The Passion of Christ, mirror of the sufferings of humanity

“Looking upon Jesus in his passion, we see as in a mirror the sufferings of all humanity, and we find the divine answer to the mystery of evil, of pain, of death.”

This is the reflection developed by Pope Francis on Wednesday during the general audience in Saint Peter’s Square, before some 25,000 people, on the theme of the path of suffering that Christ walked all the way to Golgotha. The Pope commented on the episode of Judas’ betrayal and the fact that he sold himself to the chief priests. With Judas’ betrayal, “Jesus has a price, as in the marketplace,” the Pope declared. “A dramatic act that marks the beginning of Christ’s Passion,” the Pope stressed, “a path of sorrows that Christ chooses in complete freedom,” Francis being intent on explaining the link between Christ’s humiliation and the pain of human existence.

“So many times,” the Pope then declared, “we are horrified by the evil and the pain that surround us: ‘Why does God permit this?’ It is a deep wound for us to see suffering and death, especially that of the innocent.” “When we see children suffer,” Pope Francis added, speaking off the cuff, “we are wounded in our hearts. This is the whole mystery of evil. And Jesus takes all this evil, all this suffering, upon himself.” “This week it would be good for us to look at the Crucifix, to kiss the wounds of Jesus, to kiss them on the Crucifix. He, Christ, has taken upon himself all human suffering.” “Jesus reached complete humiliation with death on the cross, the worst of deaths, the one reserved for slaves and criminals. Jesus was regarded as a prophet, but he dies like a criminal.”

The Passion of Christ “is not an accident”; Christ “allows evil to unleash itself upon him, and he takes it upon himself in order to conquer it.” Nor is the resurrection “the happy ending of a film or the neat conclusion of a pretty fable.” “The resurrection is the intervention of God the Father, and it is there that all human hope rests.” “The Son of God, indeed, appears on the cross as a defeated man: he suffers, he is betrayed, reviled, and finally he dies. His death, this death was written, and it is a bewildering mystery, this great humility of God—and also that he so loved the world that he offered his only Son.”

Source: News.va