亲爱的青年朋友！
1. 记得公元2000年大禧年的世界青年日，我们在罗马共度了美好的时刻，当时的情景至今仍历历在目。各位曾到宗徒伯多禄和保禄的墓前朝圣，你们肃静地排着长长的队伍通过圣门，幷准备领受和好圣事；还有在杜维嘉(Tor Vergata)大学的守夜祈祷及清晨弥撒，这些都加深了你们的灵修精神以及对教会的深刻体验；你们带着焕然一新的信德回家，承担起我交托给你们的使命：在新的千年的开始，勇敢地为福音做见证。
现在，世界青年日已成为你们生命中以及教会生命中很重要的一部分。第十七届世界青年日即将于明年(2002年)夏天在加拿大的多伦多举行。因此我邀请各位对此一重要的国际性集会预做准备。这是一个新的机会使你们与基督会晤、为他在今日社会中的临在作证，幷成为「爱与真理的文明」的建筑师。
2.「你们是地上的盐……，你们是世界的光」(玛五13-14)：这是我为下届世界青年日所选的主题。耶稣比喻中的光和盐有丰富的意义，而且二者相辅相成，有互补的作用。在古时候，盐和光都被视为是生命中不可缺少的要素。
「你们是地上的盐……」。盐的一项主要功用是调味，让食物好吃、有味道。这个图像提醒我们，借着圣洗，我们的整个生命都深深地改变了，这是因为由于基督所赋予的新生命而有了「浓郁的味道」(参阅罗六4)。盐能使基督徒即使在十分世俗化的世界里仍能完好保持其身份。盐是使我们获得重生的圣洗恩宠，使我们生活在基督内，也能答复祂的召叫，「献上我们的身体，当作生活、圣洁和悦乐天主的祭品」(罗十二1)。圣保禄在写给罗马基督徒的书信中，敦促他们明白地表现出来，他们的生活和思想方式有别于同时代的人：「不可与此世同化，反而应以新的心思变化自己，为使你们能辨别什么是天主的旨意，什么是善事，什么是悦乐天主的事，什么是成全的事」(罗十二2)。
长久以来，盐也用来保存食物。各位是地上的盐，受召保存你们所接受的信仰，幷将它完好无缺地传给人。你们这一世代以特殊的方式受到要求，要妥善保全你们的信仰(参阅得后二15；弟前六20；弟后一14)。
各位务必要去探索你们的基督徒根源，了解教会历史，务必去深入认识你所承受的灵修传统，跟随前辈和教师！只有忠实遵守天主的诫命，信守基督以他在十字架上倾流的圣血所确立的盟约，你们才能成为新千年的使徒与见证人。
追求那位绝对者(the Absolute)，追求生命的意义和圆满，是人类的天性，尤其是年轻人的天性。亲爱的年轻人，不要以那些次等的理想为满足！不要因为某些人对生命的失望与漠视心灵深处最真实的渴望，而感到气馁。你们理所当然地要排拒空洞贫乏的娱乐、昙花一现的流行事物和目光短浅的生涯规画。如果你能热切渴望天主，就能幸免于那遍存在我们社会上的甘于平庸及因循苟且的心态。
3. 「你们是世界的光……」。对那许多从起初就听到耶稣宣讲的人，一如对我们来说，「光」的标志会激发人追寻真理，渴求知识的圆满，这些都是早已铭刻在每个人心田深处的渴望。当「光」逐渐暗淡或完全消失时，我们再看不到周遭事物的真面貌。在深夜里，我们感到恐惧不安，我们焦躁地等待黎明的来临。亲爱的年轻人，做守护黎明的警卫(参阅依廿一11-12)就全靠你们了，你们要宣告旭日的来临，也就是复活基督的来临！
耶稣在福音中所说的光，是指信仰的光，是天主白白赏赐的恩宠，它能光照人心，使心灵清澈。「那吩咐『从黑暗中放射出光』的天主，曾经用光照亮我们的内心，使我们认识他那照耀在耶稣基督脸上的光辉」(格后四6)。所以下面这段耶稣用来说明他身份和使命的话，才会这么重要：「我是世界的光，跟随我的，决不在黑暗中行走，必有生命的光」(若八12)。我们个人与基督的会晤，使生命浸浴在新的光明中，引领我们走上正确的路途，幷派遣我们去为他作证。从基督而来的对世界及对人们的新看法，使我们能更深入信仰的奥秘，这信仰幷不是一大堆要人接受和赞同的理论性的主张，而是一种要去体会的经验、一个要生活出来的真理、一切现实事物的盐和光(参阅《真理的光辉》88)。
在今天这个世俗化的时代，许多跟我们同时代的人表现在思想与行动上的，不是认为天主不存在，就是受各种非理性的宗教吸引，各位亲爱的年轻人，你们应该站出来，表明信仰是个人的决定，而且关系到人的整个生命。让福音成为你生命中做决定和计划时的准则及指南！那么借着你的言语与行为，你是一位传道者，不论你住在哪里，在哪里工作，你都会成为天主爱的标记，为耶稣基督慈爱的临在做可靠的证人。千万不要忘记：「人点灯，幷不是放在斗底下」(玛五15)！
盐能使食物有味，光能照亮黑暗，同样，圣德能使生命充满意义，使生命反映出天主的光荣。在教会史上，我们可以数出多少圣人，尤其是年轻圣人！由于他们对天主的爱，他们可贵的德行在世人前照耀，因此教会以他们为众人效法的楷模。在此我们只举出其中少数几位的名字：罗马的依搦斯、埔延的安德、加伦索的伯多、巴奇大的若瑟芬、里修的小德兰、佛拉撒的皮耶乔治、加洛马塞、艾方济加斯道，还有那位人称「莫霍克的百合花」的德卡维塔[译者注]。亲爱的年轻人，透过这群无数的证人的代祷，我祈求至圣的天主也使你们成为第三个千年的圣人！
4. 亲爱的年轻朋友，是我们为第十七届世界青年日做好准备的时候了。我请各位研读《新千年的开始》文告，这是我在今年年初发表的，为陪伴所有基督徒踏上教会及人类生命中的新阶段：「一个新的世纪、新的千年，正在基督的光照下展开。但不是每个人都看得见这光。把这光反射出来，是我们的使命；这个使命虽美好，要求却很严苛」(54号)。是的，是履行使命的时候了！在你的教区和堂区、在你参加的各种运动、善会和团体中，基督在召唤你；教会欢迎你，她是共融与祈祷的家庭、学校。请深入研读天主圣言，让圣言启发照亮你的心灵思想！从和好圣事及圣体圣事中汲取力量！请参加朝拜圣体，那是拜访天主，与天主的亲密接触、倾心交谈。这样，日复一日，你会获得新的力量，去安慰受苦者，去缔造世界和平。许多人的生命受到伤害：他们被排除在经济成长之外，没有居室、没有家人、没有工作；有些人迷失在充满虚幻假像的世界中，或是放弃了一切希望。借着默观复活基督面容上闪耀的光辉，你要学习像「光明之子和白日之子」(得前五5)那样生活；向所有的人证明「光明所结的果实，就是各种良善、正义和诚实」(弗五9)。
5. 亲爱的青年朋友，多伦多在等着所有能够参加下届世界青年日的朋友！在那个多元文化、多种信仰的都市中心，我们要宣讲基督是人类的唯一救主、救恩的普世性，而教会则是这救恩的圣事。上主十分渴望「他们都合而为一」(若十七11)，为答复上主热切的邀请，我们要祈求所有基督徒都能在真理和爱德中完全共融。
来吧！使多伦多的各大街道响彻喜乐的讯息：基督爱每一个人；祂要使在这人类城市中所发现的真、善、美都能充分地发展。来吧！告诉世人，你在与耶稣基督的相遇中找到快乐幸福，你渴望更认识他；也告诉世人，你要献身宣扬救恩的福音，直到天涯海角！加拿大的青年与他们的主教及市府当局，已准备以最温暖最殷勤的心来迎接各位。为此我衷心感谢他们。愿在新的千年第一次举行的世界青年日，能给所有的人带来信望爱的信息！我的祝福与你们相偕，我幷将你们每一个人，连同你们的召叫与使命都托付在教会之母玛利亚手中。
二○○一年七月廿五日 发自梵蒂冈夏宫
若望保禄二世
文告英文版：
Dear Young People!
1. I have vivid memories of the wonderful moments we shared in Rome during the Jubilee of the Year 2000, when you came on pilgrimage to the Tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. In long silent lines you passed through the Holy Door and prepared to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation; then the Evening Vigil and Morning Mass at Tor Vergata were moments of intense spirituality and a deep experience of the Church; with renewed faith, you went home to undertake the mission I entrusted to you: to become, at the dawn of the new millennium, fearless witnesses to the Gospel.
By now World Youth Day has become an important part of your life and of the life of the Church. I invite you therefore to get ready for the seventeenth celebration of this great international event, to be held in Toronto, Canada, in the summer of next year. It will be another chance to meet Christ, to bear witness to his presence in today’s society, and to become builders of the "civilization of love and truth".
2. "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world" (Mt 5:13-14): this is the theme I have chosen for the next World Youth Day. The images of salt and light used by Jesus are rich in meaning and complement each other. In ancient times, salt and light were seen as essential elements of life.
"You are the salt of the earth...". One of the main functions of salt is to season food, to give it taste and flavour. This image reminds us that, through Baptism, our whole being has been profoundly changed, because it has been "seasoned" with the new life which comes from Christ (cf. Rom 6:4). The salt which keeps our Christian identity intact even in a very secularized world is the grace of Baptism. Through Baptism we are re-born. We begin to live in Christ and become capable of responding to his call to "offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom 12:1). Writing to the Christians of Rome, Saint Paul urges them to show clearly that their way of living and thinking was different from that of their contemporaries: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Rom 12:2).
For a long time, salt was also used to preserve food. As the salt of the earth, you are called to preserve the faith which you have received and to pass it on intact to others. Your generation is being challenged in a special way to keep safe the deposit of faith (cf. 2 Th 2:15; 1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:14).
Discover your Christian roots, learn about the Church’s history, deepen your knowledge of the spiritual heritage which has been passed on to you, follow in the footsteps of the witnesses and teachers who have gone before you! Only by staying faithful to God’s commandments, to the Covenant which Christ sealed with his blood poured out on the Cross, will you be the apostles and witnesses of the new millennium.
It is the nature of human beings, and especially youth, to seek the Absolute, the meaning and fullness of life. Dear young people, do not be content with anything less than the highest ideals! Do not let yourselves be dispirited by those who are disillusioned with life and have grown deaf to the deepest and most authentic desires of their heart. You are right to be disappointed with hollow entertainment and passing fads, and with aiming at too little in life. If you have an ardent desire for the Lord you will steer clear of the mediocrity and conformism so widespread in our society.
3. "You are the light of the world...". For those who first heard Jesus, as for us, the symbol of light evokes the desire for truth and the thirst for the fullness of knowledge which are imprinted deep within every human being.
When the light fades or vanishes altogether, we no longer see things as they really are. In the heart of the night we can feel frightened and insecure, and we impatiently await the coming of the light of dawn. Dear young people, it is up to you to be the watchmen of the morning (cf. Is 21:11-12) who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ!
The light which Jesus speaks of in the Gospel is the light of faith, God’s free gift, which enlightens the heart and clarifies the mind. "It is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). That is why the words of Jesus explaining his identity and his mission are so important: "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (Jn 8:12).
Our personal encounter with Christ bathes life in new light, sets us on the right path, and sends us out to be his witnesses. This new way of looking at the world and at people, which comes to us from him, leads us more deeply into the mystery of faith, which is not just a collection of theoretical assertions to be accepted and approved by the mind, but an experience to be had, a truth to be lived, the salt and light of all reality (cf. Veritatis Splendor, 88).
In this secularized age, when many of our contemporaries think and act as if God did not exist or are attracted to irrational forms of religion, it is you, dear young people, who must show that faith is a personal decision which involves your whole life. Let the Gospel be the measure and guide of life’s decisions and plans! Then you will be missionaries in all that you do and say, and wherever you work and live you will be signs of God’s love, credible witnesses to the loving presence of Jesus Christ. Never forget: "No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bushel" (Mt 5:15)!
Just as salt gives flavour to food and light illumines the darkness, so too holiness gives full meaning to life and makes it reflect God’s glory. How many saints, especially young saints, can we count in the Church’s history! In their love for God their heroic virtues shone before the world, and so they became models of life which the Church has held up for imitation by all. Let us remember only a few of them: Agnes of Rome, Andrew of Phú Yên, Pedro Calungsod, Josephine Bakhita, Thérèse of Lisieux, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Marcel Callo, Francisco Castelló Aleu or again Kateri Tekakwitha, the young Iroquois called "the Lily of the Mohawks". Through the intercession of this great host of witnesses, may God make you too, dear young people, the saints of the third millennium!
4. Dear friends, it is time to get ready for the Seventeenth World Youth Day. I invite you to read and study the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, which I wrote at the beginning of the year to accompany all Christians on this new stage of the life of the Church and humanity: "A new century, a new millennium are opening in the light of Christ. But not everyone can see this light. Ours is the wonderful and demanding task of becoming its ‘reflection’" (No. 54).
Yes, now is the time for mission! In your Dioceses and parishes, in your movements, associations and communities, Christ is calling you. The Church welcomes you and wishes to be your home and your school of communion and prayer. Study the Word of God and let it enlighten your minds and hearts. Draw strength from the sacramental grace of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Visit the Lord in that "heart to heart" contact that is Eucharistic Adoration. Day after day, you will receive new energy to help you to bring comfort to the suffering and peace to the world. Many people are wounded by life: they are excluded from economic progress, and are without a home, a family, a job; there are people who are lost in a world of false illusions, or have abandoned all hope. By contemplating the light radiant on the face of the Risen Christ, you will learn to live as "children of the light and children of the day" (1 Th 5:5), and in this way you will show that "the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true" (Eph 5:9).
5. Dear young friends, Toronto is waiting for all of you who can make it! In the heart of a multi-cultural and multi-faith city, we shall speak of Christ as the one Saviour and proclaim the universal salvation of which the Church is the sacrament. In response to the pressing invitation of the Lord who ardently desires "that all may be one" (Jn 17:11), we shall pray for full communion among Christians in truth and charity.
Come, and make the great avenues of Toronto resound with the joyful tidings that Christ loves every person and brings to fulfilment every trace of goodness, beauty and truth found in the city of man. Come, and tell the world of the happiness you have found in meeting Jesus Christ, of your desire to know him better, of how you are committed to proclaiming the Gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth!
The young people of Canada, together with their Bishops and the civil authorities, are already preparing to welcome you with great warmth and hospitality. For this I thank them all from my heart. May this first World Youth Day of the new millennium bring to everyone a message of faith, hope and love!
My blessing goes with you. And to Mary Mother of the Church I entrust each one of you, your vocation and your mission.
From Castel Gandolfo, 25 July 2001