VIA CRUCIS: A GLORIOUS CROSS LIKE DAWN FOLLOWING A LONG NIGHT

Vatican City, 18 April 2014 (VIS) – At 9.15 p.m. this evening, Good Friday, the Bishop of Rome presided at the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, service at the Colosseum, where thousands of faithful accompanied Christ's path to the Cross by the light of candles and torches. From the Palatine Hill the Holy Father listened to the reflections that accompanied each of the fourteen stations, dedicated this year to the economic crisis that afflicts many countries, to immigration, poverty, and the situation of women and the marginalised in today's world. The cross was carried to the various stations by a worker and a businessman, two immigrants, two homeless people, two detainees, two former drug addicts, two patients, two children, a family, two elderly people, two nuns, the Custodians of the Holy Land and, in the first and last stations, the Cardinal Archbishop of Rome, Agostino Vallini.

At the end the Pope addressed some unscripted remarks to the participants, affirming that “God placed on Jesus' Cross all the weight of our sins, all the injustice perpetrated by every Cain against his brother, all the bitterness of the betrayals of Judas and Peter, all the vanity of tyrants, all the arrogance of false friends. It was a heavy Cross, like the night of abandoned people, as heavy as the death of loved ones, heavy because it carried all the ugliness of evil. However it is also a glorious Cross, like the dawn after a long night, as it represents all of God's love, which is greater than our iniquity and our betrayals. In the Cross we see the monstrosity of man, when we allow ourselves to be guided by evil; but we also see the immensity of God's mercy; He does not treat us according to our sins, but according to His mercy”.

He continued, “Before the Cross of Christ, we see, we can almost touch with our hands how much we are eternally loved; before the Cross, we feel like 'children' and not 'things ' or objects, as St. Gregory of Nazianzus affirmed when he turned to Christ with this prayer: 'If it were not for you, O my Christ, I would feel as a finished creature. … O, our Jesus, guide us from the Cross to the Resurrection and teach us that evil will not have the last word, but rather love, mercy, and forgiveness. O Christ, teach us to exclaim anew, “Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with Him”'.

“And in the end, all together, let us recall the sick, let us think of all those people abandoned beneath the weight of the Cross, so that they might find in the trial of the Cross the strength of hope, of the hope of the Resurrection and the love of God”.

HOLY SATURDAY: RETURN TO THE PLACE OF THE FIRST CALL

Vatican City, 19 April 2014 (VIS) – The solemn Easter Vigil began at 8.30 this evening in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Francis presided over the rites, which began with the blessing of the with a blessing of the new fire in the church atrium followed by the procession to the altar with the lit Paschal candle, the singing of the “Exsultet” and the Liturgy of the Word. During the ceremony, the Holy Father administered the sacraments of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist) to ten catechumens from Italy, Belarus, Senegal, Lebanon, France and Vietnam.

The full text of his homily is published below:

“The Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ begins with the journey of the women to the tomb at dawn on the day after the Sabbath. They go to the tomb to honour the body of the Lord, but they find it open and empty. A mighty angel says to them: 'Do not be afraid!' and orders them to go and tell the disciples: 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee'. The women quickly depart and on the way Jesus himself meets them and says: 'Do not fear; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me'. 'Do not be afraid', 'do not fear': these are words that encourage us to open our hearts to receive the message.

After the death of the Master, the disciples had scattered; their faith had been utterly shaken, everything seemed over, all their certainties had crumbled and their hopes had died. But now that message of the women, incredible as it was, came to them like a ray of light in the darkness. The news spread: Jesus is risen as he said. And then there was his command to go to Galilee; the women had heard it twice, first from the angel and then from Jesus himself: 'Let them go to Galilee; there they will see me'. 'Do not fear' and 'go to Galilee'.

Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began! To return there, to return to the place where they were originally called. Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting their nets. He had called them, and they left everything and followed him.

To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory, fearlessly: 'do not be afraid'. To re-read everything – Jesus’ preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the defections, even the betrayal – to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love.

For each of us, too, there is a 'Galilee' at the origin of our journey with Jesus. 'To go to Galilee' means something beautiful, it means rediscovering our baptism as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of the journey. From that flame I can light a fire for today and every day, and bring heat and light to my brothers and sisters. That flame ignites a humble joy, a joy which sorrow and distress cannot dismay, a good, gentle joy.

In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also another 'Galilee', a more existential 'Galilee': the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy and asked me to follow him. To return there means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realise that he loved me.

Today, tonight, each of us can ask: What is my Galilee? I need to remind myself, to go back and remember. Where is my Galilee? Do I remember it? Have I forgotten it? Seek and you will find it! There the Lord is waiting for you. Have I gone off on roads and paths which made me forget it? Lord, help me: tell me what my Galilee is; for you know that I want to return there to encounter you and to let myself be embraced by your mercy. Do not be afraid, do not fear, return to Galilee!

The Gospel is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth. Go back to Galilee, without fear!

'Galilee of the Gentiles'! Horizon of the Risen Lord, horizon of the Church; intense desire of encounter… Let us be on our way!”.

EASTER SUNDAY: LOVE LETS HOPE FLOURISH IN THE DESERT

Vatican City, 20 April 2014 (VIS) – At 10.15 today, Easter Sunday, the Holy Father Francis celebrated the solemn Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord in St. Peter's Square, which was adorned with 35,000 plants and flowers (tulips, narcissus and hyacinths), offered by Dutch florists. During the celebration, which began with the "Resurrexit" rite – the opening of an icon of the Risen Lord, placed next to the papal altar – was attended by more than 150,000 faithful from all around the world. The Pope did not pronounce a homily but following Mass he delivered an Easter message and imparted his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing.

At midday, from the central balcony of the Vatican basilica, the Pope addressed the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square and all those following the event on radio or television, and made an appeal for those affected by the Ebola virus outbreak in various African countries, and for peace in Syria, Iraq, Venezuela and Ukraine, for an end to the clashes in the Central African Republic, Nigerian and South Sudan, and for the resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. He then imparted his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, to the city and the world.

“A happy and holy Easter!” said the Bishop of Rome. “The Church throughout the world echoes the angel’s message to the women: 'Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised… Come, see the place where he lay'.

This is the culmination of the Gospel, it is the Good News par excellence: Jesus, who was crucified, is risen! This event is the basis of our faith and our hope. If Christ were not raised, Christianity would lose its very meaning; the whole mission of the Church would lose its impulse, for this is the point from which it first set out and continues to set out ever anew. The message which Christians bring to the world is this: Jesus, Love incarnate, died on the cross for our sins, but God the Father raised him and made him the Lord of life and death. In Jesus, love has triumphed over hatred, mercy over sinfulness, goodness over evil, truth over falsehood, life over death.

That is why we tell everyone: 'Come and see!' In every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love: it is about leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast… 'Come and see!': Love is more powerful, love gives life, love makes hope blossom in the wilderness.

With this joyful certainty in our hearts, today we turn to you, risen Lord!

Help us to seek you and to find you, to realize that we have a Father and are not orphans; that we can love and adore you.

Help us to overcome the scourge of hunger, aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible.

Enable us to protect the vulnerable, especially children, women and the elderly, who are at times exploited and abandoned.

Enable us to care for our brothers and sisters struck by the Ebola epidemic in Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and to care for those suffering from so many other diseases which are also spread through neglect and dire poverty.

Comfort all those who cannot celebrate this Easter with their loved ones because they have been unjustly torn from their affections, like the many persons, priests and laity, who in various parts of the world have been kidnapped.

Comfort those who have left their own lands to migrate to places offering hope for a better future and the possibility of living their lives in dignity and, not infrequently, of freely professing their faith.

We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent.

We pray in a particular way for Syria, beloved Syria, that all those suffering the effects of the conflict can receive needed humanitarian aid and that neither side will again use deadly force, especially against the defenceless civil population, but instead boldly negotiate the peace long awaited and long overdue!

Jesus, Lord of glory, we ask you to comfort the victims of fratricidal acts of violence in Iraq and to sustain the hopes raised by the resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

We beg for an end to the conflicts in the Central African Republic and a halt to the brutal terrorist attacks in parts of Nigeria and the acts of violence in South Sudan.

We ask that hearts be turned to reconciliation and fraternal concord in Venezuela.

By your resurrection, which this year we celebrate together with the Churches that follow the Julian calendar, we ask you to enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine so that all those involved, with the support of the international community, will make every effort to prevent violence and, in a spirit of unity and dialogue, chart a path for the country’s future. On this day, may they be able to proclaim, as brothers and sisters, that Christ is risen, Khrystos voskres!

Lord, we pray to you for all the peoples of the earth: you who have conquered death, grant us your life, grant us your peace! 'Christus surrexit, venite et videte!' Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!”.

EASTER MONDAY: MARIA, MOTHER OF HOPE

Vatican City, 21 April 2014 (VIS) – At midday today, on “Monday of the Angel”, the Pope appeared at the window of his study to pray the Regina Coeli – the prayer that substitutes the Angelus at Easter time – with the thousands of faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Francis wished all present a happy Easter, commenting that the prevalent sentiment in the Gospel readings of the Resurrection is “joy filled with wonder … a joy that comes from within”, and that through the liturgy we relive the state of mind of the disciples upon receiving the news from the women.

“May this experience, imprinted in the Gospel, become imprinted in our hearts and shine through in our lives”, he continued. Those who have this experience, he explained, "become witnesses of the Resurrection, because in a sense, he himself is risen, she herself is risen. Thus they are able to bring a 'ray' of light of the Risen Lord to different situations: to happy ones, making them even more beautiful and preserving them from selfishness; and to painful ones, bringing serenity and hope”.

The Pope advised rereading the chapters of the Gospel that recount the Resurrection and also thinking of “the joy of Mary, the Mother of Jesus”. “Mary's heart, after passing through the experience of the death and resurrection of her Son, seen through the eyes of faith as the supreme expression of God's love, became a source of peace, comfort, hope, mercy. All the prerogatives of our Mother come from this: from her participation in the Paschal mystery of Jesus. ... From Friday to Sunday morning, she did not lose hope: we contemplated as a mother both sorrowful and full of hope. She, the Mother of all the disciples, the Mother of the Church, is the Mother of hope. We ask her, the silent witness of Jesus' death and resurrection, to lead us in the joy of Easter”, concluded Pope Francis.

JESUS' PAIN ON THE CROSS REFLECTS THE PAIN OF HUMANITY

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!'”.