The Pope at the Chrism Mass: the hour of proclamation, persecution and the cross go hand in hand

Vatican City

During the homily for the Chrism Mass, the Pope underlined that “the proclamation of the Good News is mysteriously linked to persecution and to the Cross”. He then quotes the text of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in the contemplation of the Nativity and affirms: “it makes us look and consider what Saint Joseph and Our Lady are doing:” how it is to walk and work, then may the Lord be born in extreme poverty, and after so much work, hunger, thirst, heat and cold, insults and insults, die on the cross; and all that for me. Then – adds Ignacio -, by reflecting, obtain a spiritual benefit ”(Spiritual exercises, 116).

Then the Bishop of Rome asks: What reflection can we make to benefit from our priestly life by contemplating this early presence of the Cross – of incomprehension, of rejection, of persecution – at the beginning and at the very center of evangelical preaching ? The Pope then offers two reflections.

The cross present in the life of the Lord

Francis affirms in the first place: “it amazes us to see that the Cross is present in the life of the Lord at the beginning of his ministry and even before his birth”.

The Pope describes the different moments of the life of Jesus where the cross is present: “It is already present in the first disturbance of Mary before the announcement of the Angel; it is present in Joseph’s insomnia, when he feels obliged to abandon his promised wife; it is present in the persecution of Herod and in the trials undergone by the Holy Family, equal to those of so many families who must be exiled from their homeland ”.

The Pope emphasizes that “the Cross is not a subsequent, occasional event, the product of a conjuncture in the life of the Lord. It is true that all the crucifiers in history make the Cross appear as if it were collateral damage, but it is not like that: the Cross does not depend on circumstances ”.

Jesus does not flee from the cross, on the contrary, “he embraced it in all its integrity”. And that begs the question: why did Jesus embrace all the passion, embrace the betrayal and abandonment of his friends since the Last Supper, accept the illegal detention, the summary trial, the excessive punishment, the unnecessary harm of slaps and spit freedom …? “And he adds:” But when it was his time, He embraced the whole Cross. Because on the cross, there is no ambiguity! The cross is not negotiated “.

The poison of evil insists: save yourself

The Pope notes: “It is true that there is something in the Cross which is an integral part of our human condition, of limits and fragility. But it is also true that there is something happening on the cross which is not inherent in our fragility, but it is the bite of the serpent which, seeing the defenseless crucified, bites him. , and tries to poison and deny everything. his site “.

Francisco continues and says: the bite of the serpent “seeks to scandalize, immobilize and render sterile and insignificant all service and sacrifice of love for others. It is the poison of the evil one which does not cease insisting: save yourself ”.

And in this bite, insists the Pope, cruel and painful, pretending to be mortal, the triumph of God finally appears. Saint Maximus the Confessor made us see that with Jesus crucified things were reversed: by biting the flesh of the Lord, the devil did not poison him – he found in him only infinite gentleness and obedience to the will of the Lord. Father – but, on the contrary, With the hook of the Cross, he swallowed the Flesh of the Lord, which was a poison for him and became for us the antidote which neutralizes the power of the Evil One.[1]

Let us ask for the grace to benefit from this reflection

The Pope addresses priests and invites them to ask for the grace to benefit from this teaching: “There is a cross in the proclamation of the Gospel, it is true, but it is a cross that saves. Pacified with the Blood of Jesus, it is a Cross with the strength of the victory of Christ who overcomes evil, who frees us from the Evil One. Embracing it with Jesus and like Him, “before” going to preach, allows us to discern and to reject the poison of the scandal with which the devil will want to poison us when a cross appears unexpectedly in our life “.

“But we are not of those who retreat (hypostoles)” (Heb 10:39)

“But we are not those who retreat (hypostoles) “(Hb 10,39) is the advice given to us by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. We are not scandalized, because Jesus was not scandalized when he saw that his joyful announcement of salvation to the poor did not resound pure, but in the midst of the cries and threats of those who did not want to hear his Word, affirms Francois.

The Pope then enumerates some moments in the life of Christ which could cause scandal in people of his time or in us and concludes: “And we are not scandalized because the proclamation of the Gospel does not receive its effectiveness from our eloquent words, but with the strength of the cross (cf. 1 Co 1.17) ”.

The Lord always answers our requests, but in his divine way

I want to end with a memory, says Pope Francis:

I would like to conclude, said Pope Francis, with a reminder. Once, in a very dark moment in my life, I asked the Lord for a grace to free me from a difficult and difficult situation. A dark moment. I went to preach the Spiritual Exercises to a few nuns and on the last day, as was the custom at the time, they went to confession. A very old nun came, with clear eyes, very bright. She was a woman of God. So I felt the desire to ask him for me and I said, “Nun, as penance, pray for me, because I need a grace. Ask the Lord for it. And if you ask the Lord. Lord, he will surely give it to me. “He was silent, waited a long time, as if praying, then he looked at me and said:” Certainly the Lord will give you grace, but do not be mistaken: he will give it to you. will give in his divine way. ” It did me a lot of good: to feel that the Lord always gives us what we ask for, but that he does it in his divine way. This path involves the cross. Not out of masochism, but out of love, out of love to the end²

[1] Cf. Centuria 1, 8-13.

[2] Cf. Homily at Mass in Santa Marta, May 29, 2013.