杏MAP导航

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

With Jesus, it is never too late. With Him, things are never over.

杏MAP导航 Francis underscored this during his , insisting that no matter how dire a situation may be, it is never too late to begin again since the Lord waits for us with His mercy.

The 杏MAP导航 presided over the liturgy of Palm Sunday of the Lord鈥檚 Passion in St. Peter's Square, marking the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that the Holy Father could lead the celebration among numerous masked faithful outdoors, rather than from inside St. Peter's Basilica with very limited numbers permitted to protect against contagion.

'Father, forgive them'

The Holy Father began his homily remembering how on Calvary, "two ways of thinking collided."  In the Gospel, the 杏MAP导航 observed, the crucified Jesus' words of forgiveness are in sharp contrast with those who crucified Him, who kept saying to Christ: 鈥淪ave yourself.鈥�  

The 杏MAP导航 highlighted how God鈥檚 way of thinking goes against this self-centred suggestion, noting, "The mantra save yourself collides with the words of the Saviour who offers His self."  The Lord did not defend or justify Himself. Rather, He prayed to the Father, offered mercy to the good thief, and said: 鈥淔ather, forgive them鈥� amid "the most searing physical pain" of His Passion.

At times like that, the 杏MAP导航 pointed out, "we would scream out and give vent to all our anger and suffering.  But Jesus said: Father, forgive them."  

Jesus, the 杏MAP导航 recalled, did not rebuke His executioners or threaten punishments in the name of God, but rather prayed for the evildoers. The 杏MAP导航 then said that God does the same with us. 

"Let us look to Jesus on the Cross," the 杏MAP导航 said, and "realize that we have never been looked upon with a more gentle and compassionate gaze" nor ever "received a more loving embrace." 

The 杏MAP导航 invited faithful to look at the crucified Lord and say: "Thank you, Jesus: you love me and always forgive me, even at those times when I find it hard to love and forgive myself.鈥�

Jesus asks to break vicious cycle

"Let us think about someone who, in our own lives, injured, offended or disappointed us; someone who made us angry, who did not understand us or who set a bad example," the 杏MAP导航 invited, saying, "How often we spend time looking back on those who have wronged us!" 

Today, the Holy Father insisted, "Jesus teaches us not to remain there, but to react, to break the vicious circle of evil and sorrow."  

God, the 杏MAP导航 reminded, "sees a son or a daughter in each person." The Lord, he insisted, does not separate us into good and bad, friends and enemies.  "We are the ones who do this, and we make God suffer." 

Never tires of forgiving

According to the Gospel, the 杏MAP导航 remembered, Jesus did not say to forgive those crucifying Him once as He was being nailed to the Cross, but spent all His crucifixion with these words on His lips and in His heart. 

"Let us never grow tired of proclaiming God鈥檚 forgiveness: we priests, of administering it; all Christians, of receiving it and bearing witness to it," the 杏MAP导航 said.

In folly of war, Christ crucified again 

Those who crucified Christ, the 杏MAP导航 observed, had premeditated His killing, organized His arrest and trials, and now they were standing on Calvary to witness His death. Regardless, he stated, Christ justifies those violent men by saying that "they know not."

This, the Holy Father explained, "is how Jesus acts in our regard: He makes Himself our advocate.  He does not set Himself against us, but for us and against our sins." These words make us think, the 杏MAP导航 said.

"When we resort to violence," the 杏MAP导航 continued, "we show that we no longer know anything about God, who is our Father, or even about others, who are our brothers and sisters.  We lose sight of why we are in the world and even end up committing senseless acts of cruelty." 

"We see this in the folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet another time," the 杏MAP导航 said.

'You will be with me in Paradise'

The 杏MAP导航 reminded that only one person responded to Jesus' invitation to leave the past and start new while Jesus was on the Cross, namely "a criminal," crucified next to Jesus, who said "Jesus, remember me."

"The good thief accepted God as his life was ending, and in this way, his life began anew," the 杏MAP导航 said. "In the hell of this world, he saw heaven opening up: 'Today you will be with me in Paradise.'" This, the 杏MAP导航 said, is the marvel of God鈥檚 forgiveness, "which turned the last request of a man condemned to death into the first canonization of history."

With God, it is never too late

During Holy Week, the Holy Father said, "let us cling to the certainty that God can forgive every sin, bridge every distance, and turn all mourning into dancing. The certainty that with Jesus, there is always a place for everyone.  That with Jesus, things are never over.  That with Him, it is never too late. "

The Holy Father concluded by inviting faithful to journey toward Easter with His forgiveness, certain that Christ constantly intercedes for us before the Father.

"Gazing upon our violent and tormented world," 杏MAP导航 Francis said, Jesus "never tires of repeating: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.'"