(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Via crucis on Friday evening with pilgrims
gathered for World Youth Day celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nearly 300 artists
and volunteers from several countries including the United States animated the popular
devotion. The meditations accompanying each of the 14 stations depicting the principal
episodes of Christ’s Passion, death and burial focused on a theme of particular significance
in the life of contemporary youth, including: mission, conversion, community, and
vocation; others involved pressing social challenges and existential issues such as
suffering, illness and mortality. The texts of the meditations were prepared by a
pair of Brazilian priests, Fr. José Zezinho and Fr. João Joãozinho, both of whom are
well known in their native country for their work with young people.
In remarks
to the pilgrims, Pope Francis spoke of the Cross of Christ as the source of hope,
to which anyone and everyone can and ought to bring his deepest joys, sufferings
and failures. The Holy Father also spoke of Christ’s Cross as a challenge to all of
us: an invitation to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love, as well as a lesson
and a reminder to us always to look upon others with mercy and tenderness – especially
the suffering, and those we meet who are in distress and need help, whether in the
form of a word of encouragement, or a concrete action that could take us beyond ourselves.
Please
find the full text of Pope Francis’ address, below:
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Apostolic
Journey of Pope Francis to Brazil Address of the Holy Father Via Crucis (Rio
de Janeiro – Copacabana, 26 July 2013)
Dear Young Friends,
We
have come here today to accompany Jesus on his journey of sorrow and love, the Way
of the Cross, which is one of the most intense moments of World Youth Day. At the
end of the Holy Year of Redemption, Blessed John Paul II chose to entrust the Cross
to you, young people, asking you “to carry it throughout 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” (Address to Young People, 22 April
1984). Since then, the World Youth Day Cross has travelled to every continent and
through a variety of human situations. It is, as it were, almost “steeped” in the
life experiences of the countless young people who have seen it and carried it. 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?
1. According to an ancient Roman tradition, while fleeing the city
during the persecutions of Nero, Saint Peter saw Jesus who was travelling in the opposite
direction, that is, toward the city, and asked him in amazement: “Lord, where are
you going?” Jesus’ response was: “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” At
that moment, Peter 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 on the Cross, 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, those who mourn the loss of their children, or who suffer
when they see them fall victim to false paradises, such as that offered by drugs.
On the Cross, Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world
where tons of food are thrown out each day; 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.
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” (cf. Jn 3:16).
2. And
so we can answer 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, his immeasurable
mercy. This is a love in which we can place all our trust, in which we can believe.
Dear young people, let us entrust ourselves to Jesus, let us give ourselves over entirely
to him (cf. Lumen Fidei, 16)! Only in Christ crucified and risen can we find salvation
and redemption. 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 and life.
The first name given
to Brazil was “The Land of the Holy Cross”. The Cross of Christ was planted five
centuries ago not only on the shores of this country, but also in the history, the
hearts and the lives of the people of Brazil and elsewhere. The suffering Christ
is keenly felt here, as one of us who shares our journey even to the end. There is
no cross, big or small, in our life which the Lord does not share with us.
3. But
the Cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love,
teaching us always to always look upon others with mercy and tenderness, especially
those who suffer, who are in need of help, who need a word or a concrete action which
requires us to step outside ourselves to meet them and to extend a hand to them.
How many people were with Jesus on the way to Calvary: Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary,
the women… Sometimes we can be like Pilate, who did not have the courage to go against
the tide to save Jesus’ life, and instead washed his hands. Dear friends, the Cross
of Christ teaches us to be like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy
wood; it teaches us to be 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? Who are you like?
Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary?
Dear friends, let us bring to Christ’s
Cross our joys, our sufferings and our failures. 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.
Amen!