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WAY OF THE CROSS
AT THE COLOSSEUM
LED BY THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
GOOD FRIDAY 2010

MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS BY
His Eminence
Cardinal CAMILLO RUINI
Vicar General Emeritus of His Holiness
for the Diocese of Rome
INTRODUCTION
MEDITATION
When the
Apostle Philip asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father,” he replied,
“Have I been with you all this time, and you still do not know me?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:8-9). This evening,
as we accompany Jesus in our hearts while he makes his way beneath
the cross, let us not forget those words. Even as he carries the
cross, even in his death on the cross, Jesus remains the Son, who is
one with God the Father. When we look upon his face disfigured by
beating, weariness and inner suffering, we see the face of the
Father. Indeed, it is precisely in this moment that God’s glory, his
surpassing splendour, in some way becomes visible on the face of
Jesus. In this poor, suffering man whom Pilate, in the hope of
eliciting compassion, showed to the Jews with the words “Behold the
man!” (Jn 19:5), we see revealed the true greatness of God, that
mysterious grandeur beyond all our imagining.
Yet in the
crucified Jesus we see revealed another kind of grandeur: our own
greatness, the grandeur which belongs to every man and woman by the
simple fact that we have a human face and heart. In the words of
Saint Anthony of Padua, “Christ, who is your life, hangs before you,
so that you can gaze upon the cross as if in a mirror… If you look
upon him, you will be able to see the greatness of your dignity and
worth… Nowhere else can we better recognize our own value, than by
looking into the mirror of the cross” (Sermones dominicales et
festivi, III, pp. 213-214). Jesus, the Son of God, died for you,
for me, for each of us. In this way he gave us concrete proof of how
great and precious we are in the eyes of God, the only eyes capable
of seeing beyond all appearances and of peering into the depths of
our being.
As we make
the Way of the Cross, let us ask God to grant us this gaze of
truth and love, so that, in union with him, we may become free and
good.
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