Vatican
City, 27 June 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis arrived at 5.20 p.m. local
time at the beachfront at Copacabana where he greeted the young
people awaiting him from the Popemobile. The Holy Father asked
thirty-five unemployed Argentine “cartoneros” to join him on the
stage, and greeted them warmly. These men and women had regular jobs
prior to the 2001 economic crisis, but are now forced to live in the
“villas miserias”, Argentine favelas. In Argentina there are
around 100 thousand cartoneros who live by rummaging through refuse
in search of paper, metal and food.
At
6 p.m. the Via Crucis began. It had fourteen stations, thirteen of
which were located in the 900 metres of Viale Atlantico, the
beachfront promenade at Copacabana, and the last is represented on
the stage from which the Pope viewed the entire procession. The
celebration lasted around an hour and a quarter, in which artists and
volunteers participated. The texts of the meditations were prepared
by the Dehonian priests Fr. Zezinho and Fr. Joaozinho, well-known for
their work with young people.
At
the end of the Via Crucis, Francis commented that the Way of the
Cross was “one of the most intense moments of World Youth Day”
and that since 1984 the Cross had “travelled to every continent and
through a variety of human situations. It is … almost “steeped”
in the life experiences of the countless young people who have seen
it and carried it”. At the end of the Year of Redemption, Blessed
John Paul II entrusted the Cross to the young, asking them to “carry
it through the world as a symbol of Christ's love for humanity, and
announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of
Christ can we find salvation and redemption”.
“No
one can approach and touch the Cross of Jesus without leaving
something of himself or herself there, and without bringing something
of the Cross of Jesus into his or her own life. I have three
questions that I hope will echo in your hearts this evening as you
walk beside Jesus: What have you left on the Cross, dear young people
of Brazil, during these two years that it has been crisscrossing your
great country? What has the Cross of Jesus left for you, in each one
of you? Finally, what does this Cross teach us?”
The
Pope remarked that St. Peter, while leaving Rome to flee persecution,
saw Jesus travelling in the opposite direction, towards the city, and
“at that moment he understood that he had to follow the Lord with
courage, to the very end. But he also realized that he would never be
alone on the journey; Jesus, Who had loved him even unto death, would
always be with him. Jesus, with His Cross, walks with us and takes
upon Himself our fears, our problems, and our sufferings, even those
which are deepest and most painful. With the Cross, Jesus unites
Himself to the silence of the victims of violence, those who can no
longer cry out, especially the innocent and the defenceless; with the
Cross, He is united to families in trouble, and those who mourn the
tragic loss of their children, as in the case of the 242 young
victims of the fire in the city of Santa Maria at the beginning of
this year. Let us pray for them. On the Cross, Jesus is united with
every person who suffers from hunger in a world where on the other
side we permit ourselves the luxury of throwing away tons of food
each day; on the Cross, Jesus is united with the many mothers and
fathers who suffer, seeing their children become victims of the
artificial paradise offered by drugs; on the Cross, Jesus is united
with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs
or simply for the colour of their skin; on the Cross, Jesus is united
with so many young people who have lost faith in political
institutions, because they see in them only selfishness and
corruption; he unites himself with those young people who have lost
faith in the Church, or even in God because of the counter-witness of
Christians and ministers of the Gospel. How Jesus suffers for our
incoherence! The Cross of Christ bears the suffering and the sin of
mankind, including our own. Jesus accepts all this with open arms,
bearing on His shoulders our crosses and saying to us: “Have
courage! You do not carry your cross alone! I carry it with you. I
have overcome death and I have come to give you hope, to give you
life”.
The
Holy Father then considered the second question: “What has the
Cross given to those who have gazed upon it or touched it? What has
it left in each one of us? It gives us a treasure that no one else
can give: the certainty of the unshakable love which God has for us.
A love so great that it enters into our sin and forgives it, enters
into our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it. It is a love
which enters into death to conquer it and to save us. The Cross of
Christ contains all the love of God, it is His immeasurable mercy.
This is a love in which we can place all our trust, in which we can
believe. Dear young people”, he continued, “let us entrust
ourselves to Jesus, let us give ourselves over to Him, because He
never disappoints! … With Him, evil, suffering, and death do not
have the last word, because He gives us hope and life: He has
transformed the Cross from an instrument of hate, defeat and death
into a sign of love, victory, triumph and life”.
Pope
Francis continued, “How many people were with Jesus on the way to
Calvary: Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, the women… Today I ask you:
which of these people do you want to be like? Do you want to be like
Pilate, who did not have the courage to go against the tide to save
Jesus’ life, and instead washed his hands. Tell me: are you one of
those ewho wash their hands, who play dumb and turn away? Or are you
like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy wood, like
Mary and the other women, who were not afraid to accompany Jesus all
the way to the end, with love and tenderness. And you? Which of
these do you want to be like? Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary?”
Jesus is watching you now and He says: do you want to help me carry
the Cross? Brothers and sisters, with your youthful strength, how
will you answer Him?”
The
Pope concluded by asking the young to bring their joys, their
sufferings and their failures to Christ's Cross, as “there we will
find a Heart that is open to us and understands us, forgives us,
loves us and calls us to bear this love in our lives, to love each
person, each brother and sister, with the same love.”
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