Resurrection wasn’t ‘happy ending’
P(ANSA) – Vatican City, April 16 – Pope Francis said Wednesday Christ’s Resurrection was not just the happy ending to a fairy tale or a film.BR”This week we are thinking a lot about the pain of Jesus and we say to ourselves that this is for me, that if I were the only person in the world, he would have done it for me,” the pope said at his general audience ahead of his second Easter at the helm of the Catholic Church.BR”When all seems lost and there’s no one for the lost sheep, that’s when God intervenes with the power of the Resurrection, which is not the happy end to a nice fairy tale or a film, it’s the intervention of God where human hope is broken”, Francis told a big audience on a bright but brisk spring day. The Wednesday of Holy Week is known as Spy Wednesday in many parts of the English-speaking world. The Gospel reading of the day recounts Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, which sets in motion the events of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. In his catechetical remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square under a brilliant blue April sky, with a crisp spring breeze blowing through the city, Pope Francis spoke of Christ’s free embrace of suffering and death, which he took on for our sake. “Out of love for us,” wrote Pope Francis, “Jesus freely walked the path of humiliation and self-abandonment for our salvation”.BRAs Saint Paul says, “he emptied himself…and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”. “As we contemplate Jesus in his passion, we see reflected the sufferings of all humanity and we discover God’s answer to the mystery of evil, suffering and death. “He gives us his Son, who dies humiliated, betrayed, abandoned and reviled. Yet God’s victory shines forth in what appears, in human terms, to be failure and defeat”, said Francis. There were several groups of English-speaking pilgrims in the crowd, from countries including England, Australia, Canada and the United States, for whom the Holy Father had greetings. Pope Francis offered a particular welcome to the delegation from the NATO Defense College, which is located in Rome and which hosts major international events as the premier academic institution of the Treaty Organization.BRPope Francis will lead the Holy Week liturgies and devotions in Rome, including the traditional Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday morning, the Missa in Coena Domini at the Centro Santa Maria della Provvidenza – “Our Lady of Providence” – home for the elderly and disabled on Thursday evening, the Passion service with the veneration of the Cross on Good Friday afternoon, and the Way of the Cross on Good Friday evening at the Colosseum in Rome.BRThe culminating celebration of the Sacred Triduum – the Easter Vigil Mass – will be in St Peter’s Basilica, on the night between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday morning, when he will also give the traditional ‘urbi et orbi’ (To the city and the world) blessing following Mass.BRThe pontiff’s Wednesday audience was attended by about 25,000 people. http://popefrancisnewsapp.com/ /P
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