Where is God? In charity

Dear brothers and sisters, the celebration of the passion of Christ touches us in various ways: whether in our sensibility, whether through the experience of faith, whether through the memory we carry of past experiences of Holy Week, or as a gesture of charity. The pain and suffering of Jesus, however, are what touch us most. We feel for Him, who suffers His passion and death. However, speaking to the women of Jerusalem, He Himself says that they should not weep for Him, but for their own children.1 This response of Jesus makes us confront our own reality. His suffering in flesh and in spirit is real and painful, but He does not suffer for His sins and His faults. We, children of Adam, brought upon ourselves sin and death.2 He was disfigured in His appearance;3 we were disfigured in our own humanity, incapable of fulfilling our vocation of friendship and communion with God.

The mystery of Christ continues today to be a light that illuminates our conscience, so that we may not conform to the world and may indeed be modeled after the mold of the holy humanity of Our Lord.4 Let us look attentively at the disfigured face of Jesus and see the consequence of sin in us. We look at Him, but we see ourselves. It causes us pain to see our sad condition, with an undeniable truth that leads us to a confrontation with what we so often try to deny and cover up. When we sin, our conscience accuses us, it is true; but sin also produces insensibility. So that, in the denial of sin by the affirmation of a normality — everyone does it, the world is like this —, the conscience anesthetizes the pain of sin, but this neither prevents nor delays the evils it causes. From a humanity that degenerates, works of justice cannot spring forth. From a corrupted heart will spring corrupted and corrupting actions. The situation in which humanity finds itself after the sin of Adam and Eve is of greater sadness than the situation in which Jesus finds Himself in His passion and death on the cross. He suffers terribly, but acts in truth and in charity, which spring from a sanctified heart. Therefore, His action is full of hope, while the actions of humanity, which tries to flee from pain at all costs, are full of despair. Sin cannot offer the vision of God.5 Charity unites us to God and makes faith and hope arise in us. It is alive and brings life to humanity, and knows no death or end, for it exists from always and forever.6

Isaiah affirms, when speaking of the suffering servant, that he did not suffer for himself, but for us.7 Christ is this suffering servant, who bears stamped on His humanity the tragedy that afflicts every human being. Why does He touch the human condition and let Himself be wounded? Would not a path with less suffering and pain be better? In the mentality of one who has grown tired of seeing the suffering and pain that sin brings and, at the same time, is incapable of making sin cease to exist, these questionings resonate with great force. But we are impelled today to look at the reality of the passion with the gaze of Christ. How does Christ see His own passion? How does He live it? In charity! In Christ, the humanity that lays bare the suffering and pain of the human heart — caused by the condition of sin in which man finds himself — is the same humanity full of charity, which lives in God and walks toward Him. If we contemplate the passion with this gaze, we will see in it not only the pain we want to avoid: we will contemplate divine charity and mercy. We see there the gaze of God who turns toward us and comes to our aid.

What exactly is present in the passion and death of Our Lord? The merciful love of God, which touches human wounds to heal them. We must not, in any way, exalt suffering and pain as effective means of redemption, for they are not. What redeems us is the love that, being full of truth, does not turn away from our disfigured face. Thus, that which we try so hard to avoid is transformed by charity and acquires a redemptive meaning. The suffering of the Christian manages to translate the love of God, for it is a loving self-surrender following the example of Jesus. In a world marked by wars, with so many marginalized by indifference and lacking justice, charity continues to be the place of life for the Christian. We must continually fight for peace and sow it, but we must not forget that the peace that comes from God is not subjugated to calm.8 We must not be frightened nor despair before the ills of the world. Firm in Christ, who gave His life for our salvation, we must carry our personal cross9 — that is, act with charity even in the face of the hatred and evil that ravage the world.

Today we find ourselves before the cross of Our Lord, and we do not need to be afraid of it nor turn our gaze away. For there we contemplate the saving and redeeming love of God, communicated to us, which transfigures us making the beauty of being children of God shine forth in us. The kiss of the cross is not compassion for the Christ who suffers, but a true and honest yes to following Him, who first loved us and gave Himself for us without reserve.10 We can say, upon kissing the cross: we live reconciliation with God, with others, and with ourselves. In adoring Christ on the cross, we are recognizing that the truth sets us free in a real way11 and that truth and charity are not a complement to one another, but are a single reality. To adore God on the cross is to recognize and affirm His presence with everyone who suffers, whether in body or in spirit. Where is God when we see wars and sufferings? He is in His place. And this place is not a corner alien and indifferent to humanity. The proper place of God is charity. Where is God? In charity!

The sacrifice of Jesus, high priest of the new covenant, is eternal.12 By associating our life with His, we commune in His love, which has the power to sustain us eternally. Whoever lives charity cultivates immense treasures, which remain in time without being corrupted.13 Wars will cease, suffering and pain will pass, hatred will disappear, but the love and mercy of God endure forever.14 What in us is consecrated in the love of God here in this life will remain forever, full of joy and peace. The path of Jesus is humble, but He is the one who triumphs. It is His love that conquers death. When the body of Jesus is laid in the tomb, death knows the eternal and life-filled love of God, and not even it can resist such great love. It is not life that exists where there is no death: it is death that cannot prevail against Him who is life itself.15

Our life does not need to be a search for suffering. Our call is to life in charity, without turning away from the truth. Living like this, it will be impossible to be indifferent to our own pains and those of others. The passion of Jesus sets our hearts ablaze and heals them, so that we may love according to the heart of God. In a moment as painful as this, we had the consolation of our heart and the healing of our wounds. May the love of God, propagated by us in a life of charity, console so many who suffer in the world and heal the wounds of humanity.

May the silence and adoration we offer to the crucified Christ help us to plunge more deeply into the mystery of our redemption and salvation. Let us accompany Christ in His sufferings and death, so that His charity may make our hearts fruitful and transform us from within.

Praised be Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Notes

Readings of the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord — the same in all years: Is 52:13—53:12; Ps 30(31); Heb 4:14-16 and 5:7-9; Passion according to Saint John (Jn 18:1—19:42).

Lk 23:28: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children.” The passage is from Luke: on Good Friday the Passion according to John is read, where this episode does not appear. It is known above all from the eighth station of the cross. ↩

Rom 5:12-19: “through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death”. ↩

Is 52:14: “so disfigured was his appearance, that he no longer looked like a man”. It is in the first reading of the day. ↩

Rom 12:2: “do not conform yourselves to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”. ↩

Mt 5:8: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” ↩

1 Cor 13:8.13: “Charity will never end… Now these three things remain: faith, hope, and charity; the greatest of these, however, is charity.” ↩

Is 53:4-5: “It was our pains that he bore… and by his wounds we were healed.” ↩

Jn 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you; I do not give it to you as the world gives it.” ↩

Lk 9:23: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross each day, and follow me.” ↩

1 Jn 4:19: “We love because He first loved us.” And Gal 2:20: “loved me and gave himself for me”. ↩

Jn 8:32: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ↩

Heb 4:14-16 and 5:7-9, the second reading of the day; cf. Heb 9:11-14, on the sacrifice once for all. ↩

Mt 6:19-21: “Store up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt.” ↩

1 Cor 13:8; and the refrain of Ps 135(136): “eternal is his mercy”. ↩

Jn 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life”; and Jn 14:6. ↩

Text revised for publication. The revision corrected agreement, syntax, punctuation, and repetitions, without altering the content of the preaching. The notes were added in this edition and were not part of the preached text: they indicate the passages cited or alluded to in the homily and, when the liturgy of the day is fixed, the proper readings of the celebration.