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April 14, 2025With this solemn celebration we enter into the Holy Week that takes us to the foundation of Christian life, to the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the redeemer of the world.
We have relived the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem acclaimed by the disciples and the people. We have relived right now the passion of the Lord until his death on the cross. We are called to contemplate the immense love of God that was manifested in Jesus, who, as St. Paul says in the hymn that was proclaimed in the second reading, became obedient unto death, even death on the cross.
We enter into this Holy Week as pilgrims of hope, walking in the footsteps of Christ in this Jubilee Year of the Lord 2025. Christ is our hope because he has passed through the atrocious suffering of the cross, he has passed through death; and the Father raised him in the strength of the Spirit and now he lives forever.
But why did he have to face this harsh passion? What does all this mean for us today who live in this part of the world? The word of God shows us first of all that the passion of the Lord was not a misfortune that happened by chance. Jesus is not presented as a failure who was unable to carry out his mission. Jesus is not one of the many visionaries who failed in history. In the first reading we hear the prophecy of Isaiah who tells us about the Servant of God who is prepared to accept insults and spitting and beatings. But he knows well that God helps him: the Lord is my help therefore I shall not be put to shame.
St. Paul even reads the entire passion connecting it to the mystery of the incarnation. Christ who, although being God, emptied himself to be a servant of all. He humbled himself to becoming man and dying on the cross, not as a defeat but as an utmost obedience to the heavenly Father to accomplish his plan of salvation. For this obedience, the obedience even unto death, that the Father exalted him and raised him from the dead and now he reigns forever.
And we recognize in Jesus, the true God and the true man, who took upon himself our sins. We bend our knees, we adore him, we proclaim him Lord, we entrust ourselves to him because we recognize him as our only hope.
Looking at the passion that Christ endured for love of us, we feel strengthened on our journey. Every time we experience fatigue and humiliation; we look towards Christ who emptied himself for the sake of our love. When we fall into sin, we look towards him who took upon himself the sins of the world and we courageously rise up from sin to resume our journey.
The Lord Jesus, despite being of divine nature, became a human being as we are; he let himself be sent into the world, he became migrant walking on the roads of this world, he let himself be mistreated to give us great hope and to ensure our victory over evil and death.
Dear faithful, let us therefore enter into this Holy Week with a strong hope in Christ. I invite you to live these holy days with faith. I invite you to intensify your prayer. In this week, take the Bible, the Gospel and reread, meditating carefully on the Lord's passion. Read the passion alone, with your family or friends. Meditating on the Lord's passion fills us with consolation and patience, learning how to bear the adversities of daily life.
Finally, I invite you to approach the sacrament of confession; Jesus is always ready to forgive our sins; let ourselves be reconciled with God and you will fully participate in the joy of Easter.
May Mary, the virgin of sorrow, who accompanied Jesus to the cross, help us to live these days intensely. Together with Mary, let us look to Jesus and let ourselves be transformed by His infinite love.