For a "good Easter," Christians must do more than simply recall the passion of Jesus during Holy Week; they must "enter into the mystery" of the Easter Triduum and make Jesus' feelings and attitudes their own, Pope Francis said. During his general audience April 1, he also recalled the "true martyrs" of today, men and women who "offer their lives with Jesus" for their Christian faith. Their witness, in imitation of Christ's sacrifice, "reflects a ray of this perfect, full and pure love (of Christ)," he said. Theirs, he added, "is a service of Christian witness to the point of bloodshed. It is the service Christ did for us, he redeemed us." The pope began his catechesis, dedicated to the celebration of Holy Week and Easter, by saying that the death and resurrection of Christ are "the culmination" of the entire liturgical year and of the Christian life. The pope offered reflections for each day of the Triduum, beginning with Holy Thursday. With the "prophetic gesture" of washing the apostles' feet, Jesus expressed "the meaning of his life and passion -- service to God and brother," the pope said.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...