Pope Francis reappears in the Plaza de San Pedro: Good Sunday of Ramos and good Holy Week!

At the end of this Sunday’s Mass, Pope Francis reappeared in public for the third time since he returned to the Vatican of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome on March 23.

From the altar of the Plaza de San Pedro and after greeting the faithful, the Holy Father wished a good Sunday of Ramos and good Holy Week.

Due to his convalescence and delicate state of health, Pope Francis did not participate in the Mass of Palm Sunday, who was chaired by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Vice -Decoan of the Cardinal College.

The Mass was preceded by the procession of Las Palmas de Domingo de Ramos, carried by bishops, priests, religious and laity around the obelisk of the square to remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

After the blessing ceremony of Las Palmas, the Purpurado Argentino went to the atrium of the Vatican Basilica to celebrate the Eucharist, with which Holy Week began.

In his homily, previously prepared, the Holy Father recalled that “the Messiah crosses the door of the holy city, open par to receive the one who, a few days later, will leave outstretched and condemned, loaded with the cross.”

Pope Francis focused his attention on Simón de Cirene, who helped Christ charged with the cross. “The cross of Jesus becomes the cross of Simon,” he said after remembering that he was forced by the soldiers to help Jesus.

“While the heart of God is about to open, transferred by a pain that reveals his mercy, the heart of man remains closed,” he said below.

The Pontiff encouraged the faithful to put himself in Simon’s place: “Would we feel rage or piety, sadness or annoyance?” He asked.

In this context, he remarked that Jesus redeemed the world, emphasizing that Christ “loads with the sin of all men”, suffering with us and for us: “This is precisely the way, unexpected and disconcerting, in which the Cyronian is involved in the history of salvation, where none is foreigner, none is alien.”

Therefore, the Holy Father invited to follow the steps of Simon, who “teaches us that Jesus comes to meet everyone, in any situation.”

He also pointed out that God transforms the Camino del Calvario 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? In the face of the atrocious injustice of evil, carrying the cross is never in vain, even more, it is the most concrete way to share his salvific love,” he said.

For the Holy Father, “Jesus’ passion becomes compassion when we have the hand to which he can no longer, when we raise the one who is fallen, when we embrace the one who is disconsolate.”

Therefore, he encouraged the faithful to decide during Holy Week “how to take the cross; not to the neck, but in the heart.”

“Not only ours, but also those of those who suffer around us; perhaps that of that unknown person who is a coincidence – but is it just one chance?