教宗在拜苦路中指出“如果一个人说自己是基督徒却没有为服务而活也就不需要活了”

“如果世界中有邪恶；如果有饥饿的人、饥渴的人、无家可归的人、难民，那么天主在哪里？当一个无辜的人死于暴力、恐怖主义、战争时，天主在哪里”？！“面对邪恶、苦难、罪恶，耶稣门徒唯一可以做出的回答是奉献自己、甚至献出生命”。“我多想说，身为基督徒，我们应该有能力像耶稣那样伴随在病人身边，用沉默、用温柔、用祈祷伴随他们”。拥抱“我们逃离战争的的叙利亚兄弟们”

克拉科夫（亚洲新闻）—“如果一个人说自己是基督徒却没有为服务而活，那么他也就不需要活了。他是在用生命否认耶稣”。这是今晚拜苦路结束时，教宗方济各向聚集在克拉科夫参加第三十一届世界青年节的各国青年们说的。教宗邀请青年“效仿基督，无偿地为最贫困、最弱势的兄弟姐妹们服务”。因为“面对邪恶、苦难、罪恶，耶稣门徒唯一可以做出的回答是奉献自己、甚至献出生命；保持服务的态度”。

今天拜苦路的主题是“十字苦路—慈悲之路”。每一处都奉献给了身心慈悲事业，因为如果“没有慈悲，你、我、我们所有人就都一事无成”。大约五十万名青年参加了拜苦路，各国青年共同高举巨型十字架，用视频、歌舞展示他们的慈悲事业。

教宗向叙利亚青年致意的场面尤其感人。他说，“今晚，耶稣，我们和祂在一起。我特别拥抱我们逃离战争的的叙利亚兄弟们。让我们满怀兄弟手足之情接纳他们”。

下午，教宗走访了儿童医院，亲切慰问了五十名小病号和他们的家长。教宗表示，“我多想说，身为基督徒，我们应该有能力像耶稣那样伴随在病人身边，用沉默、用温柔、用祈祷伴随他们。不幸的是，我们的社会被违背接纳文化的废弃文化污染了。废弃文化的受害者恰恰是最弱势的、最脆弱的。这是残忍的”。

“如果世界中有邪恶；如果有饥饿的人、饥渴的人、无家可归的人、难民，那么天主在哪里？当一个无辜的人死于暴力、恐怖主义、战争时，天主在哪里”？！ “天主在哪里”便是今晚拜苦路的主题，教宗讲话全文如下：

“Where is God?” Where is God, if evil is present in our world, if there are men and women who are hungry and thirsty, homeless, exiles and refugees? Where is God, when innocent persons die as a result of violence, terrorism and war? Where is God, when cruel diseases break the bonds of life and affection? Or when children are exploited and demeaned, and they too suffer from grave illness? Where is God, amid the anguish of those who doubt and are troubled in spirit? These are questions that humanly speaking have no answer. We can only look to Jesus and ask him. And Jesus’ answer is this: “God is in them”. Jesus is in them; he suffers in them and deeply identifies with each of them. He is so closely united to them as to form with them, as it were, “one body”.

“Jesus himself chose to identify with these our brothers and sisters enduring pain and anguish by agreeing to tread the “way of sorrows” that led to Calvary. By dying on the cross, he surrendered himself into to the hands of the Father, taking upon himself and in himself, with self- sacrificing love, the physical, moral and spiritual wounds of all humanity. By embracing the wood of the cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness, pain and death of men and women of all times.

“By following Jesus along the Way of the Cross, we have once again realized the importance of imitating him through the fourteen works of mercy. These help us to be open to God’s mercy, to implore the grace to appreciate that without mercy we can do nothing; without mercy, neither I nor you nor any of us can do a thing. Let us first consider the seven corporal works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and those in prison, and burying the dead. Freely we have received, so freely let us give. We are called to serve the crucified Jesus in all those who are marginalized, to touch his sacred flesh in those who are disadvantaged, in those who hunger and thirst, in the naked and imprisoned, the sick and unemployed, in those who are persecuted, refugees and migrants. There we find our God; there we touch the Lord. Jesus himself told us this when he explained the criterion on which we will be judged: whenever we do these things to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do them to him (cf. Mt 25:31-46).

“After the corporal works of mercy come the spiritual works: counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing sinners, consoling the afflicted, pardoning offences, bearing wrongs patiently, praying for the living and the dead. In welcoming the outcast who suffer physically and welcoming sinners who suffer spiritually, our credibility as Christians is at stake.

“This evening, dear friends, the Lord once more asks you to be in the forefront of serving others. He wants to make of you a concrete response to the needs and sufferings of humanity. He wants you to be signs of his merciful love for our time! To enable you to carry out this mission, he shows you the way of personal commitment and self-sacrifice. It is the Way of the Cross. The Way of the Cross is the way of fidelity in following Jesus to the end, in the often dramatic situations of everyday life. It is a way that fears no lack of success, ostracism or solitude, because it fills ours hearts with the fullness of Jesus. The Way of the Cross is the way of God’s own life, his “style”, which Jesus brings even to the pathways of a society at times divided, unjust and corrupt.

“The Way of the Cross alone defeats sin, evil and death, for it leads to the radiant light of Christ’s resurrection and opens the horizons of a new and fuller life. It is the way of hope, the way of the future. Those who take up this way with generosity and faith give hope and a future to humanity.”