“Everything is accomplished. And bowing his head, He gave up his spirit.” (Jn. 18:1-19.42)

Today words are superfluous; we stand in silence looking at Jesus on the cross. His free surrender is the definitive embrace that reconciles us with God. On that cross, Jesus carries our pains, our anxieties and divisions, transforming suffering into a source of peace that no one can take away from us. Today, as we look around us, is it difficult for us to recognize the face of Jesus in the neighbor who suffers, in the excluded, in the one who is alone? Feeling that, by his life given up for us, Jesus saves us, let us ask him for a compassionate heart: how can I accompany the suffering of others today with the same fidelity and tenderness with which Mary stood at the foot of the cross?