Seventh station
The Risen Christ gives power to forgive sins

 

C. We adore you, Christ risen, and we bless you.
T.  For with your Easter you have given life to the world.

1L.
  From the Gospel according to John
It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.  Then Jesus came and stood among them.  "Peace be with you," he said.  After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side.  The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.  As the Father sent me, so I send you."  Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

2L.  From paralysis to dynamism
Terror closes.  Love opens.  And love enters even when the doors are closed.  Like an intense perfume spread out in front of the bars.  The risen love enters.  Encourages.  And gives.  It gives the paralyzed disciples not only the strength to come back but to rise.  "Receive the Holy Spirit; to whom you forgive will be forgiven".
It breathes.  It offers its breath of life.  It is the Holy Spirit life of the Father and the Son.  He offers it not as a safe to guard but as a new air to communicate.  New air in the world; sins are not insurmountable rocks.  It is therefore possible to become young.  Today the breath of the Risen is received in the sacrament of reconciliation:  "You are a new creature; go and bring new air everywhere".
Gregory of Tours in the drama of the barbaric invasion said: "Mundus senescit", the world is aging.  Agostine would answer him:  "Mundus iuvenescit", the world is getting younger.  Thanks to the Risen who makes all things new.
No longer with the barbaric invasions today but with the penetration of the reflected barbarities today we are more tempted to say:  "The world is old".  The young followers of Christ must answer:  "The world can rejuvenate".
John XXIII on this matter would say:  "They say the world is old.  It is not true.  It is young, and you young people are the proof.  We don't believe that your churches have to leave room for the desert.  The presence of so many youth is the guarantee that the future will be Christian".
And his successor Paul VI: "Youth, it is your time.  You are the flying wing."  And John Paul II:  "The Church needs all of you, your presence, even your constructive criticism. Most of all it needs your active participation in the announcement of the Gospel."  New air:  open the windows of the world to the new sun of the Risen.  It is spring.
Be optimistic!
Good news is God's joy.
Jacques Maritain said: "Glue your ears to the ground.  New vines are blooming."
The world shows many layers:  the first, the most visible, those against which we bang our heads, hands and feet daily are the hardest, most stubborn, waterproof, muddy.  And the mud is the result of the combination of the blood that run   s from the daily human rivers of tears.  But underneath, even further below, there is the invisible reality of the gift of God to the deed that works through free, hidden, deep, perseverant gestures.
Don't ever stop at the surface.  The truest reality is deep within, where God is present as in the sancta sanctorum of history.  There He awaits us.

T.  Rejoice, Virgin Mother:  Christ has risen.  Hallelujah!

C.   Let us pray.  Come, o Holy Spirit.  You, first gift of the Risen Jesus, be the enthusiasm of the Father and the Son in us, who are dying in the boredom and darkness.  You, harmony of the Father and the Son, push us toward justice and peace:  free us from our capsules of death.  You, eternal life of the Father and the Son, breathe on these dampened bones and allow us to pass from sin to grace.  You, youth of the Father and the Son, make us eternal youth, render us enthusiastic men and women, make us experts of Easter.

T.
Amen.

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