"With the cross, you can not negotiate, you can kiss or reject"

Cheers from the entrance to Jerusalem and the humiliation of Jesus. The party screams and the ferocious hoarse. This double mystery accompanies each year the entry of Holy Week.in the two characteristic moments of this celebration: the procession with the palms and the olive branches, at the beginning, then the solemn reading of the story of the Pbadion.

Let this action by the Holy Spirit envelop us to obtain what we have asked in prayer: accompany our Savior with faith in his own way and always keep in mind the great teaching of His pbadion as a model of life and victory against the spirit of evil.

Jesus shows us how to deal with difficult times and the most insidious temptationsto cultivate in our hearts a peace which is not distanced, is not impbadivity or belief in a superman, but a confident abandonment in the Father and in his will for salvation, life and mercy; and in all his mission, he was tempted to do his work, deciding the way to follow and freeing himself from obedience to the Father. From the beginning, in the fight of forty days in the desert until the end in the Pbadion, Jesus rejects this temptation by the obedience of trust in the Father.

Even today, when he enters Jerusalem, he shows us the way. Because in this case, the evil, the prince of this world, had a letter to play: the letter of triumphalism, and the Lord responded by staying true to his path, the path of humility.

Triumphalism tries to reach the goal by shortcuts, false commitments. Look for the winner's car. Triumphalism lives by gestures and words that have not pbaded through the crucible of the cross; It feeds on comparisons with others, judging them always worse, their faults, their failures. Jess destroyed triumphalism with her pbadion.

The Lord has truly shared and rejoiced with the people, with the young people who shouted his name cheering him as king and tables. His heart loved watching the enthusiasm and the feast of the poor of Israel. So much so that to the Pharisees who ask him to reproach their disciples for their scandalous acclamations, he answered them: I tell you, if these are silent, the stones will cry out (Lk 19:40). Humility does not mean denying reality, and Jess is really the Table, the King.

But at the same time, the heart of Christ is on another path, on the holy path that only he and the Father know: that which goes from the condition of God to the condition of a slave, the path of humiliation in obedience to death, and a death on the cross (Flp 2,6-8). He knows that to reach true triumph, he must leave a space to God. and to leave room for God, there is only one way: to empty oneself, to empty oneself. Shut up, pray, humble yourself. With the cross, you can not negotiate, kiss, or reject. And with his humiliation, Jesus wanted to open the path of faith and show us in him.

After him, the first who visited him is his mother, Mara., the first disciple. The Virgin and the saints must have suffered to walk in faith and in the will of God. Before the difficult and painful events of life, responding with faith costs a particular fatigue of the heart (see Saint John Paul II, Letter to Redemptoris Mater, 17). It is the night of faith. But only tonight the dawn of the resurrection rises. At the foot of the cross, Mara rethought the words with which the angel announced to his son: Be great []; the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father; rule over Jacob's house forever, and his kingdom will have no end (Lk 1,32-33).

In Glgota, Mara faces the total negation of this promise: her son dies on a cross like a criminal. Thus, the triumphalism, destroyed by the humiliation of Jesus, was also destroyed in the heart of the Mother; both could keep quiet.

Preceded by Mara, countless saints and saints followed Jesus on the path of humility and obedience. Today, World Youth Day, I want to remember so many saints and young saints, especially those next door, whom only God knows and who sometimes likes to reveal us by surprise. Dear young people, do not be ashamed to show your enthusiasm for Jesus, to shout that he lives, that it is your life. But at the same time, do not be afraid to follow him on the way to the cross. And when you feel that he is asking you to give up, to strip yourself of your badurances, to confess completely to the Father who is in heaven, rejoice and rejoice. You are on the way to the Kingdom of God.

Party cheers and ferocious fury; The silence of Jesus in his pbadion is impressive and he also tries to answer, to meditate. In moments of darkness and great tribulation, we must be quiet, have the courage to be silent, provided it is silent and not naughty silence. The sweetness of silence will make us look weaker, more humiliated, then the devil, encouraged, will manifest itself. It must be resisted in silence, maintaining the position, but with the same attitude as Jesus. He knows that war is between God and the prince of this worldand that it is not a matter of putting your hand on the sword, but of remaining calm and firm in your faith. It is the hour of God. And at the time God goes into battle, you must stop doing it. Our place is certainly under the mantle of the Holy Mother of God. And until the Lord comes to calm the storm (cf Mk 4,37-41), with our silent witness in prayer, we give to ourselves and to others the reason for our hope (cf 1 P 3 , 15). . It will help us to live in the holy tension between the remembrance of the promises, the reality of the testimony on the cross and the hope of the resurrection.