Homily of Pope Francis on Palm Sunday 2025

Due to his convalescence and delicate state of health, Pope Francis did not participate in the Mass of Palm Sunday in the Plaza de San Pedro, who was chaired by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Vice Dean of the Cardenalicio College.

In his homily, previously prepared, the Holy Father reflected on Simon of Cireneo, who helped Jesus load with the cross.

Next, the homily of Pope Francis:

Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord! ” (Lc 19,38). In this way the crowd acclants Jesus upon entering Jerusalem. The Messiah crosses the door of the holy city, open from par to receive the one who, a few days later, will leave outstretched and convicted, loaded with the cross.

Today we have followed Jesus, first accompanying him festively and then in a painful way, inaugurating Holy Week that prepares us to celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord.

While we contemplate, between the crowd, the faces of the soldiers and the tears of the women, a stranger draws our attention, whose name enters the improviso gospel: Simon of Cyrene. This man was arrested by the soldiers, who “loaded him with the cross, to take her behind Jesus” (Lc 23,26). He returned at that time in the field, passed by, and was involved in a disturbing situation, like the heavy Madero loaded on his back.

On the way to Calvary, let’s reflect a moment on the gesture Simon, let’s look for your heartLet’s continue their steps next to Jesus.

First, his gesturewhich has a double meaning. On the one hand, in effect, the Cyronian is forced to carry the cross; It does not help Jesus by conviction but by obligation. On the other hand, he is in the first person participating in the passion of the Lord. The cross of Jesus becomes the cross of Simon. But not that Simon named Pedro who had always promised to follow the teacher. That Simon had disappeared on the night of betrayal, after having affirmed: “Lord (…), I am willing to go to jail and death” (Lc 22,33). Behind Jesus no longer walks the disciple, but this Cyronian. However, the teacher had clearly taught: “He who wants to come behind me, to renounce himself, to carry his cross every day and follow me” (Lc 9,23). Simon of Galilee says, but he doesn’t. Simon of Cyrene does, but does not say; There is no dialogue between Him and Jesus, no word is pronounced. Between him and Jesus is only the Madero de la Cruz.

To know if the Cyronian helped or detest the exhausted Jesus, with whom he had to share the penalty; To understand if he took or endured the cross, we must look at his heart. While the heart of God is about to open, transferred by a pain that reveals his mercy, the heart of man remains closed.

We do not know what is in the heart of the Cyronian. Let’s put ourselves instead: would we feel rage or mercy, sadness or annoyance? If we remember what Simon did for Jesus, let’s remember what Jesus did for Simon – as he did for me, for you, for each one of us -: he redeemed the world. The wooden cross, which the Cyronian holds, is that of Christ, which loads with the sin of all men. He takes her for love, in obedience to the Father (cf. Lc 22,42), suffering with us and for us. This is precisely the mode, unexpected and disconcerting, in which the Cyronian is involved in the history of salvation, where none is a foreigner, none is foreign.

Let us now follow the steps Simon, because he teaches us that Jesus comes to meet everyone, in any situation. When we see the multitude of men and women who manifest hatred and violence on the road to Calvary, remember that God transforms this path instead of redemption, because he toured him giving his life for us. How many Cyrones have the Cross of Christ! Do we recognize them? Do we see the Lord on his faces, torn by war and misery? Faced with the atrocious injustice of evil, carrying the cross is never in vain, even more, it is the most concrete way to share its salvific love.

The passion of Jesus becomes compassion when we have the hand to the one who can no longer, when we raise the one who is fallen, when we embrace the one who is disconsolate. Brothers, sisters, to experience this great miracle of mercy, we decide during Holy Week how to take the cross; Not around the neck, but in the heart. Not only ours, but also those who suffer around us; Maybe that of that unknown person than a coincidence – but is it just one chance? – made us find. Let’s prepare the Lord’s Easter becoming cyron for each other.