Way of the Cross: "Evil will not have the last word; love, mercy and forgiveness will," pope says
Rome (AsiaNews) - "Evil will not have the last word; love, mercy and forgiveness will," Pope Francis said at the end of tonight's Way of the Cross or Via Crucis, in the stunning setting of 40,000 people gathered around the Coliseum. As an interpretation of the ills and pains of our time, his words found an echo in the meditations prepared by Mgr Giancarlo Maria Bregantini on the journey Jesus took up Mount Calvary.
For the pope, the Cross Jesus carried embodies "all the injustices perpetrated by every Cain," as well as "all the bitterness of the betrayal perpetrated by Judas and Peter, all the vanity of bullies, and all the arrogance of false friends."
"It was," he said, "a cross as heavy as the night of abandoned people, as heavy as the death of loved ones, heavy because it summed up all the ugliness of evil."
"Yet, it was also a glorious cross as dawn after a long night, because it represents all of God's love, which is greater than our iniquities and betrayals."
In the cross, the Pope added, "we see man's monstrosity when he lets himself by guided by evil."
Mgr Bregantini, archbishop of Campobasso-Boiano, meditated on many of the evils of our time. Well known for his views concerning the 'Ndrangheta (a Calabria-based organised crime syndicate), he was until 2007 the bishop of Locri-Gerace, which is located in Calabria.
Indeed, at the First Station, Jesus' "condemnation thus embraces the easy accusations, the superficial judgements of the crowd, the insinuations and the prejudices which harden hearts and create a culture of racism and exclusion, a throw-away culture of anonymous letters and vicious slanders."
At the Second, the cross on Jesus' shoulders "is also the burden of all those wrongs which created the economic crisis and its grave social consequences: job insecurity, unemployment, dismissals, an economy that rules rather than serves, financial speculation, suicide among business owners, corruption and usury, the loss of local industry."
At the Seventh, in Jesus "we glimpse the bitter experience of those locked in prisons of every sort, with all their inhumane contradictions. Confined and surrounded, 'pushed hard' and 'falling'."
At the Eighth, "let us weep for those men who vent on women all their pent-up violence. Let us weep for women enslaved by fear and exploitation."
And at the Tenth, "In Jesus, innocent, stripped and tortured, we see the outraged dignity of all the innocent, especially the little ones."
The choice of some of the bearers of the cross visibly reflects the meditations. Along with Mgr Agostino Vallini Cardinal Vicar of Rome, who carried it in the first and last stations, the choice fell on a labourer and a business leader, two foreigners, two residents from a drug rehab centre, two prison inmates, two homeless people, two patients, two children, two elderly people, two women, a family, two friars of the Custody of the Holy Land and two nuns, one of whom works with AIDS patients.
Still, for the pope, in front of so many evils, "we also see the vastness of God's love for he does not treat us according to our sins but according to his mercy".
"In front of Jesus' cross, we see, touching it, how much we are eternally loved by God. In front of the cross, we feel like his children."
"O Jesus, lead us from the cross to the resurrection and teach us that evil will not have the last word; [that] love, mercy and forgiveness will."
"O Christ, help us exclaim again: Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with him! Yesterday, I died with him; today I am alive with him. Yesterday, I was buried with him; today I am resurrected with him."
"Finally, let us all remember the sick," the pontiff said at the end of his address. "Let us remember all the people abandoned under the weight of the cross, that they may find under the weight of the cross, the power of hope, the power of the resurrection and God's love."
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25/03/2005
