"So let us be companions of Jesus in suffering and love. This already gives us purpose, security, and strength in our earthly life. And it opens the way to eternal salvation for us," Cardinal Péter Erdő, Primate of the Cathedral of Our Lady and Saint Adalbert in Esztergom, said in his homily.
At the beginning of the festive liturgy, Cardinal Péter Erdő blessed the barges, and then the deacon read the Gospel passage about the entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-40). After that, the head pastor and the assistants marched from the Bakócz chapel to the main altar, with branches in their hands, where the mass continued with prayers. The school of students of the Esztergom seminary sang the story of the suffering of Jesus Christ.
Source: Hungarian Courier
After the passion, Péter Erdő explained, among other things, in his homily: "At the beginning of Holy Week, we heard the story of Christ's suffering according to the Gospel of St. Luke. This story of the Passion is already the opening of the Holy Week liturgy. In this wonderful narrative, we find a very special moment that sheds light on how Jesus himself could experience the whole history of suffering in advance.
During his prayer, Jesus feels the suffering, humiliation, and physical pain that awaits him. That is why the evangelist says that his sweat fell to the ground like so many drops of blood.
Before God, past, present and future are organized into one huge image.
And the secret of Jesus is his divinity, that is, that his real human nature and at the same time his divine nature meet in one person, and this is the second divine person. We cannot even imagine how he could see sin, the world and the life of all humanity at that time. But the weight of our modern history also weighed on him.
The wars going on now, the evils and lies, injustice, selfishness, all forms of oppression that only humanity could have created with evil ingenuity, or into which it has drifted with bitter helplessness. We can also see the dynamics of guilty and innocent drifting in the current war. "Our sins carried us away like a whirlwind. » - writes the prophet. (cf. Isa 64:5)
Christ, sweating on the Mount of Olives and then walking the Way of the Cross, was also burdened by our present sins.
His piercing gaze penetrates into our lives as well. If we keep vigil with him, if we pray with him, if we follow him on the Way of the Cross these days, if we participate in worship on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday or visit the Holy Sepulcher, then we express that we want to be his companions, that we do not want to leave him alone in the suffering he undertook for us.
So let us be companions of Jesus in suffering and love. This already gives us purpose, security, and strength in our earthly life. And it opens the way for us to eternal salvation. Don't think we can't change. The first Christian martyrs also endured suffering in the strength of Christ."
Full text: Magyar Kurír
Source, full article: Vasarnap.hu
Featured image: Magyar Kurír
