Francis’ words at the Confirmation Mass and the testimony of Christians in the editorial this Holy Thursday, March 28, signed by Andrea Tornielli.
Andrea Tornielli
“The Lord does not ask for contemptuous judgments against those who do not believe, but love and tears for those who live far away.” Pope Francis begins the rites of Holy Week by presiding over the Confirmation Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and delivering a tearful homily. Starting with that “bitter tear” of the apostle Peter, who, after having denied the Master three times in the courtyard of the high priests’ house, met for a few moments the merciful gaze of Jesus in chains and, faced with the embrace of forgiveness, recognized his sin. Francisco speaks to his brother priests, in the celebration dedicated especially to them. But his words can reach out and involve us all.
Faced with life’s situations, the positions of those who do not believe, those who argue with us, but also faced with the different sensibilities of our brothers in faith, how often contemptuous and definitive judgments spring from our hearts. Sometimes mocking judgments, not unlike those that echoed at the foot of the cross. We only need to look “inside the house” first to realize this risk. It is enough to look, even if in a distracted way, at the world of social media and blogs that claim to be Christian to realize that the evangelical counter-testimony involves the attitude of those who are dedicated to dividing, opposing and ridiculing those whose only defect is think differently. Broadening our gaze, how can we not think about the ocean of hate that is unleashed and fueled by wars, terrorism and violence that continue to claim innocent victims?
Christians are followers of a God made Man who has asked us to love even our enemies. A God who does not need our prejudices and disdainful judgments about others, but who manifests himself by embracing us when we are capable of crying and loving, when we allow ourselves to be crossed by the suffering of others, leaving the bubbles of indifference, when we love those who are far away and we pray for him, when – instead of recriminating – we shed tears for those who are outside of what we believe to be the precincts of the righteous, the saved, the good, those who are “well”, those who believe that they already know everything and , therefore, do not wait for anything else.
“The difficult situations that we see and experience, the lack of faith, the suffering that we experience”, said Francis to the priests, “in contact with a broken heart, they definitely do not give rise to controversy, but to perseverance in mercy. How much we need to be freed of hardness and recriminations, of selfishness and ambitions, of rigidities and dissatisfactions, to trust and give ourselves to God, finding in Him a peace that saves from every storm! Let us adore, intercede and cry for others: we will thus allow the Lord to accomplish wonders.”
On the eve of the repetition of the sacrifice of Golgotha, Christians, forgiven sinners, learn from Peter’s tears to recognize themselves as such. And, opening themselves to the free and unconditional love of the Crucified One, they learn to love one another and, thus, to be witnesses of mercy in a world that does not forgive; witnesses of unity in a divided world; witnesses of peace in a world where violence and war seem to prevail. They learn to be witnesses of a hope that is not based on their own abilities and skills, but on the certainty of what happened on Easter night in that tomb in Jerusalem.
