VATICAN CITY, APRIL 3, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The blood being spilled in conflicts around the world brings to mind how Christ shed his blood for all, according to the director of the Vatican press office.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi made this observation on the most recent episode of Vatican Television’s «Octava Dies.» The spokesman referenced a section from Volume 2 of Benedict XVI’s «Jesus of Nazareth,» which states that Jesus’ blood is not shed against anyone, but is blood poured out for all.
«We all need the purifying strength of love, and his blood is this strength. It is not a curse but salvation,» Father Lombardi cited.
The priest observed that this section from the Pope’s book is one of those that «has attracted the most attention and won much agreement, because he has resolutely eliminated at the root interpretations of a passage of the Gospel that suggested a condemnation of the Jewish people.”
Father Lombardi continued: «Today these words return to mind as we look again at the too-great quantity of blood that has been shed in Ivory Coast, in Libya and in many other parts of the world.”
The priest said the resolution to these internal conflicts and civil wars must be that the populations «seek to grow as a human and civil community.»
«Instead,» he lamented, «they open up abysses of hatred for today but also for the future.”
“When Christians see blood being spilled they cannot but spontaneously remember the blood of Jesus,” Father Lombardi reflected.
God is “near, present, and participates in the suffering provoked by a homicidal violence, in which only the enemies of humanity can rejoice,” the Jesuit asserted. And God “continues to love all and desires the salvation of all, from everywhere, paying the price of the toil and credibility of this love.”
He concluded, “The journey toward the cross and the Resurrection sustains the difficult task of peacemakers.»
