A Ukrainian and a Russian family together with the pope on the Way of the Cross
The two families will carry the cross during Good Friday service at the Colosseum. The Meditations will refer to their suffering. “Lord where are you? Speak to us amid the silence of death and division, and teach us [. . .] to rebuild what bombs tried to destroy.” At another station, a missionary family describes their travails.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – A Ukrainian and a Russian family will carry the cross, together, during the Way of the Cross, which Pope Francis will lead on Good Friday evening at Rome’s Colosseum.
The two families will do it right at the station where Jesus' death on the cross is remembered and they will do it while the meditations give voice to their suffering because of the war.
This year, the pontiff chose the real life of families for the Good Friday Meditations, the Vatican Press Office announced today
In addition to those affected by the conflict in Ukraine, the cross will also be carried, among others, by an elderly married couple, a family that runs a shelter, a family that is confronted with the loss of a child, and a migrant family.
At the station where Jesus dies, the cross will be carried by the families of a Ukrainian nurse, Irina, and a Russian nursing student, Albina, both living in Rome.
The meditation that will accompany them says: “Everything changes in a few seconds. Our life, our days, the carefree winter snow, bringing the children to school, work, embraces, friendships... everything. Everything suddenly loses meaning and value. ‘Where are you, Lord? Where are you hiding? We want our life back as before. Why all of this? What wrong did we do? Why have you forsaken us? Why have you forsaken our peoples?’”
“We have no tears left,” it adds. “Anger has given way to resignation. We know that you love us, Lord, but we don’t feel this love and it drives us to desperation. We wake up in the morning and feel happy for a few moments, but then we suddenly think how difficult it will be to reconcile ourselves to all this. Lord where are you? Speak to us amid the silence of death and division, and teach us to be peacemakers, brothers and sisters, and to rebuild what bombs tried to destroy.”
One of the meditations at the previous stations, the one where Jesus is betrayed by Judas and abandoned by his own, describes the travails of a missionary family.
“We left on mission,” they say, “almost ten years ago, because our own happiness was not enough. [. . .] We wanted to show Christ’s love also to those who do not know him. No matter where. [. . .] Yet it is not easy: we do not hide the anguish and fear of leading an uncertain family life far from our country. Added to this is the terror of war that we have felt so dramatically present in these months.”
“Sometimes,” reads the Meditation, “faced with the pain and suffering of a mother who died while giving birth as bombs were falling, or of a family destroyed by war or hunger or injustice, the temptation is to respond with the sword, to flee, to become despondent, to give up and leave it all behind, thinking it is not worth the effort… But this would mean betraying the poorest of our brothers and sisters, who are your flesh in the world and who remind us that you are the Living One.”
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11/08/2017 20:05
