June 13, 2019
By Mary Regina Morrell
Once, when Pope Francis was meeting with a group of students whose school-year was coming to a close, a young teen named Marta admitted to the Pope that she was afraid to be leaving middle school and her long-time friends and to move on to high school.
She asked the Pope, “Why do I have to change everything? Why does growing up make me so afraid?”
Pope Francis replied with some beautiful insight. “Life is a constant ‘good morning’ and ‘farewell’,” he said, noting that sometimes the farewells are forever.
“You grow by encountering and by taking your leave. If you don’t learn to say goodbye well, you will never learn how to encounter new people,” the Pope shared.
When I first read this story, I thought those were meaningful questions for adults as well. Change is hard, and we don’t always feel grown up, especially when we are afraid.
Pope Francis’ wisdom reflects one of the most difficult lessons we will learn. Life is about letting go.
One high school graduate recently explained what that meant to her at this point in her life. “My senior year was definitely my favorite because of all the ‘lasts’ I got to experience,” she wrote.
She shared that the best memories from the past year included going to as many school events as possible because she and her fellow students realized it would be the last time they would be together as a community.
Leaving each other and their school was bittersweet but necessary, so the best they could do was be present to the moment when they were in it. She was grateful for “being able to spend every day with my best friends and make memories that will stay with me forever.”
This graduating senior, like so many before her, was learning another bit of wisdom from Pope Francis: “We have to learn to see life by looking at the horizons.”
Letting go of our safe places—whether they be physical, mental or spiritual—is not easy. It requires courage and determination. Both are possible when we trust in the promises of God: “Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (see Isaiah 41:10).
Pope Francis also had wise words for how to make the journey more fruitful: Welcome others, listen to others, and share things.
Good reminders for us adults, as well.
Pope Francis’ quotes were from his June 2, 2017, special audience at the Vatican for members of a middle school group who were part of Communion and Liberation’s “The Knights of the Grail” educational initiative.
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.