Pope tells youths Jesus didn't promise earthly immortality

Published: 2008-03-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The abundant life Jesus promised is not immortality on earth or heaps of nice things, but rather it is an eternal relationship with God, who is infinite love, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Imagine that medicine was able to come up with a prescription for immortality," the pope told young people gathered for Mass March 9 at the Church of St. Lawrence, just off St. Peter's Square. If such a pill existed, he said, biological life would go on and on; "we would find ourselves in an old world, a world full of the aged, a world that would not have space for the young, for the renewal of life." He said, "This cannot be the type of immortality to which we aspire; this is not the possibility of drinking at the fountain of life that we all desire." Pope Benedict celebrated Mass at St. Lawrence to mark the 25th anniversary of the church's dedication as an international youth center. The youth section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity coordinates activities at the church, international students studying in Rome gather for Mass there each Friday night, and a program to train young evangelists is operated by the French-founded Emmanuel Community.

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