Exaltation of the Holy Cross [Sunday, 14 September 2025]

May God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!  Contemplating the Mystery of the Cross, we discover the sweetness of a love that is born where life seems to die. As he dies crucified, Jesus reveals forever the definitive victory of Love and Mercy.

*First Reading from the Book of Numbers (21:4–9)

The Book of Exodus and the Book of Numbers recount similar episodes: when the people, freed from slavery in Egypt, walk towards the Promised Land, they must face daily life in the desert, a totally inhospitable place. As slaves in Egypt, they were sedentary, certainly not accustomed to long marches on foot, but they had a master who fed them, so they did not die of hunger as they did in the desert, where they began to regret the famous onions of Egypt.  They were tempted by discouragement due to hunger, thirst and fear of all the inconveniences of the desert, and, disheartened, they began to murmur against God and Moses for leading them to die in the desert. The Lord then sent poisonous snakes against the people, and many Israelites died. At this point, the people repented, acknowledged their sin, and prayed to the Lord to remove the snakes. God commanded Moses to make a snake (tradition says of bronze) so that, when fixed on a pole, it could heal anyone who looked at it. It is interesting to consider how Moses reacted: he did not question whether or not the snakes came from God, but his aim was to lead this distrustful people to an attitude of trust, whatever the difficulties, because it was not so much the snakes as their lack of trust in God that was slowing down their journey to freedom. To educate them in the faith, he uses a familiar practice: the worship of a healing god represented by a bronze serpent on a pole (probably the ancestor of the caduceus, today's symbol of medicine). It was enough to look at the fetish to be healed. Moses does not destroy the tradition, but transforms it: Do as you always have done, but know that it is not the serpent that heals you but the Lord, and do not be confused because one God has freed you from Egypt, and by looking at the serpent, you are actually worshipping the God of the Covenant. Centuries later, the Book of Wisdom would comment: 'Those who turned to look at it were saved, not by the object they looked at, but by you, Saviour of all' (Wis 16:7). The struggle against idolatry, magic and divination runs through the entire biblical history and perhaps continues to this day. That bronze serpent, a sign to lead people to faith, came to be considered a magical object again, and for this reason King Hezekiah destroyed it definitively, as we read in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 18:4).

*Responsorial Psalm (77/78:3-4, 34-39)

In the responsorial psalm, taken from Psalm 77/78, we have a summary of the history of Israel, which unfolds in the relationship between God, who is always faithful, and that fickle people, who are forgetful but still aware of the importance of memory, so they repeat: 'We have heard what our fathers told us, we will repeat it to the next generation'. Faith is transmitted when those who have experienced salvation can say, 'God has saved me,' and in turn share their experience with others. It will then be up to their community to remember and preserve this testimony because faith is an experience of salvation shared over time. The Jewish people have always known that faith is not intellectual baggage, but the common experience of God's ever-renewed gift and forgiveness. This psalm expresses all this: in seventy-two verses, it recalls the experience of salvation that founded the faith of Israel, namely, liberation from Egypt, and for this reason, the psalm contains many allusions to the Exodus and Sinai. Listening in the biblical sense means adhering wholeheartedly to the Word of God, and if a generation neglects to continue to bear witness to its faithfulness to God, the chain of transmission of faith is broken. Often over the centuries, fathers have confessed to their children that they have murmured against God despite his acts of salvation. This is what the psalm speaks of and accuses the people of unfaithfulness and inconstancy: "They flattered him with their mouths, but murmured with their tongues; their hearts were not steadfast towards him, and they were not faithful to his covenant" (vv. 36-37). This is idolatry, the target of all prophets because it is the cause of humanity's misfortune. Every idol sets us back on the path to freedom, and the definition of an idol is precisely what prevents us from being free. Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, revealing in a crude way the power and manipulation that any religion, whatever it may be, can exert over humanity. Superstition, fetishism and witchcraft prevent us from being free and learning to freely assume our responsibilities, because they make us live in a regime of fear. Every idolatrous cult distances us from the living and true God: only the truth can make us free men. Even the excessive worship of a person or an ideology makes us slaves: just think of all the fundamentalisms and fanaticisms that disfigure us, and money too can very well become an idol. In other verses that are not part of this Sunday's liturgy, the psalm offers a very eloquent image, that of a deformed bow: the heart of Israel should be like a bow stretched towards its God, but it is crooked. And it is precisely within this ingratitude that Israel had its most beautiful experience: that of God's forgiveness, as the psalm clearly states: "Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. But he, being merciful, forgave  their iniquity instead of destroying them" (v. 38). This description of  God's tender mercy shows that the psalm was written at a time when the revelation of the God of love had already deeply penetrated the faith of Israel. 

NOTE The great assembly at Shechem organised by Joshua had precisely this purpose: to revive the memory of this people who were the object of so much concern, but so often inclined to forget (Joshua 24: see the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time B): after reminding the assembled tribes of all God's works since Abraham, he said to them: "Choose today whom you will serve: either the Lord or an idol." And the tribes made the right choice that day, even if they would soon forget it. The transmission of faith is therefore like a relay race: "I have passed on to you what I myself have received," Paul says to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:23), and the liturgy is the privileged place for this witness and for this reviving of memory in the sense of gratitude that comes from experience.

*Second Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians (2:6-1)

This passage from Paul is read every year on Palm Sunday and now on the Feast of the Glorious Cross: this means that the two celebrations have something in common, which is the close link between Christ's suffering and his glory, between the lowering of the cross and the exaltation of the resurrection. Paul says it clearly: 'Christ humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross... Therefore God exalted him above all else' (vv. 8-9). The expression 'therefore' indicates a strong link and contrast between humiliation and exaltation, but we must not read these sentences in terms of reward, as if Jesus, having behaved admirably, received an admirable reward. This could be the 'tendency' or rather the 'temptation', but God is love and knows no calculations, exchanges, or quid pro quo, because love is free. The wonder of God's love is that it does not wait for our merits to fill us, and in the Bible, men discovered this little by little because grace, as its name indicates, is free. So, if, as Paul says, Jesus suffered and was then glorified, it is not because his suffering had accumulated enough merit to earn him the right to be rewarded. Therefore, to be faithful to the text, we must read it in terms of gratuitousness. For Paul, it is clear that God's gift is free, and this is evident in all his letters, having experienced it himself. When we read, 'Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited' (v. 6), it is clear that Paul is alluding to Adam and Eve, and here Paul probably offers us a commentary on the story of the Garden of Eden: the tempter had said, 'You will be like God', and to become like God, all they had to do was disobey God. Eve reached out her hand towards the forbidden fruit and took it (the Greek labousa in theological reading is 'claimed to be like God' as if it were her right). Paul contrasts the attitude of Adam/Eve (grabbing/avenging) with that of Christ (welcoming freely, obeying). Jesus Christ was only acceptance (what Paul calls 'obedience'), and precisely because he was pure acceptance of God's gift and not vindication, he was able to let himself be filled by the Father, completely available to his gift. Jesus' choice is 'kenosis', the total emptying of himself marked by five verbs of humiliation: emptying himself, taking on the condition of a servant, becoming like men, humbling himself, becoming obedient. The cross is the abyss of annihilation (vv. 6-8), but also the climax of the second sentence of the hymn (vv. 9-11). 'God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name' (v. 9). Jesus receives the Name that is above every name: the name 'Lord' is the name of God! To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that he is God: in the Old Testament, the title of Lord was reserved for God, as was genuflection. When Paul says, "For at the name of Jesus every knee should bend," he is alluding to a phrase from the prophet Isaiah: "Before me every knee shall bend, and every tongue shall swear allegiance" (Isaiah 45:23). The hymn concludes with 'every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (v. 11): seeing Christ bring love to its culmination, accepting to die to reveal the extent of God's love, we can say like the centurion: 'Truly this man was the Son of God'... because God is love.

*From the Gospel according to John (3:13-17)

The first surprise in this text is that Jesus speaks of the cross in positive, even 'glorious' terms: on the one hand, he uses the term 'lifted up' – 'the Son of Man must be lifted up' (v. 14) – and then this cross, which in our eyes is an instrument of torture and pain, is presented as proof of God's love: 'God so loved the world' (v. 17). How can the instrument of torture of an innocent person be glorious? And here lies the second surprise: the reference to the bronze serpent. Jesus uses this image because it was well known at the time. The first reading speaks at length about this event in the Sinai desert during the Exodus, following Moses. The Jews were attacked by poisonous snakes and, having a guilty conscience because they had murmured, they were convinced that this was a punishment from the God of Moses. They begged Moses to intercede, and Moses was commanded to fix a fiery (i.e., poisonous) serpent on a pole: whoever had been bitten and looked at it would live (Num 21:7-9). At first glance, it seems like pure magic, but in reality, it is exactly the opposite. Moses transforms what was until then a magical act into an act of faith. Jesus refers to this episode when speaking of himself: 'Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life' (vv. 14-15). If in the desert it was enough to look with faith towards the God of the Covenant to be physically healed, now it is necessary to look with faith at Christ on the cross to obtain inner healing. As is often the case in John's Gospel, the theme of faith returns: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (v. 17).  When Jesus draws a parallel between the bronze serpent raised up in the desert and his own elevation on the cross, he also reveals the extraordinary leap that exists between the Old and New Testaments. Jesus brings everything to fulfilment, but in him everything takes on a new dimension. In the desert, only the people of the Covenant were involved; now, in him, the whole of humanity is invited to believe in order to have life: twice Jesus repeats that "whoever believes in him will have eternal life". Moreover, it is no longer just a matter of external healing, but of the profound transformation of man. At the moment of the crucifixion, John writes: 'They will look upon him whom they have pierced' (Jn 19:37), quoting the prophet Zechariah who had written: "On that day I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication; they will look upon me, the one they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10). This "spirit of grace and supplication" is the opposite of the murmuring in the desert: man is now finally convinced of God's love for him.  There are therefore two ways of looking at the cross of Christ: as a sign of human hatred and cruelty, but above all as the emblem of the meekness and forgiveness of Christ, who accepts the cross to show us the extent of God's love for humanity. The cross is the very place where God's love is revealed: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), Jesus said to Philip. Christ crucified shows God's tenderness, despite the hatred of men. That is why we can say that the cross is glorious: because it is the place where perfect love is manifested, that is, God himself, a God great enough to make himself small in order to share the life of men despite misunderstanding and hatred: he does not flee from his executioners and forgives from the height of the Cross. Those who accept to fall to their knees before such greatness are transformed forever: "But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name" (Jn 1:12).

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

Mary in the Church, begetting sons

(Jn 19:25-27)

The short Gospel passage in vv.25-27 is perhaps the artistic apex of the Passion narrative.

In the fourth Gospel the Mother appears twice, at the wedding feast of Cana and at the foot of the Cross - both episodes present only in Jn.

Both at Cana and at the foot of the Cross, the Mother is a figure of the genuinely sensitive and faithful remnant of Israel.

The people-bride of the First Testament is as if waiting for the real Revelation: they perceive all the limitation of the ancient idea of God, which has reduced and extinguished the joy of the wedding feast between the Father and his sons.

Authentically worshipping Israel prompted the shift from religiosity to working Faith, from the old law to the New Testament.

An alternative Kingdom is generated at the foot of the Cross.

Mothers and fathers of a different humanity are being formed, proclaiming the Good News of God - this time for the exclusive benefit of every man, in whatever condition he may find himself.

In the theological intent of John, the Words of Jesus «Woman, behold your son» and «Behold, the Mother of yours» were intended to help settle and harmonise the strong tensions that at the end of the first century were already pitting different currents of thought about Christ against each other.

Among them: Judaizers; advocates of the primacy of faith over works; Laxists, who now considered Jesus anathema, intending to supplant Him with a generic freedom of spirit without history.

At the beginning of second century, Marcion rejected the entire First Testament and appreciated only a part of the New.

To those who now wanted to disregard the teaching of the 'fathers', Jesus proposed to make the past and novelty walk together.

The beloved disciple, icon of the authentic son of God [widespread Word-event (of New Testament)] must receive the Mother, the culture of the Covenant people, at Home - that is, in the nascent Church.

Yet, even if it is in the Christian community that the full meaning of the whole of Scripture is discovered… the Person, the story and the Word of Christ Himself cannot be understood nor will it bear concrete fruit without the ancient root that generated Him.

Projections alone are not enough, even if they shake the mental prisons, often edifices of false certainties: the Seed is not an enemy to be fought, but a virtue that comes from deep within.

The Alliance is precious, it gives the real jolt to life. Thus new family relationships flourish: then the Church is born.

And the Church raised up by its Lord will reveal something portentous: fruitfulness from nullity, life from the outpouring of it, birth from apparent sterility.

In Mary and the faithful icons generated from the breast of Christ - inseparable in the Mission - the intimate cooperation is intensified by moments of humble and silent community existence.

In perfect worshipping the identity-character of the Crucified One and in the movement of self-giving, the freedom of abasing oneself gaits and arises.

If anyone gets down, the new will advance.

And the old can also re-emerge, this time for good. For there are other Heights. For what makes one intimate with God is nothing external.

A river of unimagined attunements will reconnect the human spirit of believers to the motherly work of the Spirit without barriers.

Thus, in silence we will not oppose discomfort. The offended body will speak, manifesting the soul and filling the life, in a crescendo.

To internalize and live the message:

How do you get into the rhythm of this Gospel passage? In which character do you recognise yourself, or why do you see yourself in all of them? What is in each one your measure, which you give to the world?

[Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows, September 15]

Mary in the Church, who gives birth to sons

(Jn 19:25-27)

The brief passage of the Gospel in verses 25-27 is perhaps the artistic climax of the Passion narrative.

In the fourth Gospel, the Mother appears twice, at the wedding at Cana and at the foot of the Cross - both episodes found only in John.

Both at Cana and at the foot of the Cross, the Mother is a figure of the rest of Israel, authentically sensitive and faithful.

The people-bride of the First Testament are as if waiting for the real Revelation: they perceive all the limitations of the ancient idea of God, which has reduced and extinguished the joy of the wedding feast between the Father and his children.

The authentically adoring Israel brought about the transition from religiosity to active Faith, from the ancient law to the New Testament.

At the foot of the Cross, an alternative Kingdom is generated.

Fathers and mothers of a different humanity are formed, proclaiming the Good News of God - this time exclusively in favour of every person, whatever their condition.

In the theological intent of John, Jesus' words 'Woman, behold your son' and 'Behold, your Mother' were intended to help resolve and harmonise the strong tensions that already existed at the end of the first century between the different currents of thought on Christ.

Among them were the Judaizers, who believed in the primacy of faith over works, and the Laxists, who considered Jesus anathema and wanted to replace him with a generic freedom of spirit without history.

At the beginning of the second century, Marcion rejected the entire First Testament and seems to have appreciated only part of the New Testament.

To those who now wanted to disregard the teaching of the 'fathers', Jesus proposed to bring together the past and the new.

The beloved disciple, icon of the authentic son of God [Word-event spread throughout the New Testament], must receive the Mother, the culture of the people of the Covenant, into his home - that is, into the nascent Church.

Yet, even if it is in the Christian community that the full meaning of all Scripture is discovered, the Person, the story and the Word of Christ himself cannot be understood nor will they bear concrete fruit with the many dreams ahead, without the ancient root that generated them.

Projections alone are not enough, even if they shake mental prisons, often built on false certainties: the Seed is not an enemy to be fought, but a virtue that comes from deep within.

The Covenant is precious; it gives life a genuine jolt. Thus, new family relationships flourish: then the Church is born.

And the Church raised up by her Lord will reveal something portentous: fruitfulness from nothingness, life from the outpouring of it, birth from apparent sterility.

In Mary and in the faithful icons generated from the breast of Christ - inseparable in the Mission - the intimate cooperation intensifies the moments of a humble and silent community life.

In the perfect adoration of the identity-character of the Crucified One and in the movement of self-giving, the freedom to let go advances.

If someone lays down, the new will advance.

And even the old may re-emerge, this time everlasting. Because there are other Heights. Because what makes us intimate with God is nothing external.

A river of unimagined harmonies will reconnect the human spirit of believers to the maternal work of the Spirit without barriers.

The Tao Te Ching (xxii) says: 'If you bend, you preserve yourself; if you bow, you straighten yourself; if you hollow yourself, you fill yourself; if you wear yourself out, you renew yourself; if you aim for little, you obtain; if you aim for much, you remain disappointed. For this reason, the saint preserves the One [the maximum of the little], and becomes a model [sets the standard] for the world. He does not see by himself, therefore he is enlightened; he does not approve by himself, therefore he shines; he does not glory by himself, therefore he has merit; he does not exalt himself, therefore he lasts long. Precisely because he does not contend, no one in the world can contend with him. What the ancients said: if you bend, you preserve yourself, were these perhaps empty words? In truth, they were whole'.

In this way, in silence, we will not oppose hardship. The offended body will speak, manifesting the soul and filling life, in a crescendo.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you enter into the rhythm of this passage from the Gospel? Which character do you identify with, or why do you see yourself in all of them? What is your measure in each of them, what do you give to the world?

Blood Water: Body still torn apart

Blood and Water: life given and life transmitted

(Jn 19:31-37)

The Lord's cruel departure is not an end: it inaugurates new life, albeit amid gruesome signs and true death.

The Crucified One saves: he communicates a life of salvation. He takes us from one world to another: only in this sense does the ancient Passover coincide with the new one.

His is a Liberation and Redemption that goes far beyond the ritual promises of propitiatory sacrifices and the religion of purification.

The Blood of Christ is here a figure of the ultimate Gift of Love. The Water from the same pierced side is that which is assimilated and makes us grow.This supreme Friendship, given and received, conquers every form of death, because it offers a double principle of indestructible life: the acceptance of an ever-new proposal, and growth wave upon wave.

Thus, the Jewish feast of liberation is replaced by Christian Easter - and by the signs of the essential Sacraments.

In the body of Jesus and in those of the men crucified alongside him, John sees the brotherhood of the Son with the human race, which is also made a divine sanctuary.

With Jesus dead, we too can follow him [criminals whose legs are broken] because no one can take the life of the Risen One, even if they try to do so to the unfortunate ones with him.

In fact, the 'piercing' of Christ's Body continues even after his death on the Cross (v. 34): hostility towards him will not subside; on the contrary, it wants to destroy him forever.

But from his pierced Body [the authentic Church] will continue to flow dizzying love and finally the joy of a festive banquet, as promised since the wedding at Cana.

The evangelist's testimony becomes the solemn foundation of the faith of future disciples. And faith will replace the yoke of religion already written down.

Thus, the author invites each of us to write our own Gospel (Jn 20:30-31) in the experience of the paradoxes and salvation of God, who has reached us precisely from our sins or uncertain situations.

Future disciples are proclaimed blessed (Jn 20:29) precisely because they 'have not seen' that spectacle with their eyes.

However, they recognised it in themselves and in their own journey, repeatedly experiencing the place of Mercy in their own weaknesses.

Maternal sense, not a Church of bachelors

On 21 May, at Santa Marta, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the first time in memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church: from this year, in fact, the feast day in the general Roman calendar is celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost, as decreed by the Pontiff in the decree Ecclesia mater of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (11 February 2018), precisely to "foster the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in pastors, religious and the faithful, as well as genuine Marian piety".

"In the Gospels, whenever Mary is mentioned, she is referred to as 'the mother of Jesus'," Francis immediately pointed out in his homily, referring to the Gospel passage from John (19:25-34). And even if "the word 'mother' is not used in the Annunciation, the context is one of motherhood: the mother of Jesus," said the Pope, emphasising that "this maternal attitude accompanies her work throughout the life of Jesus: she is a mother." So much so, he continued, "that in the end Jesus gives her as a mother to his own, in the person of John: 'I am leaving, but this is your mother'." Here, then, is "Mary's motherhood."

"The words of Our Lady are the words of a mother," explained the Pope. And so are "all of them: after those at the beginning, of willingness to God's will and praise to God in the Magnificat, all the words of Our Lady are the words of a mother." She is always "with her Son, even in her attitudes: she accompanies her Son, she follows her Son." And again, "before, in Nazareth, she raises him, nurtures him, educates him, but then she follows him: 'Your mother is there.'" Mary "is a mother from the beginning, from the moment she appears in the Gospels, from that moment of the Annunciation until the end, she is a mother." She is not referred to as "the lady" or "the widow of Joseph" — and in reality "they could have said so" — but Mary is always "a mother".

"The Fathers of the Church understood this well," said the Pontiff, "and they also understood that Mary's motherhood does not end with her; it goes beyond." The Fathers always "say that Mary is mother, the Church is mother, and your soul is mother: there is something feminine in the Church, which is maternal." Therefore, Francis explained, "the Church is feminine because she is 'church', 'bride': she is feminine and she is mother, she gives birth." She is, therefore, "bride and mother," but "the Fathers go further and say: 'Your soul is also bride of Christ and mother.'"

"In this attitude that comes from Mary, who is the mother of the Church," the Pope pointed out, "we can understand this feminine dimension of the Church: when it is not there, the Church loses its true identity and becomes a charitable association or a football team or anything else, but not the Church."

"The Church is 'woman'," Francis reiterated, "and when we think about the role of women in the Church, we must go back to this source: Mary, mother." And "the Church is 'woman' because she is mother, because she is capable of 'giving birth to children': her soul is feminine because she is mother, she is capable of giving birth to attitudes of fruitfulness."

"Mary's motherhood is a great thing," insisted the Pontiff. In fact, God "wanted to be born of a woman to teach us this way." Moreover, "God fell in love with his people as a husband with his wife: this is said in the Old Testament. And it is "a great mystery." As a consequence, Francis continued, "we can think" that "if the Church is a mother, women must have roles in the Church: yes, it is true, they must have roles, many roles, and thank God there are more roles for women in the Church."

But "this is not the most significant thing," the Pope warned, because "the important thing is that the Church is woman, that she has this attitude of bride and mother." With the awareness that "when we forget this, it is a masculine Church without this dimension, and sadly it becomes a Church of bachelors, who live in this isolation, incapable of love, incapable of fruitfulness." Therefore, the Pontiff affirmed, "without women, the Church does not move forward, because she is a woman, and this attitude of a woman comes from Mary, because Jesus wanted it that way."

In this regard, Francis also wanted to point out "the gesture, I would say the attitude, that most distinguishes the Church as a woman, the virtue that most distinguishes her as a woman." And he suggested recognising it in "Mary's gesture at the birth of Jesus: 'She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.'" An image in which we find "the tenderness of every mother towards her child: caring for him with tenderness, so that he does not hurt himself, so that he is well covered." And "tenderness" is therefore also "the attitude of the Church, which feels like a woman and feels like a mother."

"St Paul — we heard him yesterday, we also prayed to him in the breviary — reminds us of the virtues of the Spirit and speaks to us of meekness, humility, these so-called 'passive' virtues," said the Pope, pointing out that instead "they are the strong virtues, the virtues of mothers." Thus, he added, "a Church that is a mother walks the path of tenderness; she knows the language of the great wisdom of caresses, of silence, of a gaze that speaks of compassion, that speaks of silence." And "even a soul, a person who lives this belonging to the Church, knowing that she too is a mother, must walk the same path: a meek, tender, smiling person, full of love."

"Mary, mother; the Church, mother; our soul, mother," Francis repeated, inviting us to think "about this great richness of the Church and ours; and let the Holy Spirit fertilise us, us and the Church, so that we too may become mothers to others, with attitudes of tenderness, meekness, humility. We are certain that this is Mary's way." And, in conclusion, the Pope also pointed out how "curious Mary's language is in the Gospels: when she speaks to her Son, it is to tell him things that others need; and when she speaks to others, it is to tell them: 'do whatever he tells you'."

[Pope Francis, homily at St. Martha's, in L'Osservatore Romano, 22 May 2018]

Yesterday we celebrated the Cross of Christ, the instrument of our salvation, which reveals the mercy of our God in all its fullness. The Cross is truly the place where God’s compassion for our world is perfectly manifested. Today, as we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, we contemplate Mary sharing her Son’s compassion for sinners. As Saint Bernard declares, the Mother of Christ entered into the Passion of her Son through her compassion (cf. Homily for Sunday in the Octave of the Assumption). At the foot of the Cross, the prophecy of Simeon is fulfilled: her mother’s heart is pierced through (cf. Lk 2:35) by the torment inflicted on the Innocent One born of her flesh. Just as Jesus cried (cf. Jn 11:35), so too Mary certainly cried over the tortured body of her Son. Her self-restraint, however, prevents us from plumbing the depths of her grief; the full extent of her suffering is merely suggested by the traditional symbol of the seven swords. As in the case of her Son Jesus, one might say that she too was led to perfection through this suffering (cf. Heb 2:10), so as to make her capable of receiving the new spiritual mission that her Son entrusts to her immediately before “giving up his spirit” (cf. Jn 19:30): that of becoming the mother of Christ in his members. In that hour, through the figure of the beloved disciple, Jesus presents each of his disciples to his Mother when he says to her: Behold your Son (cf. Jn 19:26-27).

Today Mary dwells in the joy and the glory of the Resurrection. The tears shed at the foot of the Cross have been transformed into a smile which nothing can wipe away, even as her maternal compassion towards us remains unchanged. The intervention of the Virgin Mary in offering succour throughout history testifies to this, and does not cease to call forth, in the people of God, an unshakable confidence in her: the Memorare prayer expresses this sentiment very well. Mary loves each of her children, giving particular attention to those who, like her Son at the hour of his Passion, are prey to suffering; she loves them quite simply because they are her children, according to the will of Christ on the Cross.

The psalmist, seeing from afar this maternal bond which unites the Mother of Christ with the people of faith, prophesies regarding the Virgin Mary that “the richest of the people … will seek your smile” (Ps 44:13). In this way, prompted by the inspired word of Scripture, Christians have always sought the smile of Our Lady, this smile which medieval artists were able to represent with such marvellous skill and to show to advantage. This smile of Mary is for all; but it is directed quite particularly to those who suffer, so that they can find comfort and solace therein. To seek Mary’s smile is not an act of devotional or outmoded sentimentality, but rather the proper expression of the living and profoundly human relationship which binds us to her whom Christ gave us as our Mother.

To wish to contemplate this smile of the Virgin, does not mean letting oneself be led by an uncontrolled imagination. Scripture itself discloses it to us through the lips of Mary when she sings the Magnificat: “My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit exults in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:46-47). When the Virgin Mary gives thanks to the Lord, she calls us to witness. Mary shares, as if by anticipation, with us, her future children, the joy that dwells in her heart, so that it can become ours. Every time we recite the Magnificat, we become witnesses of her smile.

[Pope Benedict, homily at Lourdes, 15 September 2008]

1. "Stabat Mater dolorosa . . .".

"The sorrowful Mother stood weeping at the Cross, from which her Son hung."

Today, 15 September, the liturgical calendar commemorates the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is preceded by the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which we celebrated yesterday.

What a shocking mystery the Cross is! After meditating on it at length, St. Paul wrote to the Christians of Galatia: "As for me, there is no other boast than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, as I to the world" (Gal 6:14).

The Blessed Virgin could also have repeated these same words, and with even greater truth! Contemplating her dying Son on Calvary, she understood that the "boast" of her divine motherhood reached its peak at that moment by participating directly in the work of Redemption. She also understood that human suffering, taken on by her crucified Son, now acquired an inestimable value.

2. Today, therefore, the Sorrowful Virgin, standing beside the Cross, speaks to us with the silent eloquence of her example about the meaning of suffering in the divine plan of Redemption.

She was the first to know and desire to participate in the mystery of salvation, "associating herself with a maternal heart with the sacrifice of Christ, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim she had brought forth" (Lumen Gentium, 58). Deeply enriched by this ineffable experience, she approaches those who suffer, takes them by the hand, and invites them to climb Calvary with her and to pause before the Crucified One.

In that tortured body is the only convincing answer to the questions that rise imperiously from the heart. And with the answer comes the strength necessary to take one's place in that struggle which, as I wrote in the Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris, pits the forces of good against those of evil (cf. Ioannis Pauli PP. II, Salvifici doloris, n. 27). And I added: "Those who share in the sufferings of Christ preserve in their own sufferings a very special particle of the infinite treasure of the Redemption of the world, and they can share this treasure with others" (Ibid.).

3. Let us ask Our Lady of Sorrows to nourish in us the firmness of faith and the ardour of charity, so that we may courageously carry our daily cross (cf. Lk 9:23) and thus participate effectively in the work of Redemption.

"Fac ut ardeat cor meum . . .", "Make my heart burn with love for Christ God, so that I may be pleasing to him!". Amen!

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus, 15 September 1991]

In a world of orphans, Mary is the mother who understands us completely and defends us, not least because she experienced first-hand the same humiliations that, for example, the mothers of prisoners suffer today. Celebrating Mass in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta on Thursday morning, 15 September, the day of remembrance of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows, Pope Francis suggested that in difficult times we should always take refuge 'under the mantle' of the Mother of God, thus reviving 'the spiritual advice of the Russian mystics' that the West has relaunched with the antiphon Sub tuum preasidium.
For his meditation on "the mystery of Mary's motherhood," the Pontiff took his cue from the Last Supper: "Jesus, at the table, bids farewell to his disciples: there is an air of sadness, everyone knew that something was going to end badly and they asked questions, they were sad." But "Jesus, in that farewell, to give them a little courage and also to prepare them in hope, says to them: 'Do not be sad, do not let your hearts be sad, I will not leave you alone! I will ask the Father to send another Paraclete, who will accompany you. And he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said'." The Lord, therefore, "promises to send the Holy Spirit to accompany the disciples, the Church, on the path of history."
But Jesus "also speaks of the Father." In fact, Francis recalled, "in that long, long discourse with the disciples, he speaks of the Father," assuring them "that the Father loves them and that whatever they ask of the Father, the Father will give them. That they should trust in the Father." And so, the Pope explained, he takes "one more step: he not only says 'I will not leave you alone', but also 'I will not leave you orphans, I give you the Father, the Father is with you, my Father is your Father'." Then, Francis continued, "everything we know happens after the supper: the humiliation, the prison, the betrayal of the disciples; Peter denies Jesus, the others flee."
So much so that, said the Pontiff, referring to the liturgical passage from the Gospel of John (19:25-27), under the cross there was "only one disciple, with the mother of Jesus, with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, a relative." And there, at the cross, "there is Mary, the mother of Jesus: everyone was looking at her," perhaps whispering, "That is the mother of this criminal! That is the mother of this subversive!" And Mary, added the Pope, "heard these things, suffered terrible humiliation and also heard the elders, some priests whom she respected because they were priests," say to Jesus: "But you who are so good, come down, come down!". Mary, Francis said, standing next to "her Son, naked, there, suffered greatly, but she did not leave, she did not deny her Son, he was her flesh."
With personal confidence, the Pope recalled: "It happened many times when I went to the prisons in the diocese of Buenos Aires to visit the prisoners, to see the queue, the line of women waiting to enter: they were mothers, but they were not ashamed, their flesh was in there." And those "women suffered not only the shame of being there," hearing people say: "Look at her, what must her son have done?" Those mothers "also suffered the worst humiliations in the searches that were carried out on them before they entered, but they were mothers and they were going to visit their own flesh." And so it was for Mary, who "was there, with her Son, with that great suffering."
Precisely "at that moment," the Pope pointed out, "Jesus, who had spoken of not leaving us orphans, who had spoken of the Father, looks at his mother and gives her to us as our mother: 'Behold, your mother!'" The Lord "does not leave us orphans: we Christians have a mother, the same as Jesus; we have a Father, the same as Jesus. We are not orphans." And Mary "gives birth to us at that moment with so much pain, it is truly a martyrdom: with her heart pierced, she accepts to give birth to all of us in that moment of pain. And from that moment she becomes our mother, from that moment she is our mother, the one who takes care of us and is not ashamed of us: she defends us."
"The Russian mystics of the early centuries of the Church," Francis recalled in this regard, "gave advice to their disciples, the young monks: in times of spiritual turmoil, take refuge under the mantle of the holy mother of God. The devil cannot enter there because she is a mother and as a mother she defends." Then "the West took this advice and composed the first Marian antiphon, Sub tuum praesidium: under your mantle, under your protection, O Mother, there we are safe."
"Today is the memory of the moment when Our Lady gave birth to us," the Pope continued, "and she has been faithful to this birth until today and will continue to be faithful." And "in a world that we can call 'orphaned', in this world that suffers from a crisis of great orphanhood, perhaps our help is to say: 'Look to your mother!'" Because we have a mother "who defends us, teaches us, accompanies us, who is not ashamed of our sins" and "is not ashamed, because she is a mother."
In conclusion, the Pontiff prayed "that the Holy Spirit, this friend, this companion on the journey, this Paraclete advocate whom the Lord has sent us, may help us understand this great mystery of Mary's motherhood."
[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano, 16/09/2016]

Going up and down, to go further or back

(Jn 3:13-17)

One of st Francis' first companions - fra' Egidio - said: «The way to go up is to go down». We ask ourselves: what’s the meaning of this paradox?

Today’s feast has the title of Exaltation. The Gospel speaks instead of «Elevation».

Of course, synonymous with being seen and noticed, but under a «contrary species». So, how to elevate life by staring at Jesus crucified?

Nicodemus’ passage suggests an answer.

The doctor of the Law, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin is «in the night»because he’s disinducated to the normal idea of a ‘successful’ man, according to the attributes of possession, power and glory.

However, the moment comes when even the costume is shaken by doubt, by the alternative of Christ.

The Cross no longer takes anything for granted. It’s a new Judgment, from which other possibilities emerge, precisely in the ons of unregulated vacillations.

Misadventures, upheavals, the adversities of life, the context of chaos... bring out a better relationship with actions and our destiny.

Uncertainty guide us closer to our essence - it invokes resources, pure air, relationships.

In short, scaffold situations can get creative.

Compromising «reputation» reshapes our soul, our point of view; it calls into question the idea we made of ourselves.

It opens up stunning new paths, sudden - otherwise suffocated achievements at the start.

Of course, for those who choose to be themselves, the fate of persecution, misunderstanding, mockery and slander, lack of credit and laurels, is marked - as if we were failures.

But in the Judgment of the Crucified One, this is the «right position» to become ‘sons’ who find human completeness, and give birth to corresponding fruits: often the best time in their story.

The Cross is a free Gift, for a Life as Saved persons. The Cross redeems from the attractions that extinguish our growth.

The Cross is the best opportunity for development.

In fact, realization and completion emerge from sides of ourselves [and situations] that we don’t want. Even from deep wounds, which invest a whole way of being, doing and appearing.

‘Trial’ is not the end of the world. It annihilates our powerful appearance, yet it lets out the virtue of the fragile side, first overshadowed for social catwalk needs.

Here is the Crucified One, who bleeds not only to heal, soften and remove ballasts, but to overthrow, replace horizons and supplant the entire system of addicted conformisms. And even (self-styled) alternative aspects, ways of thinking that seemed like who knows what.

Thus the embraced Cross saves us.

It seems like a sabotage to our "infallible" side, instead it’s the Antidote to the city dormant on the same paths as before - in the usual ways of being and taking the field [now without a future].

Raising the Cross goes far beyond resilience capacity.

[Exaltation of the Holy Cross,  September 14]

To go up and to go down, to go further or to go backwards

(Jn 3:13-17)

Nothing doing, despite two millennia of Christian symbols, formulas and rituals, especially in Italy we remain at the usual pole: Guelphs versus Ghibellines; even as a shaky destiny looms.

Why such a folded-up faith, incapable of freeing us from occasional stings? Why is it that - even when we are on our way to a mountain of debt - we continue to behave like those who do not stop pawing each other?

We need a good Conversion, with the inverted pyramids of 'supremacy' and glory: arrogant, aggressive, intransigent and haughty becoming humble, meek, benevolent and weak.

Never need? Have great need! All the more reason to cling to the Crucifix.

After all, one of Francis' first companions - Brother Aegidius - used to say: "The way to go up is to go down". We ask ourselves: what is the meaning of such a paradox?

Today's feast has the title of Exaltation (or Invention - derived from the Latin: finding). The Gospel, on the other hand, speaks of "Elevation".

Of course, synonymous with being seen and noticed, but under an 'opposite species'. So, how can one elevate one's life by staring at the crucified Jesus? The Nicodemus passage suggests an answer.

The doctor of the Law, Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin is "in the night" because he is uneducated to the normal idea of a successful man: if God is "somebody", the follower too... must resemble him in the attributes of possession, power and glory.

However, there comes a time when even popular or theological custom and the antiquated way of seeing things is shaken by doubt, by the alternative of Christ.

Is the person who evolves really the one who imposes himself? Is the successful man really the one who rises above others - treated as a stool - or is he not the one who has the freedom to come down and let us breathe?

Everything with spontaneity and fluidity, not effort: imposing climbs of renunciation and pain is not therapeutic and does not extract the best from us. On the contrary, it separates us from that plasticity and simplicity that produce the best things in the world.

The Cross is not a discipline of standard purifications, such as wanting to change one's life, sorting out relationships by suffocating the inconsistencies that belong to us, setting oneself up to hit targets and succeed (even spiritually) at all costs...

These are the usual clichéd improvement programmes that often do not make us natural, but full of artifice - and do not allow us to be open with ourselves, and therefore not even with others.

In Christ, the Cross opens up unbroken horizons, because it no longer takes anything for granted. It is a new Judgement, global and of merit.

Other possibilities emerge, which make us encounter the change that solves the real problems - precisely in the midst of unbridled vacillation.

When lived in Faith, the wavering mixture is a profoundly energetic, malleable and evolutionary reality.

It brings us into a situation of chaos, disorder in which, however, a better relationship with actions and our destiny emerges, even recovering all that we thought unattainable.

This happens in the indeterminacy that brings us closer to our essence - in the days when events become serious, and we call for resources, fresh air, more solid relationships.

We then need to take a leap, not retreat [to stand there and retreat (self-centred) in order to identify problems and faults, then hastily and unnaturally correct them].

It would be an absurd waste of virtues and opportunities for growth in the search for our territory.

Even on the spiritual path, in fact, we do everything to achieve complete life, total fulfilment, strong freedom. Not to be seen to be perfect.

The passage into the climate of social contempt will be inevitable.

The Crucified One does not say 'how we should be and yet are not' (in a conventional way): for we only approach our Vocation if we surprise ourselves and others - just when common, conformist opinion judges us inconsistent.

It does not mean that we are rejecting the gallows.

Convicting situations can become creative, so the gallows that belongs to us in that situation - although it compromises reputation - need not torment the soul beyond measure.

Mishaps, upheavals, contrarieties, bitter contexts... they reshape the soul and the point of view, questioning the idea (that we have already made) of ourselves.

Indeed, they open up astounding new paths - realisations otherwise stifled at the start, due to external convictions.

This is why there is something paradoxical and absurd in Jesus' proposal: to grow, reach fullness and complete oneself, one must lose; not be an opportunist, not be quick-witted, not take advantage. All insulting and puerile attitudes that do not regenerate, that bring us back to friction, to unreliable conformisms, and accentuate them.The logic of the Cross is puzzling: on the spur of the moment it seems to humiliate us. Conversely, it shields us from the poison of a vain religiosity, of fine manners and bad habits.

Empty, consolatory or merely theatrical spirituality, which produces conflictual but inert environments [they make the arms fall off: useless and haunting].

Everyone knows that one must learn to accept the inevitable contrarieties of existence. But this is not the meaning of the Cross.

God does not redeem through pain, but with Love - that which does not fold and crumple, but expands life and unexpressed capacities.

The providential Cross is not given by God, but actively taken up and accepted by the disciple. In the Gospels it signifies the acceptance of the inevitable shame involved in following Jesus - even in a comically vain, albeit papier-mache scenario.

For those who choose to be themselves in the world of 'seeming' and name-calling, the (outward) fate of persecution, misunderstanding, mockery and slander, lack of credit and laurels - as if we were failures - is sealed.

But in the Judgement of the Crucified One, this is the right position to become children who find human completeness, stand firm in their choices of specific weight - and bear corresponding fruit: often the best time in their history.

A free gift, for a Saved Life, the Cross redeems us from the lure of appreciation in society that willingly on the side of the banal and extrinsic bestows ample credits, which however extinguish our complete personal growth.

It saves us from the dangers of crumbling pedestals, on which it is not worthwhile to keep climbing in order to be noticed and unnecessarily - cunningly - pleasured. As would any manipulator who loves mightiness; even a pious one, full of attributes of vigour, but inexorably old and doomed to death - bogged down and sterile - incapable of generating new creatures and reviving himself.

The best opportunities for development, fulfilment and completion emerge from sides of ourselves and situations we do not want. Exactly; even from deep wounds, which affect a whole way of being, doing and appearing.

It is not the end of the world. Today, the global crisis has already annihilated our powerful side, yet it is bringing out the virtue of the fragile side; previously overshadowed for the sake of social catwalks.

Here is the Crucified One, who bleeds not only to heal, soften and remove ballasts, but to overthrow, replace horizons and supplant the entire system of addicted conformisms; and 'stitches' even self-styled alternatives, ways of thinking that seemed like who knows what.

All this, by Faith. Not with identified tension and design, but by baptismal attitude to the new integrity that comes: given, welcomed, recognised.

Thus the embraced Cross saves us.

It appears to be a sabotage to our 'infallible' side, instead it is the Antidote to the city slumbering on the same paths as before - in the usual ways of being and taking the field (now without a future).

Lifting up the Cross goes far beyond resilience.

[Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14 September]

“What a great thing it is to possess the Cross! He who possesses it possesses a treasure” (Saint Andrew of Crete, Homily X on the Exaltation of the Cross, PG 97, 1020). On this day when the Church’s liturgy celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Gospel you have just heard reminds us of the meaning of this great mystery: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that men might be saved (cf. Jn 3:16). The Son of God became vulnerable, assuming the condition of a slave, obedient even to death, death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:8). By his Cross we are saved. The instrument of torture which, on Good Friday, manifested God’s judgement on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace. “In order to be healed from sin, gaze upon Christ crucified!” said Saint Augustine (Treatise on Saint John, XII, 11). By raising our eyes towards the Crucified one, we adore him who came to take upon himself the sin of the world and to give us eternal life. And the Church invites us proudly to lift up this glorious Cross so that the world can see the full extent of the love of the Crucified one for mankind, for every man and woman. She invites us to give thanks to God because from a tree which brought death, life has burst out anew. On this wood Jesus reveals to us his sovereign majesty, he reveals to us that he is exalted in glory. Yes, “Come, let us adore him!” In our midst is he who loved us even to giving his life for us, he who invites every human being to draw near to him with trust.

This is the great mystery that Mary also entrusts to us this morning, inviting us to turn towards her Son. In fact, it is significant that, during the first apparition to Bernadette, Mary begins the encounter with the sign of the Cross. More than a simple sign, it is an initiation into the mysteries of the faith that Bernadette receives from Mary. The sign of the Cross is a kind of synthesis of our faith, for it tells how much God loves us; it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weaknesses and sins. The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us. It is this mystery of the universality of God’s love for men that Mary came to reveal here, in Lourdes. She invites all people of good will, all those who suffer in heart or body, to raise their eyes towards the Cross of Jesus, so as to discover there the source of life, the source of salvation.

The Church has received the mission of showing all people this loving face of God, manifested in Jesus Christ. Are we able to understand that in the Crucified One of Golgotha, our dignity as children of God, tarnished by sin, is restored to us? Let us turn our gaze towards Christ. It is he who will make us free to love as he loves us, and to build a reconciled world. For on this Cross, Jesus took upon himself the weight of all the sufferings and injustices of our humanity. He bore the humiliation and the discrimination, the torture suffered in many parts of the world by so many of our brothers and sisters for love of Christ. We entrust all this to Mary, mother of Jesus and our mother, present at the foot of the Cross.

[Pope Benedict, homily 150th anniversary Lourdes, 14 September 2008]