BRAVE ARE THE YOUNG WHO BEAR THE CROSS WITHOUT FEAR

Vatican City, 27 June 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis arrived at 5.20 p.m. local time at the beachfront at Copacabana where he greeted the young people awaiting him from the Popemobile. The Holy Father asked thirty-five unemployed Argentine “cartoneros” to join him on the stage, and greeted them warmly. These men and women had regular jobs prior to the 2001 economic crisis, but are now forced to live in the “villas miserias”, Argentine favelas. In Argentina there are around 100 thousand cartoneros who live by rummaging through refuse in search of paper, metal and food.

At 6 p.m. the Via Crucis began. It had fourteen stations, thirteen of which were located in the 900 metres of Viale Atlantico, the beachfront promenade at Copacabana, and the last is represented on the stage from which the Pope viewed the entire procession. The celebration lasted around an hour and a quarter, in which artists and volunteers participated. The texts of the meditations were prepared by the Dehonian priests Fr. Zezinho and Fr. Joaozinho, well-known for their work with young people.

At the end of the Via Crucis, Francis commented that the Way of the Cross was “one of the most intense moments of World Youth Day” and that since 1984 the Cross had “travelled to every continent and through a variety of human situations. It is … almost “steeped” in the life experiences of the countless young people who have seen it and carried it”. At the end of the Year of Redemption, Blessed John Paul II entrusted the Cross to the young, asking them to “carry it through the world as a symbol of Christ's love for humanity, and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption”.

“No one can approach and touch the Cross of Jesus without leaving something of himself or herself there, and without bringing something of the Cross of Jesus into his or her own life. I have three questions that I hope will echo in your hearts this evening as you walk beside Jesus: What have you left on the Cross, dear young people of Brazil, during these two years that it has been crisscrossing your great country? What has the Cross of Jesus left for you, in each one of you? Finally, what does this Cross teach us?”

The Pope remarked that St. Peter, while leaving Rome to flee persecution, saw Jesus travelling in the opposite direction, towards the city, and “at that moment he understood that he had to follow the Lord with courage, to the very end. But he also realized that he would never be alone on the journey; Jesus, Who had loved him even unto death, would always be with him. Jesus, with His Cross, walks with us and takes upon Himself our fears, our problems, and our sufferings, even those which are deepest and most painful. With the Cross, Jesus unites Himself to the silence of the victims of violence, those who can no longer cry out, especially the innocent and the defenceless; with the Cross, He is united to families in trouble, and those who mourn the tragic loss of their children, as in the case of the 242 young victims of the fire in the city of Santa Maria at the beginning of this year. Let us pray for them. On the Cross, Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world where on the other side we permit ourselves the luxury of throwing away tons of food each day; on the Cross, Jesus is united with the many mothers and fathers who suffer, seeing their children become victims of the artificial paradise offered by drugs; on the Cross, Jesus is united with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs or simply for the colour of their skin; on the Cross, Jesus is united with so many young people who have lost faith in political institutions, because they see in them only selfishness and corruption; he unites himself with those young people who have lost faith in the Church, or even in God because of the counter-witness of Christians and ministers of the Gospel. How Jesus suffers for our incoherence! The Cross of Christ bears the suffering and the sin of mankind, including our own. Jesus accepts all this with open arms, bearing on His shoulders our crosses and saying to us: “Have courage! You do not carry your cross alone! I carry it with you. I have overcome death and I have come to give you hope, to give you life”.

The Holy Father then considered the second question: “What has the Cross given to those who have gazed upon it or touched it? What has it left in each one of us? It gives us a treasure that no one else can give: the certainty of the unshakable love which God has for us. A love so great that it enters into our sin and forgives it, enters into our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it. It is a love which enters into death to conquer it and to save us. The Cross of Christ contains all the love of God, it is His immeasurable mercy. This is a love in which we can place all our trust, in which we can believe. Dear young people”, he continued, “let us entrust ourselves to Jesus, let us give ourselves over to Him, because He never disappoints! … With Him, evil, suffering, and death do not have the last word, because He gives us hope and life: He has transformed the Cross from an instrument of hate, defeat and death into a sign of love, victory, triumph and life”.

Pope Francis continued, “How many people were with Jesus on the way to Calvary: Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, the women… Today I ask you: which of these people do you want to be like? Do you want to be like Pilate, who did not have the courage to go against the tide to save Jesus’ life, and instead washed his hands. Tell me: are you one of those ewho wash their hands, who play dumb and turn away? Or are you like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy wood, like Mary and the other women, who were not afraid to accompany Jesus all the way to the end, with love and tenderness. And you? Which of these do you want to be like? Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary?” Jesus is watching you now and He says: do you want to help me carry the Cross? Brothers and sisters, with your youthful strength, how will you answer Him?”

The Pope concluded by asking the young to bring their joys, their sufferings and their failures to Christ's Cross, as “there we will find a Heart that is open to us and understands us, forgives us, loves us and calls us to bear this love in our lives, to love each person, each brother and sister, with the same love.”