For several years now, we staff members of New City have been invited by several educational institutions to give talks and facilitate recollections and retreats to their students, faculty, and staff. This year alone, we have reached about 10,000 young people. In these encounters with the youth, we get a glimpse of the problems they are facing.

And they are quite urgent. For example, in a public school in a rural area, people have been alarmed by actual suicides and attempted ones by several students and even a teacher. Reports attribute them to anxiety and depression from breakdown in relationships or heavy workload. In many schools, there are cases of teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, student rebellion, Internet addiction, and a host of other youth issues.

What is alarming is how our political, and even religious leaders, are responding to these problems. Instilling fear of punishment or merely being “critical” will never help in creating a healthy relationship with the youth.

“Tokhang” (knock and persuade to surrender or stop using/selling drugs) by law enforcers may seem effective at first in keeping peace and order, yet in the end, its abuses create more sufferings and complexities in the life of communities and families to whom institutions and policymakers have a deep moral responsibility.

We have seen how abortion never was a solution to teenage pregnancy as proven by experience for it inflicts deeper wounds of a psychological nature on the girl. Abortion has its roots in the contraceptive mentality, a way of life that is egoistic and leads to absolving responsibility for children conceived. Furthermore, it also promotes a sense of being used and generates a sense of emptiness about life.

Often parents desire the best for their children to the point that they almost do everything for them, thus not allowing them to do things they can do for themselves or worst, not allowing them to undergo any difficulty or to have problems. Problems and difficulties are normal challenges in life and if we never let our children undergo these, they could never be forged to be stronger persons in character and personality.

Obviously, there’s a need to go back to our roots. We need to inculcate in our children true values by living them and being role models for them including how to choose wholesome ways of having fun or experiencing simple joys.

But in these encounters with young people, we also find the solutions in them. For example, a boy caught up in a “viral sex scandal” who wanted to end his life, sought refuge in prayer and in a caring school community, and turned to his family and friends for help. Or a pregnant teenage girl who promised to raise her child, and continue to pursue her dream of getting a college degree and later on landing a good job with the support of a caring working environment.

The journeying together of adults and youths helps both generations find “the truest nature of humanity” and their fulfillment as human persons. This is what Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit enjoins adults to do: accompany the youth. Neither violence nor death is a solution to present-day issues, no matter how big they may be. So what do we offer as an alternative?

In the series of talks given and activities done with young people, we have always pointed out three themes: the rediscovery of being loved (beloved) by God, being a gift for others in the present moment by doing God’s will as a response to God’s immense love (gifted) and being capable of changing oneself and one’s environment (empowered) by living Christ’s new commandment of love through the Art of Loving. Thus, we are glad to be in synergy with the local Church’s theme for this Year of the Youth.

We have seen the huge impact of such themes on the youth for these help them to be rooted in and rediscover their identity as loving persons created in God’s image. But there is also a need for continuity in their experience of God’s love in their schools, communities, and families. In this way, Christus Vivit will be a reality… Christ will truly be alive in our midst and will continue to shed light on the darkness that often obscures our vision of God’s creation.

This is the challenge that our Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and Christian families are tasked with: to be a local Church or cell of communion that generates the presence of Christ among them, a people who constantly live their being beloved, gifted and empowered by God.

By striving to live Jesus’ commandment to love by being ready to lay down their lives for one another, our BECs and families will experience the power of God’s loving presence among them. He alone can heal our wounded youth, our divided nation, and can hasten the coming of a world where all people live as one family.