"Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was a young man, said that one must live, not get by"
[...]
Some think it is better to turn off this impulse – the impulse to live – because it is dangerous. I would like to say, especially to young people: our worst enemy is not concrete problems, however serious and dramatic: life's greatest danger is a bad spirit of adaptation which is not meekness or humility, but mediocrity, pusillanimity. Is a mediocre young man a young man with a future or not? No! He stays there, he doesn't grow, he won't be successful. Mediocrity or pusillanimity. Those young people who are afraid of everything: “No, I'm like this…”. These young people will not go forward. Meekness, strength and no pusillanimity, no mediocrity. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - who was a young man - said that one must live, not get by. The mediocre get by. Live with the power of life. We need to ask the heavenly Father for the gift of healthy restlessness for today's young people. But, at home, in your homes, in every family, when you see a young person sitting all day, sometimes mum and dad think: "But this guy is sick, he has something", and they take him to the doctor. The young person's life is to go forward, to be restless, healthy restlessness, the ability not to settle for a life without beauty, without color. If young people are not hungry for authentic life, I wonder where will humanity go? Where will humanity go with young people who are quiet and not restless?
The question of that man of the Gospel that we have heard is within each of us: how do we find life, life in abundance, happiness? Jesus replies: "You know the commandments" (v. 19), and quotes a part of the Decalogue. It is a pedagogical process, with which Jesus wants to lead to a precise place; in fact it is already clear from his question that that man does not have a full life, he seeks more and is restless. So what is he to understand? He says: "Teacher, all these things I have observed from my youth" (v. 20).
How does one go from youth to maturity? When you start to accept your limits. We become adults when we relativize ourselves and become aware of "what is missing" (cf. v. 21). This man is forced to recognize that everything he can "do" does not exceed a "ceiling", does not go beyond a margin.
How beautiful it is to be men and women! How precious is our existence! Yet there is a truth that in the history of recent centuries man has often rejected, with tragic consequences: the truth of his limitations.
[...]
Pope Francis June 13, 2018
«Let's not say that today it is more difficult;
it's different. Let's learn rather
by the saints who have gone before us
and they faced the difficulties
characteristic of their era".