This saying, which tries to encourage young people “to be themselves,” runs the risk of not taking into account the ambiguity of the expression and the dangers which it contains; for the fundamental reality for a Christian is living the life of Christ, not his own (Gal 2:20).

          Man only is himself when, forgetting about that which is his own, he comes out of himself and loses (surrenders) his own life out of love. This Doctrine belongs specifically to Christianity; it is not a sort of truth evident in itself (per se nota). Therefore, if it is not adequately explained, young people are in danger of understanding the expression “be yourself” in a purely human fashion, without any of the supernatural connotations with which Revelation has enriched the concepts of love and man.

          They may try to make more palatable the Catholic doctrine, which in itself is difficult, by stressing what sounds pleasant and is fashionable more than the true content of its principles, whose supernatural essence is silenced; but, in doing so, they ignore two things: first, that the only result they have accomplished is to have mutilated and, to the same extent, falsified that doctrine; secondly, that not even then have they made that doctrine more appealing. At first sight, it could seem that the System has been successful in presenting Catholic doctrine as something now more easily accomplished. But the procedure is useless because it deprives that doctrine of both its content and, to the same extent, its true charming beauty; and this is particularly important when dealing with young people, since it has been established that only men of violence take the Kingdom of Heaven by force (Mt 11:12).

          Catholic Pastoral activity must convince itself that the method of divesting the Gospel from its sharpness and biting strength, so that the world may accept it, is ineffective and dangerous. Christianity is a veritable novelty, so much so that to the extent it is no longer a novelty, to that same extent it ceases to be Christianity. When Christianity loses its most appealing characteristic, it no longer seduces men –especially young people, who are precisely the ones more attracted by novelties. It is urgent, then, that the Pastoral activity with Young People is not led by the old in spirit, who, all too often, tend to have no faith in Young People. Certain slogans, like the ones used at the Council of Young People held in Taizé shortly before Vatican II, clearly demonstrate the manipulation that some adults have made of the Pastoral activity with Young People: young people would have thought of many ways to describe their gathering, but Council would never have been one of them. This behavior of those adults can hardly evade accusations of being demagogical, for they seem to think that their approach is the only one that pleases the youth: according to them, young people cannot understand or accept anything different. Those adults forget that, commonly speaking, young people do not like to be themselves; most of the time, they rather want to be different –including those who have accepted their own defeat (those without roots, drug addicts, those enslaved by alcohol or sex) as well as those who protest against the world by taking it as a joke. Those adults do not understand that what really seduces young people is searching for someone other (with upper or lower case letters) whose finding will presumably make them different and quite capable of changing the world. It is simplicity to believe that the rebellion of the Youth only refers to the world in which they live; one must realize that the Youngsters have always included themselves among the things they complain about. The True Youth, that is, the truly rebellious Youth, has never been happy with itself; hence the first thing it has brought into question has been its situation and its way of life. We should never forget this lest we approach Young People with rather naïve ideas more suitable for older and mediocre people totally estranged to the way Young People think. To believe that Young People are not able to accept an unmitigated, completely supernatural-in-content Christianity is to do them no justice; rather, it underestimates them. It seems as if some people, feeling themselves withered with age and quite hopeless,  are unable to believe in a young and resolute Faith, notwithstanding their public claims to the contrary. Their attitude is very different from the stance taken by the Apostle Saint John, who firmly believed in the Young People: I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the Wicked one (1 Jn 2:14).