Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
As we celebrate Palm Sunday today, we have listened to the account of the Lord’s Passion according to Luke (cf. Lk 22:14-23:56) in the Gospel. We have heard Jesus addressing the Father several times: ” “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” (22:42); Father, forgive them, they know not what they do ‘ (23:34); Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (23:46). We have seen him walk towards the cross defenceless and humiliated, with the feelings and the heart of a child clinging to his father’s neck, fragile in the flesh, but strong in trusting abandonment, until he fell asleep, in death, in the Father’s arms.
These are feelings that the liturgy calls us to contemplate and make our own. We all have sorrows, physical or moral, and faith helps us not to give in to despair, not to close ourselves off in bitterness, but to face them, feeling enveloped, like Jesus, by the providential and merciful embrace of the Father.
Sisters and brothers, I thank you very much for your prayers. At this time of physical weakness, they help me to feel God’s closeness, compassion and tenderness even more. I too am praying for you, and I ask you to entrust all those who suffer to the Lord together with me, especially those affected by war, poverty or natural disasters. In particular, may God receive in His peace the victims of the collapse of a building in Santo Domingo, and comfort their families.
The 15th of April will mark the second sad anniversary of the beginning of the conflict in Sudan, in which thousands have been killed and millions of families have been forced to flee their homes. The suffering of children, women and vulnerable people cries out to heaven and begs us to act. I renew my appeal to the parties involved, that they may end the violence and embark on paths of dialogue, and to the international community, so that the help needed may be provided to the populations.
And let us also remember Lebanon, where the tragic civil war began fifty years ago: with God’s help, may it live in peace and prosperity.
May peace come at last to martyred Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Myanmar, to South Sudan. May Mary, Mother of Sorrows, obtain this grace for us and help us to live this Holy Week with faith.
Source: vatican.va