Castel Gandolfo (AsiaNews) – The Cross of Christ is "an icon of hope" from which believers can "draw comfort and courage" against "evil's many faces in the world". History's darkest hour was also the highest moment in God's revelation.

Ahead of today's Angelus the Pope comforted believers and the world against the "frightening upsurge in terrorism". "The repeated heinous attacks against human life," the Pope said, "trouble and worry our conscience and lead believers to ask agonising questions found in Psalms: Why Lord? Till when?"

The Cross Christ bore and the sacrifice he made, the Pope said, are God's answer to these questions. The Cross represents "the final victory of Good" over the apparent "triumph of evil". The death of Jesus is "the breaking point around which the universe was put together again".

Here is what the Pope said ahead of the Marian prayer:

Confronted with evil's many faces in the world, a distressed and disconcerted humankind asks: "Why?"

In what is the dawn of the third millennium, a time of unheard of possibilities, a time blessed by the Great Jubilee, humanity is facing a frightening upsurge in terrorism. The repeated heinous attacks against human life trouble and worry our conscience and lead believers to ask agonising questions found in Psalms: Why Lord? Till when?"

God's answer to these angst-filled questions that come from the scandal that is evil shied away from being a rationale to justify himself. Instead, it took the form of a sacrifice, that of his own Son given up to the Cross. In the death of Jesus, we find the moment in which the triumph of evil meets the final victory of Good, a moment when the darkest hour crosses into the revelation of Divine Glory, the breaking point around which the universe was put together again. "And when I am lifted up from the earth," Jesus said, "I will draw everyone to myself" (John, 12:32).

For believers, the Cross of Christ is an icon of hope for, through it, God's salvific design came to pass. For this reason, a few days ago the liturgy invited us to celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a feast day from which believers can draw comfort and courage.

With our gaze set on the Crucified Christ and in spiritual union with the Virgin Mary, let us continue on our path sustained by the power of the Resurrection.