亲爱的青年朋友们！
1. 今年我们刚刚庆祝了第十九届世界青年日，默想那些到耶路撒冷过逾越节的希腊人所表达的渴望：「我们愿意拜见耶稣」(若十二21)。现在，我们要准备前往科隆，二○○五年八月将在那里庆祝第二十届世界青年日。
下届世界青年日的主题是：「我们特来朝拜祂」(玛二2)。这主题将使来自世界各地的青年朋友，在精神上跟随三位东方贤士的脚步－－根据传统，他们的圣髑正是在此城市受到敬礼；并且如同他们一样，与万民的默西亚相遇。
的确，基督之光已开启了贤士们的心智与心灵，福音作者说：「他们就走了」(玛二9)，他们大胆地往未知的路前行，而这是一趟漫长、也绝不轻松的旅程。他们毫不迟疑地抛下一切，为了跟随他们在东方所见到的异星(参阅玛二2)。如同贤士们一般，你们年轻人也准备踏上「旅程」，从世界各地走向科隆。为你们而言，重要的不只是去关心世界青年日种种实际上的安排，最重要的是必须在信德与聆听圣言的氛围下，审慎准备你们的心灵。
2. 「……那星，走在他们前面，直至来到婴孩所在的地方」(玛二9)。贤士们来到了白冷，因为他们顺从异星的指引。确实，「他们一见到那星，极其高兴欢喜」(玛二10)。我亲爱的朋友，学习观察天主召叫和指引我们的记号，是非常重要的。当我们意识到自己为祂所引导，我们的心灵会经验到真实而深刻的喜悦，也会经验到一股与祂相遇的强烈渴望，以及不屈不挠地跟随祂的力量。
「他们走进屋内，看见婴儿和他的母亲玛利亚」(玛二11)。乍看之下，这是再寻常不过的景象。然而圣婴与其它人不同：他是天主的独生子，却空虚自己(参阅斐二7)，来到人间，死在十字架上。他来到我们中间，成为贫穷的，好向我们启示祂神圣的光荣；直到荣福天乡，我们才能够完全地默观这光荣。
谁能创造比这更伟大的爱的记号呢？一位神，屈尊就卑，取得人形，甚至为我们在十字架上交出自己的生命(参阅斐二6-8)，在此奥秘之前，我们感到敬畏。祂的贫穷－－如同圣保禄提醒我们的－－「他本是富有的，为了你们，却成了贫困的，好使你们因着他的贫困，而成为富有的」(格后八9)，并且为罪人带来救赎。天主如此地慷慨大量，我们何以为报？
3. 贤士在白冷找到了耶稣，白冷这个字(Beth-lehem)意为「面包之屋」。在白冷简陋的马棚中，稻草堆上正躺着那「一粒麦子」，藉着死亡，将要结出「许多子粒」(参阅若十二24)。稍后，耶稣在他的公开生活中提到他自己，以及他的救赎使命之时，也使用面包的意象。他这么说：「我是生命之粮」(I am the bread of life)、「我是从天降下的食粮」、「我所要赐给的食粮，就是我的肉，是为世界的生命而赐给的」(若六35, 41, 51)。
忠实地追寻救主的道路－－从马槽中的贫穷，到十字架上的全然舍弃，我们才较能了解他救赎人类之爱的奥秘。被玛利亚旁放到马槽中的婴孩，就是我们将要看到被钉十字架的真人真天主。也是这位救主，临在于圣体圣事当中。在白冷的马棚中，他使自己以如此卑微的新生儿形象，接受玛利亚、若瑟与牧羊人的朝拜；在圣祭礼仪中，我们钦崇他圣事性的临在，他的体，他的血，他的灵与神，并且他将自己给予我们做为永生的食粮。因此弥撒真的成为与「那一位」爱的相遇，他把自己完全给了我们。我亲爱的青年朋友，当他邀请你前赴「羔羊婚宴」(参阅默十九9)时，请毫不迟疑地答复他。聆听他，适当地预备自己，走向圣祭的祭台，特别是在我已向全教会宣布为圣体年的这一年(2004年10月至2005年10月)。
4. 「他们俯伏朝拜了他」(玛二11)。就像贤士们认出玛利亚怀中的婴儿，正是万民等待和先知预言的那一位，并且朝拜了他；我们今天也能在圣体圣事中朝拜他，并且认出他就是我们的创造者，我们唯一的天主和救主。
「他们打开自己的宝匣，给他奉献了礼物，即黄金、乳香和没药」(玛二11)。贤士们献给默西亚的礼物，象征了真实的朝拜。他们以黄金强调他王权的神性，以乳香表达了他在新约中的大司祭身分，并献上没药，纪念这位将倾流鲜血，使人与天主重归于好的先知。
我亲爱的青年朋友，你也当向上主献上你生命中的黄金！意即出于爱，自由跟随祂，忠实地答复祂的召叫；让你热诚祈祷的馨香直升到祂面前，赞美祂的光荣；献上你的没药，也就是对祂全然的感激之情，这位真人子，因为爱我们，甚至像一个罪犯一样死在哥耳哥达。
5. 要做唯一真天主的朝拜者，把你生命中最重要的位置献给他！崇拜偶像是一个时时存在的诱惑。可悲的是，有些人在与基督信仰不兼容的宗教仪式中寻求解决自身的问题。这世界有强烈的压力，要人相信成功与权力速成的神话；有人想以某种宇宙力量，或任何其它与天主教会训导不符的形式来呈现天主。接受这些过眼云?般的想法，是很危险的。
我亲爱的青年朋友，别屈服于虚假的幻象与一时的风尚，那些所留给我们的，往往是可悲的心灵空虚！要拒绝财富、消费主义以及媒体不时巧妙运用的暴力的引诱。
朝拜真神是真正拒绝所有偶像崇拜形式的行动。朝拜基督：他是盘石，在那盘石上建立你的未来，并建立一个更加正义与合一的世界。耶稣是和平之王：和好与宽恕之源，他使人类家庭所有成员成为兄弟姐妹。
6. 「他们就由另一条路返回自己的地方去了」(玛二12)。福音告诉我们，贤士与基督相遇之后，「由另一条路」回家去了。这路途的改变正可象征所有与耶稣相遇者被召唤的悔改，好能成为他所愿意的真正的朝拜者(参阅若四23-24)。也就是效法他的行动，成为如同保禄所说的：「生活、圣洁和悦乐天主的祭品」。接着宗徒又补充说，我们不可与此世同化，但应以更新的心思变化自己，为能「辨别什么是天主的事，什么是善事，什么是悦乐天主的事，什么是成全的事」(参阅罗十二1-2)。
聆听基督并朝拜他，引领我们做出勇敢的抉择，采取一些崇高的决定。耶稣的要求很高，因为他希望我们有真正的幸福。他召叫某些人放弃一切跟随他，度圣职或奉献生活。那些听到这邀请的，必不害怕回答「是」，并慷慨地跟随他，成为门徒。但除了那些特殊形式的奉献使命，所有受过洗的基督徒也都有特定的圣召：平凡的基督徒也有一项「高标准」，那就是在日常生活中成圣(参阅《新千年的开始》31)。当我们与基督相遇，接受他的福音，生命就此改变，而我们也受到驱迫，要与他人分享我们的经验。
我们当代仍有许多人还不认识天主的爱，也有人试图用微不足取的替代品填满他们的心。因此我们迫切需要去为基督内默观的爱做见证。各位尚未领洗或不认同教会的亲爱的朋友，我们也邀请你参与世界青年日。或许你也渴望着「绝对」(the Absolute)，也在寻找某个能使你的生活有意义的事物？请转向基督，你必不会失望。
7. 亲爱的青年朋友，为新福传，教会需要真实的见证：因为与耶稣相遇而改变生命、以及能够与他人分享自己经验的男女人士。教会需要圣人。所有人都受召成圣，仅靠圣洁的人就可使人类更新。在我们之先，已有许多人踏上福音的英雄之路，我要敦促你们时常祈求他们的代祷。在科隆的聚会，你们将更熟悉其中几位，如德国的使徒圣玻尼法(St. Boniface)，科隆的诸位圣人，特别是乌苏拉(Ursula)、圣雅伯(Albert the Great)、埃迪特．施泰因(Edith Stein)和真福阿道夫．科平(Adolph Kolping)。我要特别指出圣雅伯和埃迪特．施泰因，他们的内心就如同贤士们一样，热切地追求真理。他们毫不犹豫地将自己的聪明才智奉献于信仰，因而证明理性与信仰原是相连且彼此寻求的。
我亲爱的年轻朋友，当你们的心神走向科隆时，教宗也以他的祈祷伴随你们。愿玛利亚－－「感恩圣事的圣母」与上智之母，一路支持你们，光照你们的抉择，教导你们喜爱真善美。愿她领你们到她圣子前，唯独他能满足人心最深处的渴望。
愿主降福你们！
若望保禄二世
冈道尔夫堡，2004年8月6日
下为文告的英文版：
My dear young people!
1. This year we have celebrated the 19th World Youth Day, meditating on the desire expressed by some Greeks who had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover: "We wish to see Jesus" (Jn 12:21). And here we are now, making our way to Cologne where, in August 2005, the 20th World Youth Day is to be celebrated.
"We have come to worship him" (Mt 2:2): this is the theme of the next World Youth Day. It is a theme that enables young people from every continent to follow in spirit the path taken by the Magi whose relics, according to a pious tradition, are venerated in this very city, and to meet, as they did, the Messiah of all nations.
It is true to say that the light of Christ had already opened the minds and the hearts of the Magi. "They went their way" (Mt 2:9), says the Evangelist, setting out boldly along unknown paths on a long, and by no means easy, journey. They did not hesitate to leave everything behind in order to follow the star that they had seen in the East (cf Mt 2:2). Imitating the Magi, you young people are also making preparations to set out on a "journey" from every region of the world to go to Cologne. It is important for you not only to concern yourselves with the practical arrangements for World Youth Day, but first of all you must carefully prepare yourselves spiritually, in an atmosphere of faith and listening to the Word of God.
2. "And the star... went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was" (Mt 2:9). The Magi reached Bethlehem because they had obediently allowed themselves to be guided by the star. Indeed, "When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy" (Mt 2:10). It is important, my dear friends, to learn to observe the signs with which God is calling us and guiding us. When we are conscious of being led by Him, our heart experiences authentic and deep joy as well as a powerful desire to meet Him and a persevering strength to follow Him obediently.
"And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother" (Mt 2:11). There is nothing extraordinary about this at first sight. Yet that Child was different from any other: He is the only Son of God, yet He emptied Himself of His glory (cf Phil 2:7) and came to earth to die on the Cross. He came down among us and became poor in order to reveal to us His divine glory, which we shall contemplate fully in heaven, our blessed home.
Who could have invented a greater sign of love? We are left in awe before the mystery of a God who lowered himself to take on our human condition, to the point of giving His life for us on the Cross (cf Phil 2:6-8). In His poverty, - as Saint Paul reminds us - "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9), and came to offer salvation to sinners. How can we give thanks to God for such magnanimous goodness?
3. The Magi found Jesus at "Bêth-lehem" which means "house of bread". In the humble stable in Bethlehem on some straw lay the "grain of wheat" who, by dying, would bring forth "much fruit" (cf Jn 12:24). When speaking of Himself and His saving mission in the course of His public life, Jesus would later use the image of bread. He would say "I am the bread of life", "I am the bread which came down from heaven", "the bread that I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh". (Jn 6: 35.41.51).
Faithfully pursuing the path of our Redeemer from the poverty of the Crib to His abandonment on the Cross we can better understand the mystery of His love which redeems humanity. The Child, laid by Mary in the manger, is the Man-God we shall see nailed to the Cross. The same Redeemer is present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. In the stable at Bethlehem He allowed himself to be worshipped under the humble outward appearances of a newborn baby, by Mary, by Joseph and by the shepherds; in the consecrated Host we adore Him sacramentally present in his body, blood, soul and godhead, and He offers himself to us as the food of eternal life. The Mass then becomes a truly loving encounter with the One who gave himself wholly for us. Do not hesitate, my dear young friends, to respond to Him when He invites you "to the wedding feast of the Lamb (cf Rev 19:9). Listen to him, prepare yourselves properly and draw close to the Sacrament of the Altar, particularly in this Year of the Eucharist (October 2004-2005) which I have proclaimed for the whole Church.
4. "They fell down and worshipped Him" (Mt 2:11). While the Magi acknowledged and worshipped the baby that Mary cradled in her arms as the One awaited by the nations and foretold by prophets, today we can also worship Him in the Eucharist, and acknowledge Him as our Creator, our only Lord and Saviour.
"Opening their treasures they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh" (Mt 2:11). The gifts that the Magi offered the Messiah symbolised true worship. With gold, they emphasised His Royal Godhead; with incense, they acknowledged Him as the priest of the New Covenant; by offering Him myrrh, they celebrated the prophet who would shed His own blood to reconcile humanity with the Father.
My dear young people, you too offer to the Lord the gold of your lives, namely, your freedom to follow Him out of love, responding faithfully to His call; let the incense of your fervent prayer rise up to him, in praise of His glory; offer Him your myrrh, that is your affection of total gratitude to Him, true Man, who loved us to the point of dying as a criminal on Golgotha.
5. Be worshippers of the only true God, giving Him pride of place in your lives! Idolatry is an ever-present temptation. Sadly, there are those who seek the solution to their problems in religious practices that are incompatible with the Christian faith. There is a strong urge to believe in the facile myths of success and power; it is dangerous to accept the fleeting ideas of the sacred which present God in the form of cosmic energy, or in any other manner that is inconsistent with Catholic teaching.
My dear young people, do not yield to false illusions and passing fads which so frequently leave behind a tragic spiritual vacuum! Reject the seduction of wealth, consumerism and the subtle violence sometimes used by the mass media.
Worshipping the true God is an authentic act of resistance to all forms of idolatry. Worship Christ: He is the Rock on which to build your future and a world of greater justice and solidarity. Jesus is the Prince of peace: the source of forgiveness and reconciliation, who can make brothers and sisters of all the members of the human family.
6. "And they departed to their own country by another way" (Mt 2:12). The Gospel tells us that after their meeting with Christ, the Magi returned home "by another way". This change of route can symbolise the conversion to which all those who encounter Jesus are called, in order to become the true worshippers that He desires (cf Jn 4: 23-24). This entails imitating the way He acted by becoming, as the apostle Paul writes, "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God". The apostle then adds that we must not be conformed to the mentality of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds, to "prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (cf Rm 12: 1-2).
Listening to Christ and worshipping Him leads us to make courageous choices, to take what are sometimes heroic decisions. Jesus is demanding, because He wishes our genuine happiness. He calls some to give up everything to follow Him in the priestly or consecrated life. Those who hear this invitation must not be afraid to say "yes" and to generously set about following Him as His disciples. But in addition to vocations to special forms of consecration there is also the specific vocation of all baptised Christians: that is also a vocation to that "high standard" of ordinary Christian living which is expressed in holiness (cf Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31). When we meet Christ and accept His Gospel, life changes and we are driven to communicate our experience to others.
There are so many of our contemporaries who do not yet know the love of God or who are seeking to fill their hearts with trifling substitutes. It is therefore urgently necessary for us to be witnesses to love contemplated in Christ. The invitation to take part in World Youth Day is also extended to you, dear friends, who are not baptised or who do not identify with the Church. Are you not perhaps yearning for the Absolute and in search of "something" to give a meaning to your lives? Turn to Christ and you will not be let down.
7. Dear young people, the Church needs genuine witnesses for the new evangelisation: men and women whose lives have been transformed by meeting with Jesus, men and women who are capable of communicating this experience to others. The Church needs saints. All are called to holiness, and holy people alone can renew humanity. Many have gone before us along this path of Gospel heroism, and I urge you to turn often to them to pray for their intercession. By meeting in Cologne you will learn to become better acquainted with some of them, such as St Boniface, the apostle of Germany, the Saints of Cologne, and in particular Ursula, Albert the Great, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and Blessed Adolph Kolping. Of these I would like to specifically mention St Albert and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who, with the same interior attitude as the Magi, were passionate seekers after the truth. They had no hesitation in placing their intellectual abilities at the service of the faith, thereby demonstrating that faith and reason are linked and seek each other.
My dear young people as you move forward in spirit towards Cologne, the pope will accompany you with his prayers. May Mary, "Eucharistic woman" and Mother of Wisdom, support you along the way, enlighten your decisions, and teach you to love what is true, good and beautiful. May she lead you all to her Son, who alone can satisfy the innermost yearnings of the human mind and heart.
Go with my blessing!
Castel Gandolfo, 6 August 2004