By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY – Commemorating Christ’s death on the cross, the preacher of the papal household paid tribute to modern Christian martyrs, saying the world cannot be indifferent to their witness.
In his homily during a Good Friday liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St Peter’s Basilica on 22 April, Capuchin Fr Raniero Cantalamessa made reference to recent slayings of Catholics in Pakistan and other places where Christians are a minority.
“Once more, the Christian world has been visited by the ordeal of martyrdom, which was thought to have ended with the fall of totalitarian, atheistic regimes. We cannot pass over their testimony in silence,” Fr Cantalamessa said at the service, which was presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.
“In this very day, in a great Asian country, Christians have been praying and marching in the streets to avert the threat hanging over them,” he said.
Pakistan’s minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic who had spoken out against anti-blasphemy laws, was murdered in early March, prompting condemnation from Pakistani Bishops, the Vatican and Church leaders around the world.
Fr Cantalamessa noted that before his death, Bhatti acknowledged the danger to his own life and wrote, “I will consider myself most fortunate if … Jesus Christ will accept the sacrifice of my life.”
Bhatti’s words, Fr Cantalamessa said, echoed those of earlier Christian martyrs in Rome.
“The powerlessness of the victims doesn’t, however, justify the indifference of the world toward their fate,” he said.
The papal preacher said the deaths of Christian martyrs were not the only tragedies that have recently challenged Christians and their ability to speak about God’s love. When disasters such as the Japanese earthquake and tsunami strike, affecting a predominantly non-Christian population, Christians can show their willingness to “suffer with those who suffer,” he said.
“We can also tell those brothers and sisters in humanity that we admire the example of dignity and composure which they have given to the world,” he said.
At the same time, he suggested that the events in Japan may hold a lesson for humanity.
“Earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters that strike the innocent and the guilty alike are never punishments from God. To say otherwise would be to offend both God and humanity,” he said.
“But they do contain a warning: in this case, against the danger of deluding ourselves that science and technology will be enough to save us. Unless we practise some restraint in this field, we see that they can become more devastating than nature itself,” he said.
Fr Cantalamessa said the redemption brought by Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are what give meaning to human suffering.
“If life’s race ended here … we would have every reason to despair at the thought of the millions, if not billions, of human beings who start off at a great disadvantage, nailed to the starting line by poverty and underdevelopment, without even a chance to run in the race,” he said.
“But that is not how it is,” he said.
The liturgy included prayers for the world’s suffering, its leaders, non-Christians and non-believers.
Toward the end of the service, the Pope untied a red cloth from a wooden cross to reveal the image of the crucified Christ and, assisted by aides, held the cross up for veneration.
Later on Good Friday, the Pope was to lead the Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum.
Pope Benedict at Way of the Cross: God reads the open book of our hearts
VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) – Pope Benedict XVI spoke at the beginning of the Way of the Cross at the Roman Colosseum, noting that in this “hour of darkness” God reads “the open book of our frail hearts.”
The meditations of this year’s Way of the Cross were entrusted to Sister Maria Rita Piccione OSA, President of Our Lady of Good Counsel Federation of Augustinian Contemplatives in Italy. Sr Maria Rita is a member of the Augustinian hermitage of Lecceto, near Siena (Italy), one of the Tuscan convents of the 13th century and a cradle of the Order of St Augustine.
The full opening prayer said by Pope Benedict follows:
Lord Jesus,
you invite us to follow You
in this, Your final hour.
In You, each one of us is present
and we, though many, are one in You.
In Your final hour is our life’s hour of testing,
in all its harshness and brutality;
it is the hour of the passion of your Church
and of all humanity.
It is the hour of darkness:
when “the foundations of the earth tremble”
and man, “a tiny part of your creation,”
groans and suffers with it;
an hour when the various masks of falsehood
mock the truth and the allure of success
stifles the deep call to honesty;
when utter lack of meaning and values
brings good training to nought
and the disordered heart disfigures the innocence
of the small and weak;
an hour when man strays from the way leading to the Father
and no longer recognises in you
the bright face of His own humanity.
This hour brings the temptation to flee,
the sense of bewilderment and anguish,
as the worm of doubt eats away at the mind
and the curtain of darkness falls on the heart.
And You, Lord,
who read the open book of our frail hearts,
ask us this evening,
as once You asked the Twelve:
“Do you also wish to leave Me?”
No, Lord, we cannot and would not leave You,
for You alone “have the words of eternal life,”
You alone are “the word of truth”
and Your cross alone
is the “key that opens to us the secrets
of truth and life.”
“We will follow You wherever You go!”
Following You is itself our act of worship,
as from the horizon of the not yet
a ray of joy
caresses the already of our journey.