Pope Francis: Jesus demands to be loved in the downtrodden

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis led the Church of Rome into Holy Week on Sunday – Palm Sunday, 2017 – with Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

The Mass included a traditional procession to mark the triumphant entrance of Our Lord into the holy city of Jerusalem at the beginning of the week that would culminate in His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

Click below to hear our report

“This Jesus, who accepts the hosannas of the crowd,” said Pope Francis in his homily, “knows full well that they will soon be followed by the cry: ‘Crucify him!’ He does not ask us to contemplate Him only in pictures and photographs, or in the videos that circulate on the internet.  No.  He is present in our many brothers and sisters who today endure sufferings like his own: they suffer from slave labour, from family tragedies, from diseases. They suffer from wars and terrorism, from interests that are armed and ready to strike. Women and men who are cheated, violated in their dignity, discarded.”

The Holy Father went on to say, “Jesus is in them, in each of them, and, with marred features and broken voice, He asks to be looked in the eye, to be acknowledged, to be loved.”