The Way of the Cross
Address of the Holy Father Friday, 19 August 2011
Dear Young People,
We have celebrated this Way of the Cross with fervour and devotion, following Christ along the path of his passion and death.
The commentaries of the Little Sisters of the Cross, who serve
the poor and most needy, have helped us enter into the mystery of
Christ’s glorious Cross, wherein is found God’s true wisdom which judges
the world and judges those who consider themselves wise (cf. 1 Cor
1:17-19).
We have also been assisted on this journey to Calvary by our
contemplation of these wonderful images from the religious patrimony of
the Spanish dioceses.
In these images, faith and art combine so as to
penetrate our heart and summon us to conversion. When faith’s gaze is
pure and authentic, beauty places itself at its service and is able to
depict the mysteries of our salvation in such a way as to move us
profoundly and transform our hearts, as Saint Teresa of Jesus herself
experienced while contemplating an image of the wounded Christ (cf.
Autobiography, 9:1). As we were making our way with Jesus towards the
place of his sacrifice on Mount Calvary, the words of Saint Paul came to
mind: “Christ loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
In the
face of such disinterested love, we find ourselves asking, filled with
wonder and gratitude: What can we do for him? What response shall we
give him? Saint John puts it succinctly: “By this we know love, that he
laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren” (1 Jn 3:16). Christ’s passion urges us to take upon our own
shoulders the sufferings of the world, in the certainty that God is not
distant or far removed from man and his troubles.
On the contrary, he
became one of us “in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way —
in flesh and blood ... hence in all human suffering we are joined by one
who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio
is present in all suffering, the consolation of God's compassionate love
— and so the star of hope rises” (Spe Salvi, 39).
Dear young friends, may Christ’s love for us increase your joy and encourage you to go in search of those less fortunate. You are open to the idea of sharing your lives with others, so be sure not to pass by on the other side in the face of human suffering, for it is here that God expects you to give of your very best: your capacity for love and compassion.
The
different forms of suffering that have unfolded before our eyes in the
course of this Way of the Cross are the Lord’s way of summoning us to
spend our lives following in his footsteps and becoming signs of his
consolation and salvation.
“To suffer with the other and for others; to
suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in
order to become a person who truly loves — these are fundamental
elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself”
(ibid.).
Let us eagerly welcome these teachings and put them into
practice. Let us look upon Christ, hanging on the harsh wood of the
Cross, and let us ask him to teach us this mysterious wisdom of the
Cross, by which man lives.
The Cross was not a sign of failure, but an
expression of self-giving in love that extends even to the supreme
sacrifice of one’s life.
The Father wanted to show his love for us
through the embrace of his crucified Son: crucified out of love.
The
Cross, by its shape and its meaning, represents this love of both the
Father and the Son for men. Here we recognize the icon of supreme love,
which teaches us to love what God loves and in the way that he loves:
this is the Good News that gives hope to the world.
Let us turn our gaze now to the Virgin Mary, who was given to us on Calvary to be our Mother, and let us ask her to sustain us with her loving protection along the path of life, particularly when we pass through the night of suffering, so that we may be able to remain steadfast, as she did, at the foot of the Cross.