa, how can those who in every period of this history more intensely experience in themselves the impetus of life, the expectation of hope for the future, the need for true renewal, not be secretly in harmony with a Church animated by the Spirit of Christ? How could they not expect from the Church the revelation of her secret of permanent youth, and therefore the joy of their own youth?

We think that in fact such a correspondence exists, not always visibly, but certainly deep down, despite many accidental contradictions. This is why, in this Exhortation on Christian Joy, our mind and heart urge us to turn very decisively to the young people of today. We do so in the name of Christ and of His Church which, despite her human failings, He wishes to be "glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless."[⁶²]

In doing so we are not giving way to a sentimental cult of youth. Considered only from the viewpoint of age, youth is a short-lived thing. The excessive attention that is given to it quickly becomes nostalgic or ridiculous. But this is not true in what concerns the spiritual meaning of this moment of grace: youth lived in the proper way. What catches our attention is essentially the correspondence between the soaring impulse of a being which is naturally receptive to the appeals and demands of his high destiny as a person, and the dynamism of the Holy Spirit, from whom the Church ceaselessly receives her own youthfulness, her substantial fidelity to herself and, at the heart of this faithfulness, her living creativity. It is a correspondence which is transitory and threatened, yes, but still full of meaning and rich in generous promises. From the encounter between the human being which, for a few decisive years, has youth at his command, and the Church in her permanent spiritual youthfulness, there necessarily arises, on both sides, a joy of high quality and a fruitful promise.

The Church, as the People of God on pilgrimage towards the future kingdom, must be able to perpetuate herself, and therefore renew herself down succeeding human generations. For her this is a condition for fruitfulness, and even simply for life itself. It is therefore necessary that at each moment of her history the rising generation should in some way fulfill the hope of the preceding generations, the very hope of the Church, which is to transmit without end the gift of God, the Truth and the Life. This is why in every generation young Christians must ratify, with full consciousness and unconditionally, the covenant entered into by them in the sacrament of Baptism and reinforced in the sacrament of Confirmation.

In this regard our age of profound change is not without grave difficulties for the Church. We who have, together with the whole College of Bishops, "anxiety for all the churches"[⁶³] and preoccupation for their immediate future, are well aware of this. But at the same time, being supported by faith and hope which does not disappoint us,[⁶⁴] we are sure that grace will not fail the Christian people, and we hope that they themselves will not fail grace, or reject -- as some today are gravely tempted to do -- the inheritance of truth and holiness handed down to this decisive moment in the history of the world. And -- this is the point -- we think that we have every reason to have confidence in Christian youth: youth will not fail the Church if within the Church there are enough older people able to understand it, to love it, to guide it and to open up to it a future by passing on to it with complete fidelity the Truth which endures. Then new workers, resolute and fervent, will in their turn enter upon spiritual and apostolic work in the fields which are white and ready for the harvest. Then the sower and the reaper will share the same joy of the kingdom.[⁶⁵]

It seems to us in fact that the present world crisis, which is marked by a great confusion among many young people, partly betrays a senile and definitely out-of-date aspect of a commercial, hedonistic and materialistic civilization which is still trying to present itself as the gateway to the future. Even in its very excesses, the instinctive reaction of many young people against this illusion takes on a certain importance. This generation is waiting for something else. Having suddenly been deprived of protective traditions, then bitterly deceived by the vanity and spiritual vacuum of false novelties, atheistic ideologies and certain deleterious forms of mysticism, will not this generation come to discover or rediscover the sure and unalterable newness of the divine mystery revealed in Jesus Christ? Has not He, in the splendid words of Saint Irenaeus, "brought all newness by bringing His own person"?[⁶⁶]

And this is why we are pleased to dedicate more expressly to you, the young Christians of the present day, the promise of the Church of tomorrow, this celebration of spiritual joy. We cordially urge you to be attentive to the inner appeals which come to you. We urge you to raise up your eyes, your hearts, your fresh energies, to the heights, to accept the effort of the soul's yearnings. And we wish to give you this assurance: however debilitating the prejudice diffused everywhere today, of the human spirit's inability to discover permanent and life-giving Truth, equally profound and liberating is the joy of divine Truth finally recognized in the Church: gaudium de Veritate.[⁶⁷] This is the joy which is offered to you. It gives itself to those who love it enough to seek it tenaciously. By disposing yourselves to accept it and to communicate it, you will ensure together your own fulfillment in Christ and the next historical stage of the People of God.