(ZENIT News / Lisbon, 08.04.2023).- On the afternoon of Friday, August 4, Pope Francis left the Apostolic Nunciature and went to Eduardo VII Park where, after making the rounds in the Popemobile among the young people, at 6:10 p.m., he presided over the Stations of the Cross with about 800,000 young people present.
Then, before the beginning of the Stations of the Cross, the prayer, the final blessing and the performance of a song, Pope Francis gave a speech.
In the end, the Pope returned to the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon. We offer below the words of the Pope:
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Dear sisters and brothers: good afternoon!
Today you are going to walk with Jesus. Jesus is the Way and we are going to walk with Him, because He walked. When he was among us, Jesus walked. He walked, healing the sick, caring for the poor, doing justice, he walked, preaching, teaching us. Jesus walked, but the way that is most engraved in our hearts is the way of Calvary, the way of the Cross. And today you are going with prayer, we, me too, with prayer you are going to renew the way of the Cross. And let us look at Jesus who is passing by and let us walk with Him. The way of Jesus is God coming out of himself, coming out of himself to walk among us.
We hear so many times at Mass: «The Word became flesh and walked among us”. And the Word became man and walked among us. And he does that out of love. And he does that out of love. And the Cross that accompanies every World Youth Day is the icon, it is the figure of this journey. The Cross is the greatest meaning of the greatest love, that love with which Jesus wants to embrace our life. Ours? Yes, but yours, yours, yours, yours, that of each one of us. Jesus walks for me. We all have to say it. Jesus begins this journey for me, to give his life for me. And no one has more love than he who lays down his life for his friends, who lays down his life for others. Do not forget this. No one has more love than he who lays down his life, and Jesus taught this. That is why, when we look at the Crucified One, who is so painful, such a hard thing, we see the beauty of the love that gives his life for each one of us.
A very believing person used to say a phrase that touched me very much. It went like this: «Lord, through your ineffable agony, I can believe in love. «Lord, through your ineffable agony, I can believe in love». And Jesus walks, but he waits for something, he waits for our company, he waits for us to look. I don’t know, he waits to open windows of my soul, of your soul, of the soul of each one of us. How ugly are closed souls, sowing inward, smiling inward! They have no sense. Jesus walks and waits with his love, he waits with his tenderness, to comfort us, to wipe away our tears.
I ask you a question now, but do not answer it out loud, each of you answer it to yourself: do I cry from time to time? Are there things in life that make me cry? All of us in life have cried, and we still cry. And there Jesus is with us, He weeps with us, because He accompanies us in the darkness that leads us to weeping.
I am going to have a little bit of silence and each one of us tell Jesus why we cry in life, each one of us tell Him now, in silence.
Translation from the original in Spanish by ZENIT
