On Friday, February 16th, 2024, as every year on the first Friday of Lent, the commemoration of the 2nd Sorrowful Mystery, Christ crowned with thorns, was presided over by Bishop Emeritus Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, in the chapel of the Ecce Homo convent, run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion and the Chemin Neuf Community.
In his homily, Bishop Marcuzzo emphasized the grace and the responsibility beheld by the Christians of the Holy Land in commemorating the mysteries of the Gospel where they took place. These mysteries continue to be celebrated by the whole world, because, they have been cared for and preserved over the centuries.
Then he recalled saying: “It is because He confessed the truth before Pilates that Jesus, the King of the world, is crowned with thorns. Jesus is Truth and Love to the end, even unto death. Love and Truth, these magnificent words, taken from Psalm 84, are also the motto of Mgr Jamal Khader Daibes, Vicar of Jordan, now appointed Bishop of Somalia and Djibouti, whom we accompany these days with our gratitude and good wishes.”
This meditation on truth and mercy echoes that of His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in his homily on Ash Wednesday, where forgiveness was the central theme. During the mass he presided over on February 14th, 2024, at the Pro-cathedral of the Latin Patriarchate, the Cardinal repeated several times that “the Lenten season is a favorable time for forgiveness, for reconciliation”.
Reconciliation can only be the fruit of love and truth, that is, of a sincere reflection on our responsibilities, carried out with the desire to restore our relationship with the Lord and with our brothers and sisters. “Forgiveness opens, forgiveness frees. We all need forgiveness. In this season of Lent, it’s time. Let us pray for ourselves, for the Church, for our societies, to be forgiven, but also to ask for the courage to forgive”.
