Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Only silence and prayer. This is how Pope Francis chose to accompany the gesture of Irina and Albina, the two women originally from Ukraine and Russia who, just as war rages between their peoples, chose to carry the cross together in the Way of the Cross presided over by Francis at the Colosseum.
Even the meditation that had been prepared for the 13th station, raising discontent in Kiev, was not read: "Faced with death," was the invitation addressed to the faithful present in Rome and those connected worldwide via television, "silence is more eloquent than words: let us therefore pause in prayerful silence and each in his own heart pray for peace in the world".
The prayer was repeated by the pontiff himself at the end of the Way of the Cross, punctuated by meditations that gave voice to the many crosses that mark the different ages and life experiences of families.
"Merciful Father, erciful Father, you make your sun rise on both good and bad alike. Do not abandon the work of your hands, for which you did not hesitate to deliver your only Son; Keep alight in our families the lamp of the Gospel, which illumines our joys and sorrows, our struggles and our hopes: May every home reflect the face of the Church, whose supreme law is love. By the outpouring of your Spirit, help us to cast aside the old man,
corrupted by illusory passions. Clothe us in the new man, created in justice and holiness. Take us by the hand, like a Father, lest we stray from you. Turn our rebellious hearts to your own heart, so that we may learn to pursue plans of peace. Inspire adversaries to shake hands, and taste mutual forgiveness. Disarm the hand of brother raised against brother, so that where there is hatred, concord may flourish. Grant that we never act as enemies of the cross of Christ, so that we may share in the glory of his resurrection."
In the afternoon it was the Pope's almsman, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, who personally knelt in the mud of Borodianka, north of Kiev, on behalf of the pontiff, to pray in front of the graves and the bodies found, as in a Way of the Cross.
"We are returning now," Krajewski said in a message released by the Vatican press office, "from these difficult places for every person in the world, where we still found so many dead people and a grave of at least 80 people, buried without a name and without a surname. There are no tears, no words. Thank God that there is faith, and that we are on Good Friday, when we can unite with the person of Jesus and climb up the Cross with Him. Because I know: there will be Resurrection Sunday. And perhaps He will explain everything to us with His love and change everything within us too".
