HELPING those in need is “the foundation of our existence” as a Catholic Church, Pope Francis told the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday. Jesus is the risen shepherd who takes upon his shoulders “our brothers and sisters crushed by evil in all its varied forms”, the Pope said before giving his Easter blessing. He called on Christians to be instruments of Christ’s outreach to refugees and migrants, victims of war and exploitation, famine and loneliness.
For the 30th consecutive year Dutch farmers and florists blanketed the area around the altar with 35,000 flowers and plants: lilies, roses, tulips hyacinths, daffodils, birch and linden.
Preaching without a prepared text, Pope Francis began… as he did the night before at the Easter Vigil … imagining the disciples desolate because “the one they loved so much was executed”.
While they are huddling in fear, the angel tells them, “He is risen”. And, the Pope said, the Church continues to proclaim that message always and everywhere, including to those whose lives are truly, unfairly difficult.
“It is the mystery of the cornerstone that was discarded, but has become the foundation of our existence,” he said. And those who follow Jesus, “we pebbles”, find meaning even in the midst of suffering because of sure hope in the Resurrection. Pope Francis suggested everyone find a quiet place at Easter to reflect on their problems and the problems of the world and then tell God, “I don’t know how this will end, but I know Christ has risen”.
In another message he said also: The Church has been damaged by bishops, priests and Religious who have lost sight of their original vocation, Pope Francis said during a Stations of the Cross service on Good Friday, where the meditations included a strong emphasis on women, writes Christopher Lamb.
At its conclusion on Friday night, Francis delivered a final prayer expressing “shame for all the times that we bishops, priests, consecrated men and women scandalized and hurt your body, the Church”.
The Pope went on: “We have forgotten our first love, our initial enthusiasm and our total availability, leaving rust in our hearts and our consecration,” while praying that “our betrayals” do not undermine “the immensity” of God’s love and mercy.
Francis did not cite clerical sexual abuse or any specific scandal involving priests and Religious, but lamented the innocent blood that is paid daily by “women, children, immigrants and people persecuted for the color of their skin… and for their faith in you”.
The annual Good Friday penitential gathering took place in a lit-up Colosseum, when a torch-light procession weaved its way around the former Roman gladiatorial arena, a place of death for the early Christians. Each year the Pope leads the night-time service in the same place and Francis did so again, sitting bowed in prayer in front of a flaming cross erected on a platform.
Among those carrying the cross around the 14 Stations were Egyptians.
I got this information from the UK magazine The Tablet but the information is very much delayed because there is something wrong in our postal delivery system from Manila to Cagayan de Oro.
On another note: the declaration of martial law by President Duterte. Personally, I am against martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus because of my bad experience during martial law of Marcos. He deported me for having taught the workers about their rights as workers. Maybe, Duterte can declare martial law in Marawi City but definitely not in the whole of Mindanao or the whole country.
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