Pope Francis reminded young people in Hungary that Jesus Christ does not want his disciples to be passive “couch potatoes,” but rather active agents of change.
In his meeting with young people in a Budapest sports arena, Pope Francis outlined his vision of the type of followers Jesus desires, urging his audience to aim high and dream big.
Jesus “does not want his disciples to be like schoolchildren who merely repeat lessons learned, but young people who are free and press ahead,” the pope told them, because God “is attentive to their dreams.”
Making mistakes is okay, the pope insisted, but the important thing is to keep moving forward.
“Jesus wants us to accomplish great things,” Francis said. “He doesn’t want us to be lazy couch potatoes; he doesn’t want us to be quiet and timid; instead, he wants us to be alive, active, ready to take charge and make history.”
Moreover, Christ “never disparages our expectations but, on the contrary, raises the bar of our desires,” he added, because the prize goes to the bold.
Referring to a passage from the gospel where two of Christ’s apostles, James and John, ask Him to allow them to sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom, the pope noted that Jesus “does not rebuke them for their audacity.”
Jesus “does not shatter their ambitions,” Francis asserted, “but corrects them about the right way to achieve them.”
“He accepts their desire for greatness, which is good,” he continued, but he insists “it is not by stepping upon others that we become great, but by stooping to help them.”
Success in life is achieved just as it is in athletics, Francis contended: “First, aim high, then train.”