MANILA, Jan. 18, 2015—During the time when access to information is just at the touch of one’s fingertips and everything is accessible, Pope Francis on Sunday called on young Filipinos to “learn how to love” so they may use the advantages of technological innovations to touch the lives of those who are poor and suffering.
The Holy Father said the almost unlimited information at the fingertips of the present generation could only make sense through love – the kind that uses knowledge for the benefit of others.
Pope Francis joins in the animation of the World Youth Day (WYD) ’95 during the Encounter with the Youth held at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST). (Photo: Leslie Boado)
The love that surprises
“This is the challenge that life offers you—to learn how to love. Not just to accumulate information without knowing what to do with it, but to let that information bear fruit through love,” the Pope said during his encounter with the youth held at the University of Santo Tomas.
According to the pontiff it is difficult to be “surprised by love” if one only has information.
“Love surprises because it opens a dialogue of loving and being loved. God is a God of surprise because He loved us first. God awaits us to surprise us,” he added.
“Real love is being open to the love that comes to you. The love that surprises us,” he explained.
The Pontiff noted the importance of opening oneself to love, saying that it is one’s openness to this emotion that bears true happiness among the faithful.
“Real love is about loving and letting yourself be loved. It’s harder to let yourself be loved than to love. That is why it is so difficult to come to the perfect love of God,” he added.
Young museums
Pope Francis warned the youth, however, saying that despite the good brought by modern technology, it becomes a source of “danger”, especially when the faithful does not know how to process the information they acquire.
“Today, with so many means of communication, we are overloaded with information. Is that bad? No. It is good and can help. But there is a real danger of living in a way that we accumulate information,” he said.
“We have so much information but maybe we don’t know what to do with that information,” he added.
The Pontiff stressed that such danger, when unmitigated, could result to the creation of “young museums” who have everything in their hands, but do not know what to do with them.
“We don’t need young museums. [What we need are] holy young people,” he said. (Jennifer M. Orillaza/CBCP News)
