Jesus himself chose to identify with these our brothers and sisters enduring pain and anguish

Address of His Holiness Pope Francis Conclusion of the Way of the Cross Krakow, 29 July 2016 – I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you
gave me something  o drink, I was a stranger and
you welcomed me, I was naked and you
gave me clothing, I was sick and you
took care of me, I was in prison and
you visited me (Mt 25:35-36).

These
words of Jesus answer the question that arises so often in our minds and
hearts: “Where is God?” Where is God, if evil is present in our
world, if there are men and women who are hungry and thirsty, homeless, exiles
and refugees? Where is God, when
innocent persons die as a result of violence, terrorism and war? Where is God, when cruel diseases break the
bonds of life and affection? Or when
children are exploited and demeaned, and they too suffer from grave
illness? Where is God, amid the anguish
of those who doubt and are troubled in spirit?
These are questions that humanly speaking have no answer. We can only look to Jesus and ask him. And Jesus’ answer is this: “God is in
them”. Jesus is in them; he suffers in
them and deeply identifies with each of them.
He is so closely united to them as to form with them, as it were, “one
body”.

Jesus
himself chose to identify with these our brothers and sisters enduring pain and
anguish by agreeing to tread the “way of sorrows” that led to Calvary. By dying on the cross, he surrendered himself
into to the hands of the Father, taking upon himself and in himself, with
self-sacrificing love, the physical, moral and spiritual wounds of all
humanity. By embracing the wood of the
cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness,
pain and death of men and women of all times.
Tonight Jesus, and we with him, embrace with particular love our
brothers and sisters from Syria who have fled from the war. We greet them and we welcome them with
fraternal affection and friendship.

By
following Jesus along the Way of the Cross, we have once again realized the
importance of imitating him through the fourteen works of mercy. These help
us to be open to God’s mercy, to implore the grace to appreciate that without
mercy we can do nothing; without mercy, neither I nor you nor any of us can do
a thing. Let us first consider the seven
corporal works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty,
clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and those in
prison, and burying the dead. Freely we
have received, so freely let us give. We
are called to serve the crucified Jesus in all those who are marginalized, to
touch his sacred flesh in those who are disadvantaged, in those who hunger and
thirst, in the naked and imprisoned, the sick and unemployed, in those who are persecuted,
refugees and migrants. There we find our
God; there we touch the Lord. Jesus
himself told us this when he explained the criterion on which we will be
judged: whenever we do these things to the least of our brothers and sisters,
we do them to him (cf. Mt 25:31-46).

After
the corporal works of mercy come the spiritual works: counseling the doubtful,
instructing the ignorant, admonishing sinners, consoling the afflicted,
pardoning offences, bearing wrongs patiently, praying for the living and the
dead. In welcoming the outcast who
suffer physically and welcoming sinners who suffer spiritually, our credibility
as Christians is at stake.

Humanity
today needs men and women, and especially young people like yourselves, who do
not wish to live their lives “halfway”, young people ready to spend their lives
freely in service to those of their brothers and sisters who are poorest and
most vulnerable, in imitation of Christ who gave himself completely for our
salvation. In the face of evil,
suffering and sin, the only response possible for a disciple of Jesus is the
gift of self, even of one’s own life, in imitation of Christ; it is the
attitude of service. Unless those who
call themselves Christians live to serve, their lives serve no good
purpose. By their lives, they deny Jesus
Christ.

This
evening, dear friends, the Lord once more asks you to be in the forefront of
serving others. He wants to make of you a concrete response to the needs and
sufferings of humanity. He wants you to
be signs of his merciful love for our time!
To enable you to carry out this mission, he shows you the way of
personal commitment and self-sacrifice.
It is the Way of the Cross. The
Way of the Cross is the way of fidelity in following Jesus to the end, in the
often dramatic situations of everyday life.
It is a way that fears no lack of success, ostracism or solitude,
because it fills ours hearts with the fullness of Jesus. The Way of the Cross is the way of God’s own
life, his “style”, which Jesus brings even to the pathways of a society at
times divided, unjust and corrupt.

The
Way of the Cross alone defeats sin, evil and death, for it leads to the radiant
light of Christ’s resurrection and opens the horizons of a new and fuller
life. It is the way of hope, the way of
the future. Those who take up this way
with generosity and faith give hope and a future to humanity.

Dear
young people, on that Good Friday many disciples went back crestfallen to their
homes. Others chose to go out to the
country to forget the cross. I ask you:
How do you want to go back this evening to your own homes, to the places where
you are staying? How do you want to go
back this evening to be alone with your thoughts? Each of you has to answer the challenge that
this question sets before you.