Pope Francis comforts Michelangelo after baptizing the baby at the Gemelli hospital in Rome on March 31, 2023. The Pope spent about half an hour in the hospital’s pediatric oncology ward the afternoon before his departure from the Gemelli after being treated for bronchitis. (CNS Photo/Holy See Press Office)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“God does not hide the wounds that pierced his body and soul, from our eyes. He shows them so we can see that a new passage can be opened with Easter: to make holes of lights out of our own wounds.” (Pope Francis, Holy Week General Audience Message April 5, 2023)
In the days leading up to Holy Week, news worldwide included concern for Pope Francis’s health after he was hospitalized in Rome for bronchitis. Although he already has a damaged lung, the pontiff remained steadfastly hopeful in his faith and asked the world to focus reflection on the catechetical message of “the Crucifix as a well spring of hope.” Even while facing his own medical challenges, our Holy Father joyfully encouraged other patients in the hospital, and compassionately consoled a distraught couple whose 5-year-old daughter had just died.
In his Holy Week preaching on the Passion, the pope continually reminded us that Christ on the Cross reveals God’s merciful love in the passage of Jesus through the darkness of Good Friday to the light of Easter Sunday. “Let us look at the tree of the cross so that hope might germinate in us — that virtue that keeps us on our feet, that helps us move forward … that we might be healed of our sadness. It is not possible to live without hope.”
Reflecting on the Crucifix, Pope Francis underscored that Christ did not hide his wounds on the cross, and we all have wounds and scars. However, our Holy Father emphasized, “The point is not whether we are wounded a little or a lot in life, the point is what to do with my wounds — the little ones, the big ones, the ones that leave their mark forever on my body, on my soul. What can I do with my wounds?”
The pope proposes that, like Christ, we transform wounds into “holes of light” and sources of hope. “Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we dry the tears shed by others; when, instead of nourishing resentment for what was robbed of us, we take care of what others are lacking; when, instead of dwelling on ourselves, we bend over those who suffer; when, instead of being thirsty for love, we quench the thirst of those in need of us. For it is only if we stop thinking of ourselves, that we will find ourselves again.”
We see Jesus himself
The pope admitted that at times he also faces moments of loneliness and sadness, but focusing on the Crucifix helps him find Christ on the cross close at hand. “Christ, in his abandonment, stirs us to seek him and to love him and those who are themselves abandoned. For in them we see not only people in need, but Jesus himself, abandoned. I too need Jesus to caress me and draw close to me, and for this reason I go to find him in the abandoned, in the lonely. He wants us to care for our brothers and sisters who resemble him most on the cross, those experiencing extreme suffering and solitude.”
On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis reminded all that serving others, symbolized in the “washing of the feet,” is a vital part of experiencing the full meaning of the Passover meal and Jesus’s sacrifice in the Eucharist as well as the hope of the Resurrected Christ in the Real Presence beyond the Mass. The Eucharist gathers us to give thanks for, and be nourished by, God’s love, so that we can become transformed into the body of Christ and be sent forth as instruments of hope through service with others in need. This is also how the Catechesis on the Crucifix as the well spring of hope is connected with the Catholic Catechism instruction that clearly states “The Eucharist commits us to the poor.”
Bishop Larry Silva beautifully expressed this in his 2023 Easter message: “As we come together with our brothers and sisters throughout the world and throughout the centuries to celebrate the saving death and resurrection of Jesus — the greatest event in the history of the world — Jesus continues to hide himself in plain sight. He hides himself in bread and wine, so that only those who believe will be able to see him as truly present with us to nourish and guide us. He hides himself in the poor and the needy, challenging us always to care for him as we care for these sisters and brothers. He is hidden in those rag-tag people who compose the Church, because he considers us true members of his Body, his living presence in the world.”
Let us pray that the Crucifix be a daily wellspring of hope in our lives by helping the healing light of Easter shine even through the holes of our wounds.
For the full texts of these inspiring Easter messages, please visit the OSM website officeforsocialministry.org.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
