Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – At the end of the Way of the Cross which the Holy Father presided at the Colosseum in the evening of Good Friday April, 10, the Pope reflected on the Roman Soldier who believed in the Son of God: “ When the darkness of night was falling on that Friday so unlike any other in history, when the sacrifice of the Cross was already consummated and the bystanders were making haste to celebrate the Jewish Passover in the usual way, these few words, wrung from the lips of a nameless commander in the Roman army, resounded through the silence that surrounded that most singular death”. The soldier “was able to recognize in this crucified man the Son of God, who had perished in the most humiliating abandonment”.
Then the Holy Father, urging those present to contemplate like the Roman solider the “lifeless face of the Crucified One ”, continued: “We have re-lived the tragic event of a man unique in the history of all times, who changed the world not by killing others but by letting himself be killed as he hung from a cross. This man, seemingly one of us, who while he was being killed forgave his executioners, is the “Son of God’”.
Benedict XVI went on to say that the Lord's passion “constitutes the climax of the revelation of God’s love for each of us” because “it is for love of us that Christ dies on the cross! ”. The Pontiff then recalled the martyrs, including many unknown: “ Throughout the course of the millennia, a great multitude of men and women have been drawn deeply into this mystery and they have followed him, making in their turn, like him and with his help, a gift to others of their own lives. […] how many people, in the silence of their daily lives, unite their sufferings with those of the Crucified One and become apostles of a true spiritual and social renewal! What would man be without Christ?.
Then again the Pope reflected on the “disfigured face of the” Man of sorrows “ His face is reflected in that of every person who is humiliated and offended, sick and suffering, alone, abandoned and despised” and “. Pouring out his blood, he has rescued us from the slavery of death, he has broken the solitude of our tears, he has entered into our every grief and our every anxiety”.
Pope Benedict concluded: "Brothers and Sisters! As the Cross rises up on Golgotha, the eyes of our faith are already turned towards the dawning of the new Day, and we begin to taste the joy and splendour of Easter. ”. (Agenzia Fides 10/4/2009, righe 24, parole 407)
