Pope Francis leads the Good Friday Way of the Cross in Rome’s Colosseum April 19, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“I came that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
The Easter Season is a special time for Christians around the world to celebrate the fullness of life, renewal and the Resurrection in the Risen Lord. We were blessed to be in the Eternal City of Rome this year to join in the Paschal Mystery celebrations of Holy Week with Pope Francis.
We went to the Vatican to reflect on the church’s pastoral response to the worldwide scourge of human trafficking. Our Holy Father focused our reflection with the quote above from John’s Gospel. He said “This Scripture summarizes the mission of Jesus to offer the fullness of life to all men and women of every age, according to the plan of the Father. The Son of God became man to show all human beings the path to realizing their humanity in conformity with each person’s uniqueness.”
The pope elaborated on this theme at Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square, where thousands of pilgrims and migrants from around the world had gathered with olive branches and Jerusalem rosaries to share the journey of salvation as one ohana. We participated in the Mass with a young American married couple — a Filipina/Hawaiian East Los Angeles middle school teacher and her husband, a Mexican-American community organizer in Southern California. They were invited to Rome for the global conference on human trafficking. They carried with them the picture and story of a refugee family with whom they share a one-room studio apartment. The refugee single mom and her child fled Central American violence and, on the way to the United States, were victimized by human smugglers and traffickers.
At the Holy Thursday’s Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father urged the thousands of priests gathered there who work in the Diocese of Rome to be focused more on the fullness of life for the people they serve, rather than on their own comfort or security. Later the pope illustrated this message of love and service by washing and kissing the feet of prisoners in Italian jails (as he has done many times before — on his hands and knees). Just days before, Pope Francis made news by kneeling at the feet of South Sudan’s president, pleading with him to work for peace in his war-ravaged country, where thousands of refugees are dying in the desert.
Good Friday
This mission of Jesus with the vulnerable was underscored again during Good Friday’s Way of the Cross in the Roman Colosseum. This very moving night procession focused on the victims of human trafficking. The cross was carried by persons involved in this ministry: nuns who attend to the victims in the streets; the survivors themselves, such as a Nigerian mother and daughter; and by other vulnerable “ministers” with disabilities in wheelchairs. We witnessed many people ministering to each other in the procession, as the women of Jerusalem had attended to Jesus during his passion. Each station of the cross “talked story” about the challenges faced by vulnerable persons today, especially victims of human trafficking. Millions of people worldwide are tricked into the sex-slave trade or into organ-selling just to help their starving families.
Holy Week ended with a joyous Easter Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square and the annual papal state of the world message (Urbi et Orbi), which our Holy Father began with these words, “Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world. Everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life.”
Pope Francis concluded his prayer by asking God to make us “builders of bridges, not walls.”
“May the Risen Christ open our hearts to the needs of the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the poor, the unemployed, the marginalized and all those who knock at our door in search of bread, refuge and the recognition of their dignity,” he said. “Christ is alive. May we let ourselves be renewed in him.”
For more ways to encounter God and be renewed in the Risen Christ in ministry with vulnerable persons, please visit our website, www.officeforsocialministry.org.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
