Vatican City, 16 April 2014 (VIS) –
The suffering of Jesus on the Cross, that reflects the pain of
humanity and represents the divine response to the mystery of the
evil that is so difficult to understand, was the theme of Pope
Francis' catechesis during the general audience held today, Holy
Wednesday, in which the liturgy presents the story of Judas' betrayal
and Christ, it emerges, has a price.
“This dramatic act marks the
beginning of the Passion of Christ, a painful path that He chooses
with absolute freedom. He says this clearly Himself: 'I lay down my
life. … No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own
accord'”. The path of humiliation begins here, with this betrayal,
with Jesus as if he were on the market: he is worth thirty pieces of
silver. And Jesus undertakes the path of humiliation … unto the
end”.
The humiliation of Christ culminates
with his death on the Cross, which is “the worst death, reserved to
slaves and criminals. Jesus was considered a prophet, but died like a
criminal. When we look at Jesus in His Passion, we see as if we were
looking in a mirror the evil and pain of death. Often we feel horror
at the evil and pain that surrounds us and we ask, 'Why does God
allow this?'. It wounds us profoundly to see suffering and death,
especially of the innocent. It pains our hearts when we see children
suffering. It is the mystery of evil, and Jesus takes upon Himself
all this evil, all this suffering. This week it will do good to all
of us to take a crucifix and to kiss Christ's wounds. He takes all
human suffering upon Himself, He vests Himself with this suffering”.
“We expect that God, in his
omnipotence, will defeat injustice, evil, sin and suffering with a
triumphant divine victory. Instead, God shows us a humble victory
that in human terms seems to be a failure”, continued the Holy
Father. “And we can say this: God wins in failure. Indeed, the Son
of God on the Cross appears to be a defeated man: He suffers, He is
betrayed, He is vilified, and finally dies. But Jesus allows evil to
set upon Him, He takes it all upon Him in order to vanquish it. His
Passion is not incidental; his death – that death – was
'foretold'. It is an unsettling mystery, but we know the secret of
this mystery, of this extraordinary humility: God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son”.
“This week, let us consider Jesus'
pain, and let us say to ourselves: it is for me; even if I were the
only person in the world, He would have done this, for me. Let us
kiss the crucifix and say: 'For me, thank you Jesus, for me ...”.
When all appears to be lost, when no-one remains because the shepherd
has been smitten and the flock has scattered, God will intervene with
the power of the resurrection. Jesus' resurrection is not the happy
ending of a fairy tale, it is not the happy ending of a film, but
rather it is God's intervention at the point where human hope is
shattered. … When all seems lost, at that moment of pain when many
people feel the need to kiss the Cross, this is the moment closest to
the resurrection. The night is at its darkest just before dawn
breaks, just before the light emerges; in the darkest moment, God
intervenes and resurrects”.
Jesus, who chose to take this path,
“calls us to follow Him on His path of humiliation. When in certain
moments in life we are not able to find any way out of our
difficulties, when we sink into the deepest darkness, it is the
moment of our humiliation in which we are entirely laid bare, in
which we discover that we are fragile and sinners. It is precisely in
that moment that we must not mask our failure, but rather open
ourselves up, trusting in our hope in God, just as Jesus did”.
“This week”, the Holy Father
concluded, “it will to us good to take a crucifix in our hands, to
kiss it many times and to say, 'Thank you Jesus, thank you, Lord!'”.
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