Only Prayer and Tears can catch a Glimpse of the Mystery of the Cross: Pope

Vatican City, 14 September 2013: The mystery of the Cross is a great mystery for humankind and can be approached only in prayer and tears, said Pope Francis on Saturday morning during Mass celebrating the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.

In his homily, the Pope said that it is in the mystery of the Cross that we find the story of humankind and the story of God, synthesized by the Fathers of the Church in the comparison between the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in Paradise, and the tree of the Cross.
“The one tree has wrought so much evil, the other tree has brought us salvation and health. This is the course of the humanity’s story: a journey to find Jesus Christ the Redeemer, who gives His life for love. God, in fact, has not sent the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. This tree of the Cross save us from the consequences of the other tree, self-sufficiency, arrogance and the pride …… This is the story of mankind: from one tree to the other.”

On the Cross there is the “story of God,” the Pope said, because we can say that God has a story.” In fact, “He has chosen to take up our story and to journey with us,” becoming man, assuming the condition of a slave and making Himself obedient even to death on a Cross.
“God takes this course for love! There’s no other explanation: love alone does this. Today we look upon the Cross, the story of mankind and the story of God. We look upon this Cross, where you can try that honey of aloe, that bitter honey, that bitter sweetness of the sacrifice of Jesus. First of all the mystery of the Cross. It can only be understood, a little bit, by kneeling, in prayer, but also through tears: they are the tears that bring us close to this mystery.”
“Without weeping, heartfelt weeping,” Pope Francis reiterated, we can never understand this mystery. It is “the cry of the penitent, the cry of the brother and the sister who are looking upon so much human misery” and looking on Jesus, but “kneeling and weeping” and “never alone, never alone!”
“In order to enter into this mystery, which is not a labyrinth but resembles one a little bit, we need the mother’s hand. Mary, will make us understand how great and humble this mystery is; how sweet as honey and how bitter as aloe. She will be the one who accompanies us on this journey, which no one can take if not ourselves. Each one of us must take it! With the mother, weeping and on our knees.”Source: VR Sedoc