Mission is a sure target for life’s journey, but not a “satellite navigation system” which lays out the whole route in advance. Freedom always entails a dimension of risk which needs to be evaluated with courage and accompanied wisely, according to the “law of graduality”. Many pages in the Gospel portray Jesus inviting us to be daring, to put out into the deep, to pass from the logic of following commandments to that of generous and unconditional gift, without concealing the requirement to take up one’s cross (cf. Mt 16:24). He is radical: “He gives all and he asks all: he gives a love that is total and asks for an undivided heart” (Francis, Homily, 14 October 2018). Without misleading the young through minimalist proposals or overwhelming them with a body of rules that give Christianity a reductive and moralistic image, we are called to invest in their fearlessness and to educate them to take on their responsibilities, in the sure knowledge that error, failure and crisis are experiences that can strengthen their humanity.
TheoFonsAt the sources of the faith