Pope Francis denounces in the texts he has prepared for the Via Crucis of this Good Friday in the Colosseum of Rome – in which he cannot participate for continuing convalescent of the bilateral pneumonia that endangered his life twice – that “the economy of God does not kill, or approach” after claiming the transformative hope of the Gospel.
“The Calvary route passes through our streets every day. We, Lord, usually we go in the opposite direction to yours. Precisely that way it can happen that we meet your face, that we cross your gaze,” writes the pontiff in the reflections that will be read tonight in the Roman amphitheater to accompany the 14 stations in which the Passion of Christ is described.
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The Pontiff, who is recovering from the respiratory infection that was admitted 38 days at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, could not be present in the last two years due to his health problems.
On this occasion, the stations will be chaired by the delegate of the Pope and Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina.
In the texts he prepared for this liturgical act, central in Holy Week, the Holy Father denounces the wounds of the world that generate suffering, such as indifference or marginalization, and ensures that God’s economy “does not rule out” but is “humble” and “faithful to earth.”
In the meditation corresponding to the seventh station, which tells the passage of the Gospel in which Jesus falls for the second time, the Pontiff criticized that the world works “with cold algorithms and implacable calculations.”
And he proposed to pray for conversion: “Renuévanos, Lord! We are children who cry, young people who feel despised, elders who still dream.”
Thus he compared the current economic system with an “inhuman” structure in which “ninety -nine are worth more than one.”
In each of the fourteen stations, which collect the path traveled by Jesus carrying his cross to Mount Calvary, the Holy Father wrote a prayer and pray, for example, “for those who are at the borders and feel that their trip is over”, or by “peace” in the world and in the Catholic Church.
“Give your Church peace and unity, Lord Jesus, that you carry the wounds of our history. Give your Church peace and unity, Lord Jesus, who know the fragility of our love,” said Pope Francis. In the last station, the Holy Father wanted peace for “all nations.”
“Let your peace come for the earth, the air and the water. That your peace comes for the righteous and the unfair. That your peace comes to whom it is invisible and lacks voice. That your peace comes for those who have no power or money. Let your peace come for whom he expects a fair rebirth,” writes the Holy Father.
On the other hand, he claims a real faith “with his falls and his complaints” that even lives “with the temptation to go in the opposite direction to that of Jesus”, so he calls the faithful to have the strength of recognizing “sinners”, with the trust “that in Christ everything can change.”
In each of the 14 stations, the cross will be accompanied by people or organizations whose testimony embodies the pain of the meditations written by the Pontiff: young people, families, migrants, people with disabilities, religious or volunteers.
Pope Francis writes that in the steps of Jesus the way of the Gólgota “there is the exodus towards a new land”, because Christ “came to change the world”, and that is why you must “change direction, see the goodness of its steps.”
In this way, in the different characters of the Via Crucis, he has identified experiences “that every man can live.” “Like Simon de Cirene, who when he returns from the countryside to help Jesus take the cross.”
For the pontiff in today’s reality, “we need someone to stop and put on our shoulders some piece of reality that simply has to load.” In fact for Pope Francis, “if you work without God, one is scattered.”
In this way, in the first station, which recalls the moment in which Jesus is sentenced to death, he reflects on the risk of becoming pilate and about the concept of justice: “You are still before us, silently, in every sister and in every brother exposed to judgments and prejudices. Religious arguments, legal objections, the apparent common sense that is not involved in the fate of others (…) can be different. Jesus, you don’t wash your hands. “
In the second station, in which Jesus charges with the cross and will be transported in the colosseum by a group of young people, Pope Francis cries out against selfishness that weighs, he points out, “more than the cross.” “It is we who have difficulty breathing, by force of avoiding responsibilities. It would be enough to not escape and remain with those that you have given us, in the contexts where you have put us,” he says.
In the third station, when Jesus falls for the first time, in which the cross will be transported by Cáritas, the Holy Father denounces the logic of discard: “Your path, Jesus, is the path of bliss: does not destroy, but cultivates, repairs, protects.”
Pope Francis invites in the fourth station to leave space to the novelty of God in our lives: “Following you is to follow your path; having you is giving space to your novelty.”
In the fifth station, when Simon de Cirene helps Jesus take the cross, Pope Francis remembers that we all need someone to “stop” and put on our shoulders “some piece of reality that simply needs to be loaded.”
“You can work the whole day, but without you, it is wasted,” he insists.
In the sixth station, the Holy Father urges the faithful to take care of those who suffer the most: “Every time we approach the smallest, in effect, we are interested in your members and you remain with us.”
In the seventh, he invites not to make “infallibility flaunt” because he “renieves the path” that God chose; While in the eighth, he asks the world “sincere tears.” In the ninth station, on the other hand, he criticizes hypocrisy: “The masks, the beautiful facades are no longer. God sees the heart. Love the heart.”
In the tenth station, when Jesus is stripped of his garments, the Holy Father asks the Catholic Church: “If the Church seems to you today as a torn clothing, teach us to lie our fraternity, founded on your delivery.”
In the eleventh station, when Jesus is nailed to the cross, Pope Francis reflects on how the cross “demolishes walls, erases sentences and establishes reconciliation.” On the other hand, in the twelfth station, which includes the moment in which Jesus expired on the cross, Pope Francis denounces, in a clear criticism of indifference: “We have remained at a distance from the Lord’s sores. Come, Holy Spirit! Before the fallen brother we have looked the other way. Come, Holy Spirit!”.
Pope Francis insists on the penultimate station in the duty of Christians to take a position before the wounds of the world: “You enable us for great responsibilities, you make us bold.”
The message of hope that the Pontiff launches culminates in the thirteenth station, when he points out that God is “among those who still wait”, because he breaks “the chain of the inevitable” and converts the “there is nothing to do” in “a new possibility.”
You can read all the meditations in this link https://www.aciprensa.com/noticias/112443/text
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.