Today, I attended the sacred liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s a kind of tradition that I’ve cultivated in these past years: if and when I’m in Rome during Holy Week, I make it a point to attend the Good Friday service in the Basilica, firstly because of the homilist. Every Good Friday, a Franciscan Friar, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, delivers the homily in the presence of the Holy Father and the faithful.His homily today was particularly touching: he expounded on a special category of people present in the Lord’s last hours (cf. Jn 19:25-27) and in the first hours of his resurrection (cf. Jn 20:1-18). He talked of the pious women who followed and served Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, during his public ministry until his execution and death in the hands of the religious and political leaders. These women, together with the youngest apostle, were the only ones who remained with our Lord at the foot of the cross. And hence, they were also the first ones to whom he appeared in his resurrection!
Fr. Cantalamessa then continues by saying how sad that in the course of Church history, women have been devalued, notwithstanding this Gospel witness. Bringing it down to our times, he spoke of the need to re-consider the riches of feminine gifts especially of tenderness and compassion. He challenged the modern world to consider the importance not only of IQ, of intelligence that is usually exploited by men in order to gain power, but especially of EQ, emotional quotient, of healthy and integrated affectivity, a gift that most women have. Developing EQ is as important as IQ for arriving at full humanity and deeper spirituality.
As I was listening to him, I found it so strange that he was delivering this “potentially dangerous” homily before the Holy Father himself, the Roman Curia and the whole line of bishops and monsignors. Of course there were also women present, lay and religious alike, but either they were at the back of the Basilica or on the other side of the altar, meaning with Fr. Cantalamessa’s back on them. On the other hand, I thought (or I’d like to believe) that he prepared this homily not so much to make the women disciples of today “feel good” but really to bring across a message to the Pope and his male collaborators. I couldn’t help but wonder what the Pope was thinking as he listened to this intrepid Preacher! Will any good come out of it? If you are interested to read the entire text, click here: http://zenit.org/english/ and go to Good Friday sermon of Fr. Cantalamessa.
There was another touching thing that happened to me today in this celebration. Usually when I attend the Good Friday liturgy in the Vatican, I prepare myself to renounce the chance to venerate the cross (the second part of the celebration). I’ve come to accept that it is impossible for the organizers of the liturgy to have thousands of people venerate the Cross, so the solution for them is to reserve it to the Pope, the Cardinals, Bishops and some representatives from the faithful. It happened that at the last moment, a fellow sister who was asked to do it, renounced the privilege and passed it on to me. So there I was, as representative of women religious, together with a handful of lay people going up to the altar to venerate the Cross. It was so meaningful for me, not only because it completed my celebration. I also considered it as a gift in the light of all the sufferings I have been through these past days. I felt that the Lord himself called me to find meaning in pain, sorrow and death together with him. He indeed has borne our sorrows, lived our life, died our death!
