Via Crucis – with reflections from Pope Francis

The Way of the Cross is a significant and important moment of piety for Christian communities during Lent and Holy Week: a moment of genuine and heartfelt prayer, whose essential plot is guided by the Word of God; it indicates the succession of the traditional “stations”, moments of pause to contemplate the stages of Jesus’ painful and salvific journey to Calvary. In the Way of the Cross we unite ourselves to that Hour that is commemorated: the Hour in which the Lamb, burdened with the sins of the world, ascended to the place where he shed the blood of the new and eternal Covenant. Way of the Cross Way of the Cross, the path that Christ accepts to follow, accepting the Father’s saving plan. It is also – if we accept it – a path for us: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Way of the Cross Space in which God’s mercy is revealed. It is the love and tenderness of a Father who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16); it is the love of Jesus, who gives his life for all of us (cf. Jn 15:13); it is also the path of the Spirit who infuses peace and comfort in hearts. The Way of the Cross It is a place of learning where the missionary disciple, looking at the Cross, learns what the logic of God is: it is not that of pain and death, but that of love and self-giving. Here we learn, as in a school, to enter into the new logic of the Gospel. The Way of the Cross It is also the cry of humanity in need. A cry for peace and justice. A cry of all those who have no hope. It is your cry, my cry; the cry of those of us who know we are sinners, the cry of those of us who need God. Come, let us walk in the light of the Cross; let us allow ourselves to be invited by the one who loves us. Let us walk together along the path of Calvary, without fear and with courage, putting our shoulders under the wood, united to this logic of love that saves us.

EQUIPO PAULINAS

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