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 published: 2006-04-21

Easter in Rome, the first Easter with Pope Benedict XVI

Rome – Holy Week 2006

 

Pascua en Roma

Easter in Rome

Ostern in Rom

 

San Pedro, lleno de pergrinos

Saint Peter’s, filled with pilgrims

Der Petersplatz, gefüllt mit Pilgern

 

La familia iglesia se reune

The family unites at home

Die Familie der Kirche kommt zusammen

 

Antes de la bendición Urbi et Orbi

Before the Urbi et Orbi blessing

Vor dem Segen Urbi et Orbi

 

Benedetto!

Benedetto!

Benedetto!

Fotos: Donnelly © 2006

 
   

ROMA. Father Alberto Eronti. "The Great Week", as some Fathers of the Church called it, will have its own nuances this year. It will be the first Holy Week, in more than a quarter of a century, without the figure of John Paul II, whose end –was truly a passion – remains affixed in our affection. It will be the first for Benedict XVI as Pope, who will celebrate his 79th birthday on Easter Sunday. A much loved Pope will be recalled; another, who is conquering us, will announce Easter and he will bless us as the Vicar of Christ Shepherd and Teacher. The "Eternal City" is full of pilgrims. It is a phenomenon that does not end, as I have said previously: John Paul II achieved that independently of whom it is, "the Pope is the Pope and his white figure is loved, sought and greeted with true fervor. It is the enormous value of a symbol!

The encyclical "God is Love" is becoming constituted more and more into the "program" of Pope Ratzinger, that is why his constant occupation is to stress that God loves man, he loves him with inalterable love. However man has a special power: to close his heart to love, to good and to the beauty that is offered to him gratuitously. It is as if man mistrusts that he can be loved unconditionally, which happened to Adam and that is why he sinned, that is why he closed his heart to God and he did not entrust himself to so much love. In Adam’s defense we could say that he did not sin from indifference, something that does occur with many men and women of our time, and "he wanted to be like God". Indifference, and unbelief, subjectivism and disoriented emotions, have as a basis the rejection of the Truth that is revealed. God tells man who he is, but man does not seem to be interested in this. God offers to illuminate man’s interior nights, but man seems to be obstinate in rejecting the light.

Open a door of hope

This reality must have decided the main theme of the Stations of the Cross for Holy Friday in the Coliseum of Rome, the text – at the Pope’s request- has been prepared by Archbishop Angelo Comastri. It is clear to the Holy Father that the growing loss of the consciousness of sin also means the incapacity to understand and to live redemption as a gift. Today man tends to reject the consciousness of sin and for this reason he rejects the need for redemption. The principle is very simple: If I do not recognize that I am ill, I do not seek a doctor. However sin, understood as an offense to God, to oneself, to others, and to creation, has acquired horrible dimensions. For proof of this it is enough to read or to listen to the daily news: today the media offers an interminable list of indignities, cruelty and death. Saint John, in his first letter, affirms that "we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love". Sin is death, love is life, it is that simple, it is that profound.

It is not out of the ordinary that the Pope wants to place the mediation about the lack of love that is sin at the center of the conscience of the Church. But he does not want to do this to crush sinful man in his weakness and misery; rather, he wants to open a door of hope for him.

Yes, Holy Week truly celebrates the victory of love over the lack of love! Man, who has been called to be "image and likeness" of God, is more and more losing that which he is called to be and which exalts him. This is the meaning of the "Great Week": to remind man of the greatness and the dignity that God has given him through the purest and most selfless love. The Institution of the Eucharist, the Passion and Death, and the joyous shout, He has resurrected!, are nothing more than the manifestation of a God who loves man without measure, at the same time he calls man to love. God is love!, we should also be able to say: the redeemed man is love!

This is the truth that signed the life of our Founding Father and that made him pray:

O Holy Cross, I fall before you
And sing to you ardent hymns of thanks and jubilation:
On you our Lord completed the work
which made us children of God.
I want to plant you deeply in my joyous heart
And constantly give you all my love;
My life’s hope is built on you,
my crucified Lord, and on your Bride. (Heavenwards, p.90)

Father surrendered himself at the feet of the Cross, he surrendered himself at the same place as Mary, at the foot of the cross, he lived the hour of love of God’s extreme love for the world. May we like him, also "surrender ourselves to Love", during this Holy Week.

From Rome, I send you a cordial greeting and I wish you a very happy and blessed Easter Sunday 2006. On Sunday I will receive the "Urbis et orbis" blessing in the name of everyone who will go on spiritual pilgrimage to Saint Peters’s Square.

The article was originally written and published via newsletter on April 11.


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