Rio WYD: Pope Francis interprets the Cross in daily life
Rio, July 27, 2013: 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!