Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli has delivered the homily at the closing commissioning mass for the Australian Catholic Youth Festival at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This is the full text:

There is only one place in the Gospels where Jesus unashamedly lets loose in all his joy, and we have just heard it.

As the gospel began,

 Filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, Jesus said: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to [these little ones].’

It was not a group of Preps or pre-schoolers Jesus was rejoicing over. Those ‘little ones’ he was speaking of were his disciples, who had gathered around him on returning from their pilgrimages out into the towns around Galilee.

Jesus had sent them there to announce the closeness of God’s kingdom among the people. They had now returned with the power of God’s Spirit flowing through them. Their elation was so infectious Jesus was overcome with his own outburst of joy.

The ‘little ones’ of Jesus’ joy were – and are – those who were open enough, trusting enough, humble enough to receive the gift of God’s Spirit.​

They were not those with the impressive CVs. They were – and are – those who had become his friends and disciples.

In other words, Jesus was – and is – rejoicing over people like you. Not because you have everything sorted out, but because you have set out on the journey with him: open-hearted, on the way, willing to be saints among the Saints of God’s pilgrim people.

The socials algorithm says: young people need to re-make themselves, to assume images that they’re not.

Jesus says: be happy among the little ones who have discovered they are loved by God, and who find they belong to God’s family. It’s OK to be trusting enough to receive Christ’s friendship, and to know his joy in you. Be searchers for an eternal horizon, not a shrunken enclosure. Be the ones who know that you need Him and yearn for his healing.

Happy are you – blessed are you – who have seen the face of Jesus and now walk with him. It is the path to life, and to a heart of joy.

I wonder how many of you are anxious about the future. Mental health? Personal identity? Family struggles? The path ahead? The state of our planet? Your place in society? Sometimes it can feel as if our lives are a cut-back, dried-out, death-like tree stump.

Into that experience, I want to encourage you to hear Isaiah speaking to us: “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse.” From that stump of Jesse, the life of Jesus sprang forth. Out of what looks done and dusted, dead, God makes something new grow.

Our heavenly Father, who delights in you, wants us to grow from death to life, from fear to hope. We are poised in anticipation, eager with hope for the life we are offered in Christ. Look around you: thousands of young people, praying, singing, listening, serving.

Very few folded arms left among you! You are not a dead stump; you are the Spirit’s new shoots. In a world that often trades in distrust, anxiety and the fear of not fitting, the Spirit has been growing in you: mercy instead of refusal, listening instead of shouting, serving instead of influencing.

To be among God’s young ones with a vision for the future, to grow new shoots of life and hope that our world so desperately needs, to rest in the joy that Jesus has for each of you: these are the things in the backpack of a pilgrim of hope.

A tourist comes for the experience, the photos, the Insta threads, but not for life. The pilgrim lets the journey change their heart and renew their lives.

It is Jesus, the One who is forever young, who is pointing out to you this horizon of life and hope, encouraging us to look out towards where He is striding in to greet us. Go out to greet Him; he’s waiting to welcome you!

(Delivered at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, December 2, 2025. Image shows the closing mass.)