PREPARING FOR EASTER1

CONTENTS

Foreword............................................................................................ 1
Pilgrimage to Tandil............................................................................. 2
A Community Dedicated to Prayer........................................................................................................3
Fraternal in Charity................................................................................................................................3
A Community Generous in Mission......................................................................................................4
Monday of Holy Week..........................................................................4
Tuesday of Holy Week........................................................................10
Wednesday of Holy Week...................................................................16
Holy Thursday...................................................................................21
Chrism Mass........................................................................................................................................21
Good Friday....................................................................................... 25
Stations of the Cross............................................................................................................................28
Easter Vigil....................................................................................... 31
Biography..............................................................................................................33

FOREWORD

These reflections on Holy Week are extremely simple both as to content and style. They were
not written for theologians nor for specialists of any kind. In fact, they were never written! They
simply represent the direct, personal communication of a pastor with his people, of a father with his
children, in preparation for and during the course of Holy Week, 1974.
Hence, there is nothing new here, nothing profound; except, perhaps, for the newness of
Easter, which each year provides an absolutely new experience during which Gods Sprit enables us
to become a new creation in Jesus the Christ (2 Cor 5,17); or except for the extremely simple, daily
profoundness of the Mystery of a God who, out of love, came to our world (Jn 3,16), set up His
dwelling among us (Jn 1,14), and gave His life for His friends (Jn 15,13)in order that we all might
have life in abundance (Jn 10,10).
Precisely because it is such a simple thing, I did not want to publish it. But they convinced me
to do so. They said it was the simple people who wanted it, those who were hungering for such
reflections. They even said that I myself should be more simple. And so I thought of Jesus words (Lk
10,21): I offer you praise, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because what you had hidden from the
learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children. Yes, Father, you have graciously willed
it so (Lk 10,21).
I am convinced of this: that God is extremely simple and that the poor have a great hunger for
the Kingdom, for Gods Word, for real communication with Jesus.
Thinking about this (and, too, about the generous welcome that you have given to my thoughts
about light, water and bread), I have decided to offer you these simple pastoral reflections which may
help you to live the approaching Holy Week on yet a deeper level.
1
St. Paul Editions, U.S.A., 1982.

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 It is a new Passover, because it is the Passover of the universal Holy Year. The Lord invites us to
an inner renewal and to reconciliation with the Father and with our brothers and sisters. The Holy Sprit
is about to effect in us that fundamental change which todays witnesses of the Passover need (Acts
1,8).
May the Christians who read these pages, then, be mindful of the following:
a. That this little work was not written but rather spoken; that it was delivered, through the
Sprits prompting, to a specific gathering that, in poverty and humility, wished to assemble in
the Cathedral of Mar del Plata, in order to prepare themselves to live the Passover through
hearing and assimilating Word from their Bishop.
b. That is was decided to leave the style both direct and personal, without excessive corrections or
re-readings. Thus, there will be many imperfections of style and many repetitions.
Indeed, there is a repetition that is both desired and intended, relating to the certainty that Christ
has risen, lives and accompanies us on our way through life. This idea is strongly stressed: Yes,
it is true, Christ has risen.
This fact changes our lives; it causes us to be serene and strong, radiant in faith and secure in
hope. It fortifies us interiorly and enables us to become generous witnesses of the Passover fact:
I have seen the Lord and he has told me these things (cf. Jn 20,18).
I wish you all a most joyful new Easter or Passover of the universal Holy Year. May the Sprit
enable us to savor truly the mystery of the death and Resurrection of Jesus.
And may the Virgin of Easter, our Lady of self-abandonment and of the cross, of solitude and of
hope, help us all to experience the ineffable, profound happiness of this providential hour for the world
and for the Church in which al Christians are called upon to transmit to men and women everywhere
the light, hope and love for which they are waiting and which era the fruit of the Christian Passover.

THE AUTHOR

PILGRIMAGE TO TANDIL

What better place for us to meet as a diocesan community, as the Church of the Passover, the
Bishop with all his children, brothers and sisters and friends than here at the foot of the cross where
Jesus gives His life for the redemption of all! What better place to gather than here, from where surely
there will arise a commitment to immerse ourselves in lifes real issues in order to reconcile all peoples
with the Father and among themselves. What better place than this to vow ourselves to build an
authentic diocesan community that will posses a deep, prayerful life, a truly fraternal charity and a
generous apostolic sprit.
You have lived (and I have too, intensely, interiorly) a unique, extraordinary, original, unmerited
and unrepeatable week. Mine was spent in Vatican City with the Holy Father and with members of the
papal household and the Roman Curia, praying, reflecting, meditating on the Church, on the Christ who
lives in the Church in order to save integrally all humankind. We have all given ourselves over the
prayer. I sensed this there: the echoes extended to Rome.
At the close of our retreat, I told the Holy Father: Your Holiness, I would like you to know that
our whole diocese has been on its knees during these days, making a mission. This retreat has brought
an extraordinary grace to my diocese as well as a call to spiritual growth. During these days, the whole
diocesan community of Mar del Plata has accompanied us with their prayers, their affection, their
crosses and their acts of charity. Deeply moved, the Holy Father replied: How can I thank you for
this? Tell them, repeat it to them, tell the priests, religious and all the laity that I am extremely grateful,

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that this news comforts me immensely. And later I went on to say: Your Holiness, Ive come from a
continent that is anxious and full of tension, but which is, at the same time, full of potential and hope.
During these spiritual exercises, I have talked much about hope, because I feel a special call and
responsibility to speak about, to transmit this hope that is born of the Paschal Christ, of the Risen
Christ. Id like to be a small voice that affirms and strengthens our brothers and sisters in hope. And
the Pontiff told me: Thank you so very much. I receive your message not only as coming from a
brother, but also as from my missionary, my preacher.
My dear friends, ours is a great responsibility to build an authentic paschal community, that is, a
community of hope. But a paschal community of hope has its center or base in the Christ who died and
is risen. That is why I said we are here at the feet of the Christ of Calvary, at the center of our diocesan
community. Did not the Messiah have to undergo all this so as to enter into his glory? (Lk 24,26).
Of course, the sun is scorching and the heat bothers us. But what is all that in comparison to
what the Lord gives us as a grace here or to what we are committing ourselves in order to build the
Kingdom and change the world? What does this little fatigue and heat that we are suffering and
offering matter in comparison to the release of our heart from prison, from individualism, and to its
opening up generously to fraternal union and the desire to form truly a Church of hope, dedicated to
accomplishing the new things we read about in our first reading?
What does this newness, this hope, mean if not a true commitment on our part, a generous
giving of our total selves to the task of building each day a world in justice, love, peace and liberty?
My brothers, we have often announced that our Paschal Church must be a community steeped in
prayer, evangelically fraternal in charity, generous in mission. I do not wish to extend my remarks; you
will be reflecting on them later. I want only to submit to you with all my heart and soul that if we truly
desire to build a Church that is an instrument of salvation for humankind; a Church that is, as it were,
the sacramental presence of Jesus in history, we must sink our roots into prayers and live in fraternal
charity, letting go of our selfishness, our insensitivity, and opening ourselves generously to our
brothers, inserting ourselves in the world as a leaven of God and ferment of salvation.

A COMMUNITY DEDICATED TO PRAYER

This involves becoming souls at prayer, determinedly contemplative in action, with the ability
to fin the Lord at any time, to reflect, to be silent, to go to the Gethsemane like Jesus, to pray, to be
alone with the Father, to ascend the mountain. It means to be a community given over to prayer.
Anything else implies empty words that easily connote superficial improvisation.

FRATERNAL IN CHARITY

We are extremely separated or divided. Even we priests ourselves are divided. We must learn to
live our fraternal sacramental communion more intensely. How I wish, here al the foot of de cross, at
the feet of Christ who gave His life to unite us, that we priests might truly dedicate ourselves to living a
deeper and more joyful communion in Christ, with the Bishop, with our other brothers and sisters.
Would that we light become more unified, and this in order to form the communion of the People of
God!
How much division there is within the People of God! The conservatives, the progressives, the
rightists, the leftists! Is Christ perhaps divided? Did not Christ stretch out His two arms on the cross

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and die in order to make us one reality with Him? Enough of divisions that destroy us, of continual
tensions that shatter us!

A COMMUNITY GENEROUS IN MISSION

Not closed, not stagnant, not inert! If we have celebrated the Lords Eucharist, if we have
welcomed His Word into ourselves, is it not in order that we might go out from here and venture to all
areas, to the inner city neighborhoods and to the countryside, to cry out to all peoples: Yes, indeed,
Christ has risen?
Let us be missionaries, then; let us have the soul of a missionary. But, in order to achieve this,
we will have to immerse ourselves, I repeat, in the death and Resurrection of Jesus, and allow ourselves
to be completely taken over by Gods Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
That is all I want to say. May this simple act, trough which we wish to live out the Holy Year,
mean for our diocesan community a profound interior renewal in the Lord Jesus. May this pilgrimage
to the Calvary of Tandil, at the very beginning of Holy Week, bring a deep, fraternal encounter with the
Christ of the Passover.
May the Holy Spirit make of our Easter community a community dedicated to prayer, fraternal
in charity, generous in mission. And may the Virgin Mary, our Mother, who remained serene and strong
at the foot of the cross, instruct us and communicate to us the rewards of contemplation, the joy of love
and the transforming power of mission. Amen.

MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

My dear brothers,
The Lord grants us another opportunity to celebrate the Passover. That is why we are hereto
prepare ourselves. These three evenings have that as their aim: a kind of community preparation for the
great night, the night of the Easter Vigil, the night that is more luminous tan the day, the most joyful
night of the year, that gives so much meaning to our lives, just as Jesus own Passover has given
meaning to all of history.
Before beginning the theme for this evening, I would like to tell you that we are going to do,
which is, simply, to meditate together on Gods Word. Please dont expect a conference. Wed be
wasting time that way, you and I. We are merely going to meditate on the Lords Word, and allow that
Word to challenge us in order to produce in us the change which today all mankind, Jesus and the
Church are awaiting. May this then truly be a very simple, engaging, fraternal meditation on the Word
of God.
Each night then well consider one of the Lords manifestations during the Passover. Well
meditate upon the appearance of Jesus. In saying this, I am also indicating a further characteristic of
these conversationsthat everything done here takes place in a Passover context, that is, in a climate of
resurrection and hope; but of that hope (during these days well repeat this idea often) which arises
from the very heart of the cross; of that hope which only those souls who stand silently, serenely and
bravely at the foot of the cross, like Mary, can have.
A third characteristic of the reflections during these three evenings will be this: that they will
attempt to be an application of the passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus to our day, that is, to what
is going on here and now around us, to what is happening to me, within the Church and in the world.
And this well attempt to do with our confidence placed in the Lord whom we will accompany during

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these eveningsin the Lord into whose mysterious death and Resurrection we are going to enter but
from which events well return to the history that all of us together are making and which at times
touches and moves us deeply or perhaps upsets us, but which is always the magnificent history of
salvation whose very own irreplaceable chapter you and I must write. And if today we dont do it,
nobody will write it in our name.
We are preparing for the Eater Vigil. I said that the Eater Vigil gives meaning to our lives, to all
our activities throughout the year, just as Jesus Passover gives meaning to all of history. But this Easter
Vigil has a special characteristic this year, for it is the Passover of the Reconciliation, the Passover of a
deeper encounter with the Father. Each day throughout these days, throughout the whole Holy Week,
we must more and more discover the Fathers true countenance. And this, in order that in every event
of our lives, in every trial, in every joy, we may detect the Fathers hand. Thus will it become the year
of our reencounter with our brothers. But to achieve all this it will be necessary to put aside certain
attitudes of resistance, coldness, insensitivity, hate end rancor, that it may be a year of self-giving and
of service to our brothers and sisters.
We will have wasted time if, at the end of our conversations here and especially on the great
night of the Easter Vigil, our hearts have not been completely permeated by the light of a singular love
the Fathers love which has been made visible to us in Christ and which opens itself in a generous
measure to all men and women, our brothers and sisters.
This Passover of Reconciliation with God and with men must leave us something new; that is,
leave us a new person. As a central thread in all these talks, I hope there will always be present to your
consciousness this expression of St. Paul: Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, set
your heart on what pertains to higher realms rather tan on things of earth (Col 3, 1.2).
But for that, put off the old man and put on the new manthat new man in whom there is
neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but rather simply Christ; the new man who is
the free man, the fraternal man, the man who is the builder of history.
Thus this Passover of Reconciliation which aims to make us truly new persons in Christ by the
Spirits action should likely presuppose a more profound purification of our lives through the
Sacrament of Reconciliation.
This first conversation tonight then has as its central theme Jesus appearance to the disciples
gathered in the Cenacle, on the very night of the Resurrection and His subsequent manifestation to
Thomas in the same locale eight days later.
We read in St. Johns Gospel (20, 19-20):
On the evening of that first day of the week, even though the disciples had locked the doors of
the place where they were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood before them. Peace be with you,
he said. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. At the sight of the Lord the
disciples rejoiced. Peace be with you, he said again.
As the Father has sent me,
so I send you.
Then he breathed on them and said:
Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive mens sins,
they are forgiven them;
if you hold them bound,
they are held bound.
It happened that one of the Twelve, Thomas (the name means twin), was absent when Jesus
came. The other disciples kept telling him: We have seen the Lord! His answer was, I will never
believe it without probing the nailprints in his hands, without putting my finger in the nailmarks and
my hand into his side.

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 A week later, the disciples were once more in the room, and this time Thomas was with them.
Despite the locked doors, Jesus came and stood before them. Peace be with you, he said; then, to
Thomas: Take your finger and examine my hands. Put your hand into my side. Do not persist in your
unbelief, but believe! Thomas said in response, My Lord and my God! Jesus the said to him:
You became a believer because you saw me. Blest are they who have not seen and have
believed.
The central idea here, of course, is faith. How do we in faith receive the Risen Jesus Christ; how
are we changed through this faith into witnesses of a Christ who lives in history, who rose from the
deadinto witnesses of a Christ who has consecrated us through the Spirit in order that we might
proclaim to all peoples: Indeed, it is true. He has risen?
Lets think a bit about some elements of the Gospel passage we have just heard.
The obsession with fear on the part of the disciples is one of the characteristics of a person in
want of faith. The disciples are behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. Obviously youll say that this
is quite natural. Having just crucified the Master, the Jews are involved in a wave of persecution. Its
logical, then, for the disciples to sense fear. Its logical, that is, when we look at the situation very
objectively. But when one views it from the stance of faith: If the disciples have been living for three
years with the Master, and He has come to them demanding, above all, faith (for if theres anything
Jesus asked of His Apostles, it was faithWhere is your courage? How little faith you have! Mt
8,26); then how is it that now they do not believe? How is it that they live with the feeling of defeat, of
failure, and that this sensation causes them to close in on themselves? The disciples live cut off for fear
of the Jews.
This obsession, this fear, is one of the characteristics of the Church today. It is one of our
qualities, too; we are afraid. And fear is a sign that our faith is not completely firm, that we are
uncertain that Jesus really rose and is living in our midst. That same fear is what is paralyzing us,
keeping us from acting. Perhaps that fear is even what prevents us from becoming serene and open
witnesses of Jesus every day before all mankind. We, too, are too enclosed in fear.
The first thing Jesus does is calm the disciples: Peace be with you. And they were filled with
joy upon seeing Jesus. Peace and joy are the two effects of a real acceptance of the Paschal Lord, of
Christ who appears to His friends, greets them and gives them peace and joy. But it is not a peace like
that contained in an ordinary everyday salutation. It is now much more than a mere wish, than a simple
hello. It is the certainty of a fact that the Christ of the cross is alive and communicates Himself to us.
Peace is now a reality that is introduced into the worried, nervous, disconcerted hearts of the disciples.
And the same is true of joy. The disciples are filled with joy upon seeing the Lord. It is the joy
of reunion. On this Passover occasion, I would like us too to encounter the Risen Jesus once more and
recognize Him in the way the disciples recognized Him: He showed them his hands and his side, that
is, He showed them the cross. Transfigured, yes, but they were wounds all the same. And it was the
cross. And this signifies that a real encounter with Jesus is accomplished through the cross, a luminous
cross, the cross of Easter, but nonetheless the true encounter with the Lord is made by way of the cross.
It is correct then for us to be scandalized when the cross comes our way and we react by saying:
How far the Lord is from me? Indeed, the reverse should be true: How near to me and how intimate
with me is the Lord! For I recognize Him through His wounds, through His side.
Why didnt Thomas believe? Because he was not there when Jesus showed the disciples His
hands and His side. He was not there when Jesus showed them the mystery of the cross. And it is by
means of that very encounter with that Jesus of the cross that the Passover will be introduced into the
disciples hearts.
How I ardently desire that this year we all might experience a real encounter with the Lord, but
an encounter that will fill us with a profound and overflowing joy, an indestructible peace, and not with
any superficial peace and joy. A true peace that has its origins in the cross!

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 Now Jesus has calmed them down; He has filled them with joy. But He has not left them inert;
for He says to the disciples: As the Father has sent me, so I send you (Jn 20,21). It is now the
moment for the missionary Church. The disciples are hiding for fear of the Jews. They are hiding also
because the Spirit of Pentecost has not as yet been given to themthe Spirit of mission, the Spirit of
witness, the Spirit that will uproot them from their passivity and launch them into the world that they
may truly become salt, yeast and light.
But Jesus gives them the order: As the Father has sent me, so I send you. The Church that
encounters Jesus, that recognizes the Easter Christ by means of the cross, is now the Church that
immediately becomes missionary. She is a Church that senses herself penetrated by Gods Spirit and
forcefully sent by Jesus into the world, where history is to be made.
During these days, we will encounter the Lord in a more profound way. For this, an interior
silence and sense of personal poverty will be necessary, in order that He might communicate Himself to
us. We will need to enter deeply into the death and Resurrection of Jesus. We will celebrate worthily
the Lords mysteries.
But afterwards, we will have to return to our daily routine to dedicate ourselves truly in faith to
making history, to changing things. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
Its imperative then that we enter through faith into the mystery of Christ, dead and risen to life.
When, eight days later, Jesus presents Himself to Thomas and invites him to place his hands into His
side and his fingers into the marks of His hands, Thomas will utter: My Lord and my God!a
tremendous act of faith in the Lord. But then Jesus will tell the Apostle something that is extremely
important for his (and our) faith: Thomas, you became a believer because you saw me. Blest are they
who have not seen and have believed. Or rather, blest are those who believe without having seen so
many signs, those who believe in the most difficult and darkest moments, who believe against every
hope, who believe when it would appear that everything is falling apart or breaking down.
This years Passover of the Lord Jesus Christ must help us become more luminous and stronger
in our faith. We are living at a difficult time in the Church and in the world. Yesterday, on my visit to
Los Pinos, I listened to a very humble man speaking to an audience of 1,200 people, and he said to
them: On the day we lose our faith, the country will go under. A very simple statement, so direct, but
so real! The day I lose my faith, I am beaten. If the Church should lose the Faith, she would be
finished. And of this I am becoming more and more awarethat faith is waning. There is a crisis of
faith; there is a painful diminution of faith in Christians of our day.
For a few moments let us see just how this phenomenon is occurring and what its causes are.
For, this year, we must be witnesses suffused though our faith in the Lords Passover. How then is this
waning of faith in our Christians today taking place? On the one hand, there is a certain weakening,
doubting, denying of certain truths of our Faith. The Lords Resurrection itself has been placed in
parentheses, to which Paul will say: If Christ has not risen, our faith isnt valid, our preaching is
useless, we are still in our sins. Christ has risen. Today, too, the Lords Real Presence in the Eucharist
is either doubted or denied, along with the virginity of our Lady. These are truths of faith that are now
being questioned. Still, in all, it is not just from this source that the greater threat to our faith is coming.
The attack on our faith comes from two or three other areas:
1. From an exceedingly facile identification of faith and politics, of faith and the building up of
the world. Indeed, faith does have to meet certain undeniable historical, social and political
demands. A man of faith, an authentic Christian, cant live without attending to the positive
construction of history. He must interest himself in all that is going on around him. Even
more, he knows that it is only because of an out of faiths essential requirements that a more
just, fraternal and human world can arise. The Gospel beatitudes possess an insuperable
power to transform history. Hence it is imperative that we live these beatitudes. Still, we
must be careful no to identify, in a superficial way, faith with politics. Today, lamentably,
there has occurred a real assault on the content of Faith, a real loss of that original force of
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 our Christian belief and practice, a secularization of Christianity, as Pope Paul VI
remarked in Bogota (August 24, 1968).
2. Today, too, we are faced with a diminished faith in the intrinsic efficacy of the Gospel. How
often do we meet with questions likeAnd now this, why? Has the celebration of Jesus
Passover mystery really changed history? Shouldnt we be doing something else? And
my answer to the last question is no. If we truly understood the fact of Jesus death and
Resurrection, if we were to live Jesus Passover this year with steadfastness, wed become
totally new beings and wed then commit ourselves to transforming history. Wed struggle
inspired by the Gospel for justice, peace and love among peoples.
But what has happened is that we Christians have lost, it seems, the sense of the Gospels
power. We no longer believe in the transforming power of The Sermon on the Mount. It
seems to us now to be a very beautiful passage, to be thought about at certain times during
the year, but it really cant be lived and applied on a daily basis.
How different the world would be if we human lived the Sermonif we lived, for example,
these three teachings of Jesus on the Mount:
A. When you pray, go into your house because the Father is there and he listens to
you (cf. Mt 6,5-6). The Sermon on the Mount asks us to be profound interior men
and women of reflection and prayer, to place ourselves in the Fathers presence.
B. The Sermon also insists on speaking to us of the Father. For example, Chapter 6 of
Matthews Gospel dwells on the topic of Providence. And the Sermon on the
Mount, out of this context of Gods fatherhood, sheds much light on our daily
existence and removes our uncertainty, fear and anguish.
C. Finally, the Sermon on the Mount tells us: If, when you are presenting your gift at
the altar, you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your
gift there and go to be reconciled with your brother and, after having made peace,
return, to present your offering (cf. Mt 5,23-24). Doesnt it seem that wed be
changed ourselves and wed change our attitudes toward others, toward history, if
we were to truly live the Sermon on the Mount?
3. Another failing is our lack of growth and maturity in matters of faith. We live peacefully
with a faith that has been bestowed on us as a gift, but we do little to mature it, that is, we
seldom meditate on Gods Word or reflect on it; we read or listen to very little of Gods
Word. We dont try to internalize it and let it grow within us, to insure that our faith truly
becomes more adult.
Another very strong factor in the diminishing of faith is the lack of its practical application.
We content ourselves with crying, Lord, Lord, but we dont actualize the will of our
Father who is in heaven. In sum, we dont translate faith into works. The Apostle James in
his letter seems to reproach us strongly when he says: Faith without works is useless (cf.
Jas 2,17). Which means we mustnt be content with simply celebrating the Passover, we
must apply the Passover to daily life. If you see your brother, says the Apostle James,
who is hungry, and you say to him: go and eat, or go and clothe yourself, but you do
nothing for him, your heart has been closed; that faith is useless (cf. Jas 2,15-17). Real faith
leads us to discover that Jesus is present in each one of our brothers and sisters. As Chapter
25 of Matthew shows: this brother is asking me for something. He is a brother who is
hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, or ill, and hes asking me for something specific.
Another failing of ours consists in contenting ourselves with proclaiming the faith via
words, but without committing ourselves to translating it daily into our lives.
At this point, now, I would ask myself and I would ask you, too: How are we doing in this area
of faith? Are we, for example, emptying our faith of content, real content? More than anything, are we

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emptying it of a Person? For faith ultimately is an encounter with a Person, a Person with a name,
whose name is Jesus. He is the Christ. Are we, you and I, really committing our faith to life?
What are the reasons for this twilight of faith? I would suggest the following: a failure to
progressively deepen our faith; or, in other words, the very superficial religious life we are living.
There is a lack of inner purification. Our heart remains too attached to things. There is a lack, too, of a
true poverty of spirit. Only to the poor are the secrets of Gods kingdom manifested. Then, there is a
lack of real brotherly fellowship and love. Faith always shows itself in the life of the community. I
think here of the Gospel episode at the beginning of this conversation. Thomas wasnt with the
community when Jesus appeared; for this reason, he didnt believe. He didnt believe the others. He
wasnt integrated into a community. He wasnt living community.
What, the, is the faith? Is it in accord with this passage weve read in the Gospel; or better, how
is faith proffered in this passage weve just listened to?
First and foremost, the faith is an encounter and a responsean encounter and a response to His
Word. Then, in the second place, it is a change, a new birth, a re-creation. And, finally, faith is a
commitment in love.
Principally, faith is an encounter with the Lord Jesus who reveals Himself. The disciples rejoice
upon seeing and afterwards proclaim: We have seen the Lord. In addition, Thomas, who in the
beginning doubted, when he sees the Lord, exclaims: My Lord and my God! Faith supposes a
meeting with the Lord, an encounter that can occur in many ways, e.g., in the silence of prayer, in the
midst of very deep suffering. (Suffering involves an element of contradiction. For example, it shatters
or destroys some people. There are some who say: I cant believe any more because I am suffering very
much. Yet, for others, suffering serves to purify their faith, to make it stronger: I believe, Lord,
because You are present to me today through Your cross. Discovering the Lord in a great affliction.
Finding Him in the separation from others or in death! Meeting the Lord in ones neighbor or in the
passing events of story!).
Lord, You are here. I believe, Lord, because, You reveal Yourself by means of a pain, or a word
or joy or through this extremely deep peace that I am now experiencing. Lord, You are here and speak
to me and I am listening and answering. You are asking me for something and I am responding to You.
Faith means saying yes to the Lord who is seeking something from you. At this very moment,
during this very night, Jesus wants something from you, from me. Lord, You are here. To believe is
to say yes to the Lord. Lord, I believe. It is not enough to say that Youve risen and now live: I
must say here and now that You love me, that Ive received Your Word and am saying yes to that
Word and vowing to fulfill it. I believe, Lord, because Ive given myself to You and am responding
yes to You.
In addition, faith is a renewal or a transforming of ones life, a re-creation. When Jesus appeared
to the disciples in the Upper Room, He told them: Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall
forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. Jesus spoke to them about the
Holy Spirit and about forgiveness. A man of faith is a man who is transformed every day.
But, is it sufficient to say: Ive gone to confession. Ive been transformed for the coming of
Passover? No, each day the Lord has something new to ask for me; for every day I meet a new
neighbor whom I am to serve. Every day I must strive to renew myself. Every day the Lord continues
to send His Spirit upon me! What, then, is it to believe? It is to become new, be renew, every dayto
permit oneself to be changed, converted every day by the Lord. What is it to believe? It is to be
reconciled with the Father and with ones brothers. To believe is to truly experience how God our
Father opens me up daily and how I must receive Him and give myself to Him and how Jesus is in each
person and is seeking me self-gift.
Finally, the faith is a commitment of charity. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Here, a
commitment of love is born. Faith is not for possessing. We must make it a reality and communicate it.
It is a commitment of love, realized through witness, service to neighbor and through mission.
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 I have said it is a commitment of love, manifested through witness. If I have found Jesus, like
the disciples in the Upper Room, I must tell whomever I meet on my lifes path: Ive seen the Lord.
Yes, He has risen. Is there someone in our acquaintance who is suffering doubt? Is there a family
member who is in crisis? Within the Church, too, is there someone who is undergoing a very dark and
difficult trial of faith? Why dont I approach and give him or her the assurance of hearing that Christ
has risen?
Faith is contagious. I cant keep it to myself. The greatest gift I can give others is to bring about
a rebirth of faith in their heartsfaith that has been dormant or is perhaps dead.
Surely there are many around me like Thomas, who say: If I dont place my finger into His
wounds or my hand into His side, I will not believe. To these men and women, I, with my life of peace
and joy, because Ive found the Lord, must proclaim that truly the Lord is risen.
This is the commitment of love that is realized through service. Through faith I must give
myself generously to my brothers and sisters, go to meet those who need me more: the poor, the
forgotten, the persecuted, the sorrowful. I must approach them especially at Easter: perhaps someone in
my own family, or a stranger, needs me. At this Easter time, I need to discover how Jesus lives en the
poorest ghettos and in the loneliest people. My faith must open itself up through a generous disposition
to service.
And, finally, faith is a commitment of love on behalf of mission. A missionary Church! A
Church that ventures forth, that travels to the most distant places to bring the saving presence of Jesus.
A Church in which the Christ of Easter really lives, fully consecrated by the Spirit, sent constantly to
the world of real people, where history is made daily.
My dear brothers, under the guidance of Mary, who was proclaimed blessed because she
believed, who wasnt content just to receive the Word but rather assimilated it and later gave it to
others; under the guidance of Mary, the faithful Virgin, go gave herself to the Father and said yes to
Him and later opened herself to others to the point of resolving their problems and seeking their
redemption, let us this night attempt a small revision of our faith.
Let us check to see if we dont need to be converted this year through a new Passover on the
path of faith. I believe in You, Lord. I believe that You live, that You have risen. I believe that You
continue on pilgrimage through history. You are the Lord of history. You live in the Church, which is
Your sacrament, that is, the sign and instrument of Your presence. Lord, You live in my littleness, in my
poverty, in my limitations, in my weakness. You continue to live in me, Lord. You live in my brothers
and sisters, especially in those who need You most. You live and You wait. I believe: I respond yes to
Your demands and I dedicate myself from now on to be a serene and luminous witness of Your
Passover in the simplicity of my daily routine. Amen.

TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

To walk together in hope! That is the theme of our paschal reflection tonight. Yesterday we
concentrated on the subject of faith how to accept the mystery of the Risen Christ who accompanies
us on pilgrimage through history; how to bear witness to this faith; how to put it into practice in our
daily lives.
Christ, my hope, has risen sings the Liturgy of the day of the Lords Resurrection. If there is
any characteristic of Easter, it is precisely hope: Christ, who overcame death; Christ, who vanquishes
the impossible. Opposing hope is not only the difficult, but also the seemingly impossiblethe
impossible in human eyes, the apparently absurd as the result of simple, immediate, human verification.
All this is resolved through hope. For God, nothing is impossible.

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 When it seems that everything is fruitless or falling apart and theres no possibility of escape or
resolution, then hope springs to life. Christ, my hope, is risen. On the night of the Easter Vigil, we are
enveloped by this light of a new hope. How our new age needs it; how we tired, sad, uncertain, even
despairing human need it!
You will say to me, And you still speak about hope? And I reply, Yes, of course.
Precisely because it is more necessary now than ever. For hope seems to be drying up within us, and
outside in the world we see its possibilities becoming perhaps smaller. For this reason, we need to hope
ourselves, to be men and women of hope, but (and this is what I want to insist upon more than anything
tonight) we must be craftsmen, artificers of hope; that is, its witnesses who are able to infuse (not
artificially, to be sure, but really, positively) hope into persons, peoples and society at large.
To be men of hope; to be so for all those who live disillusioned, with a sense of failure and
fatigue; to be men who know how to cry out in secure and prophetic hope: Christ is risen!.
Especially at midnight, when all is darknessthis is when it is necessary to shout louder that the
dawn is near, that light exists, that Christ indeed lives! Being new men as we all are going to be on the
night of the Easter Vigil, it is not just a matter of experiencing a real personal happiness ourselves, of
having been interiorly renewed and feeling secure enough to say, Now I am conscious of being
immensely happy, now I believe, hope and feel peace. No.
Upon leaving that Easter Vigil ceremony, after having lit the candle once again and presented it
to our people as a symbol of my own life illumined again in Christ, I have then to go home. And there
someone might perhaps be unhappier, sadder that before and I must give to him or her this hope. That
very night, or next day o next week, I must run into someone in school, at the office, in the market or
at the street someone who is feeling sad or beaten down by life, and I must say to him or her: Christ
has risen! We are now in Easter week!; but not superficially, not simply proclaiming Christ has risen
and letting things continue as before. Christ has risen, and so Ive changed, weve changed, and now
we must dedicate ourselves to changing history.
That is the message which is offered to us, my beloved brothers, in this Gospel narrative of the
two disciples on the way to Emmauswhich I want now to read and, when finished, to comment upon,
offering a simple, brief reflection on this theme of hope.
But I want to repeat again. You will say, You can speak to us tonight of hope, precisely when
we (in Argentina) are on the eve of a general strike in the city (Mar del Plata), when everything is
getting so complicated and there are problems in the university, tensions in the labor unions and
everything seems to be getting darker? Yes, indeed, for hope has real meaning when the world
undergoes a crisis and Christ is dying. That is the moment when Christian hope arises. As St. Paul
saysto hope when one already senses or touches or possesses or sees is no really to hope at all. If you
perchance should win a lottery prize, at the moment of winning it you have no need to hope. For what
you were hoping for you now have in your possession. (And if you didnt buy the ticket, neither did
you possess hope). Only the person who has set out en route, even though the path may be uncertain or
difficult, and has the possibility of arriving, has hope. The one who has already arrived at his or her
destination, or has not yet set forth, does not have hope. In no way then is it a matter of crossing ones
arms and remaining indifferent, motionless. We must set out on the path. We will meditate then, my
brothers and sisters, with the help of the Lords own Word, on the subject of Christian hope; for there
we will see precisely how light, life and resurrection spring forth from the mystery of the humanly
absurd, the impossible, the dark and the dolorous.
Let us read from Lukes Gospel, 24, 13-35: Two of [the disciples] that same day were making
their way to a village named Emmaus seven miles distant from Jerusalem, discussing as they went all
that had happened. In the course of their lively exchange, Jesus approached and began to walk along
with them. However, they were restrained from recognizing him. He said to them, What are you
discussing as you go your way? They halted, in distress, and one of them, Cleopas by name, asked
him, Are you the only resident of Jerusalem who does not know the things that went on there these
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past few days? He said to them, What things? They said, Al those that had to do with Jesus of
Nazareth, a prophet powerful in word and deed in the eyes of God and all the people; how our chief
priests and leaders delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. We were hoping that
he was the one who would set Israel free. Besides all this, today, the third day since these things
happened, some women of our group have just brought us some astonishing news. They were al the
tomb before dawn and failed to find his body, but returned with the tale that they had seen a vision of
angels who declared he was alive. Some of our number went to the tomb and found it to be just as the
women said; but him they did not see.
Then he said to them: What little sense you have! How slow you are to believe all that the
prophets have announced! Did not the Messiah have to undergo all this so as to enter into his glory?
Beginning, then, with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them every passage of Scripture
which referred to him. By now they were near the village to which they were going, and he acted as if
he were going farther. But they pressed him: Stay with us. I t is nearly eveningthe day is practically
over. So he went in to stay with them.
When he had seated himself with them to eat, he took bread, pronounced the blessing, then
broke the bread and began to distribute it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they
recognized him; whereupon he vanished from their sight. They said to one another, Were not our
hearts burning inside us as he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us? They got up
immediately and returned to Jerusalem, where they found the Eleven and the rest of the company
assembled. They were greeted with, The Lord has been raised! It is true! He has appeared to Simon.
Then they recounted what had happened on the road and how they had come to know him in the
breaking of bread.
How many times have we heard and thought about this passage of Scripture, which isnt a
parable like so many narratives of Jesus! This is a factual history, something that happened on the
evening of hope itself, that is, on the afternoon of the Lords Resurrection. The moment everything
needed to be brought to light and clarified is precisely the moment when things were at their darkest,
most uncertain, worst and saddest in the hearts of those two disciples.
We cannot perhaps determine the exact location of Emmaus today or know precisely the
distance traversed, possibly some ten kilometers. But that is not important. What is important is the fact
that Jesus established contact with two tired, downcast disciples. He explains the situation and He
ignites a hope in them. And they, profoundly affected by the experience, are converted into witnesses of
a Christ whom they met on the road, and who told them many things. This too is our experience, our
history; and it is the history of many persons and peoples.
I want us to consider a bit the attitude of the disciples here, and later Jesus own attitude. For, in
the reaction of the disciples, we are going to see ourselves. In the attitude of Jesus, well discover and,
especially, be able to make our own, the Christian commitment of this new Passover, this Passover of
Reconciliation.
Two depressed, sad, pessimistic, beaten, vanquished disciples! To forget, just a little, the great
drama that theyre a part of, they separate themselves from the community on the very afternoon of the
Resurrection. The community also is without hope and shut itself off from others in the Upper Room,
for fear of the Jews. In sadness and despair, they too experience the sensation of something overcome,
defeated, wiped out. In order to forget it all, the two disciples are walking towards a neighboring
village and they are conversing about the Lord.
There is a love that unites them. Yet, sadly, they speak of the Lord in tones of failure, defeat,
pessimism, instead of being infected by the possibility of a hope. If at least they were able to say, Do
you suppose what the women told us may be true? What some others said when they went to the tomb,
even when they didnt see Him? But no, the two men now live very pessimistic lives, so pessimistic
that they no longer believe in anything. We were hoping that He would rise, but its already the third
day; some women saw that the stone really was moved and they say that angels appeared to them. And,
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too, some of our group (of disciples) did go to the tomb but they didnt see Him. The graphic
expression of despair: They didnt see Him. Their pessimism is so strong in them that it destroys any
hope, and, as a result, causes a very great sadness to well up inside.
When Jesus approaches, they halt with an air of sorrow. Discouragement and pessimism always
contribute to dejection. Sadness and pessimism fall upon a soul and completely undo it. The greatest
temptation is the temptation against hope; and the most thorough sin is the sin against hope. Sins
against charity may be the most serious of all; but the most irremediable are the sins against hope. A
person who loses hope no longer has strength to get going and start out once more on the way. Peter
sinned on Jesus final night. He denied the Lord; but he loved much, and he hoped much. In the eyes of
the Lord (who looked at Peter when He passed him on the patio the night of His arrest), Peter saw the
hope that changed his life; whereas Judas closed himself off to hope and to love and ended by killing
himself. Hope was lacking. Peter sinned; but in faith and love, he surrendered himself to the Lord.
Later he became the Rock of the Church.
To enclose oneself in a garment of sadness and pessimism is a small thing. Even more
lamentable is it to infect self and others with despair and cynicism. And this is what is also happening
to us. We join the events which affect us personally and which we see as very difficult, dire and
insuperable, to others problems which also are dire, difficult and insuperable. And thus we help
increase the pessimism, whether these problems are ours only or those of the city and the country. I
dont mean we should close our eyes and say, How lucky we are! Ours is a happy city! Who is going
to be happy if we have problems every day? Rather, it is a matter of searching for the secret of true
happiness, for the road to real happiness, the secret of true hope!
Despairing people continually spread pessimism about. In addition, it is always easier to focus
on negative things, more difficult to encourage one another with positive facts. If, for example, there
appears on the same page of a newspaper an article about a kidnapping or death on one side and, on the
other, a small notice informing us of how Pope Paul VI, speaking to the faithful in St. Peters Square,
exhorted them to live in love, we will pass by the small notice which doesnt interest us and turn to the
other one, which somehow catches us and moves us to exclaim, What an awful thing! That is how it
is; it is much easier to spread pessimism than the light of hope.
Yet once the two disciples meet the Lord, what happened? Once they have walked with Him,
and He reveals Himself to them and they recognize Him in the breaking of bread, what do they do,
these tired and downcast disciples?
Indeed, once theyve met the Lord, they do not remain unaffected nor do they remain even in
the village of Emmaus, repeating to themselves, Ah, what happiness! Tonight, for sure, we can sleep
calmly, for it really is certain that Christ has risen! Not al all! For they remembered that the other
disciples had remained in Jerusalem. And so, in spite of their fatigue, they returned to Jerusalem to join
the others.
Meanwhile, however, Jesus had also revealed Himself to these others. Hence, when the two
disciples arrive and open the doors of the Upper Room, their friends inside approach them and say:
Yes, its true, Christ has risen, and He has appeared to Simon! In turn, the two men from Emmaus
relate everything that happened to them on the road, about how they recognized Jesus in the breaking
of bread.
What a beautiful encounter between two hopes sprung to life once again! Between the Eleven
who cry, Christ is risen! and the two disciples, wayfarers, who reply, Yes, its true, Christ is risen!
We too have recognized Him in the breaking of bread. How wonderful it is when life thus becomes an
enthusiastic encounter with a real, committed, objective, Christian and paschal hope!
My fond wish is that, at the end of this Holy Week, on Easter Vigil Night, we too might come to
discover Jesus in this way; that we might by then have recognized Him in our fraternal communion, in
the Word and Eucharist, and that we might venture forth from this place to proclaim to the world, Yes,

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its true, Christ is risen! Would that the world might then have, through the transforming power of our
witness, a kind of almost physical proof of the fact that indeed the Lord has risen!
This then is the sequence of events in regard to the disciples: at first, they are pessimists, united
in their pessimism. That is, they go about spreading pessimism continually. But, in the end, once Jesus
has been discovered, they feel the need now to bring others the Passover light, Resurrection, happiness
and life!
But, let us think a bit about the approach or attitude of Jesus. In Him, we find three
characteristics that cause hope to live again in the hearts of the two exhausted disciples on the road to
Emmaus.
The first is a very simple, normal attitude or manner of acting, one we would expect to find in
ourselves. Jesus approached the two men and began to walk along with them. A very natural thing to
do. What is uncommon about all this is doing it in such a way as to show ourselves deeply concerned
about our companions. Usually we go through life in the company of others, walking elbow-to-elbow,
but completely oblivious of one another. We pay no attention to one another, especially in thing that
matter, that deeply affect us. As happens, for example, when we travel on a train or bus and there is a
large group of us in close quarters, so close that we step on one anothers toes but dont get around to
discussing one anothers problems.
Jesus began to walk with them. But this gesture that is so common, normal, even expected in
current society, meant for Jesus something very special. It meant entering into the mystery of those two
disciples, internalizing it and making their problems His own. For this reason, Jesus approached them
and asked, What are you conversing about on the road and why are you sad? In other words, it is not
enough just to accompany others through life. Rather, one should do this in such a way as to be able to
interpret a little or understand better and make our own our neighbors suffering, pain, cross or anxiety.
How much good we would do for our brothers who are suffering or living enveloped by
pessimism, discouragement and fatigue, if only we would approach them and enable them to know that
they matter to us, that their problems pain us. If only wed just say to them, Whats the matter? Why
are you sad? Whats bothering you? Sometimes its unnecessary to say anything. If our approach to
our brother is sincere and fraternal or if our approach to a poor or suffering individual springs from a
truly evangelical, Christlike heart, then the heart of the person who is visited will open up, as in the
case of the two disciples. He will be touched and will begin to converse, as did the pair: Are you the
only resident of Jerusalem who does not know the things that went on there these past few days? (Lk
24,18).
A first attitude then is one of being open, of approach, to a brother who is suffering. And that
drawing close to a suffering brother is already an entering into communion, a beginning of community.
We must then open our hearts to the anxiety, suffering and pain, the crosses and problems of our
neighbors.
The Lords second attitude is this: using the Word, the Scriptures, Jesus interprets the cross.
What little sense you have! How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have announced! Did not
the Messiah have to undergo all this so as to enter into His Glory? And beginning with Moses, Jesus
went on to explain how the Scriptures referred to Him.
While He walked along, Jesus explained the history of salvation simply to them, taught them a
little about the meaning of the cross and how everything happened as ordained, that what appeared to
be absurd, impossible, was included in Gods plan even to the details. Little by little He disclosed to
them the sense of Scripture. That they might understand or not understand everything was not
important.
Jesus interpreted for them His suffering and the cross from the viewpoint of hope, of the Word
of Scripture and of faith; and their hearts began to burn. They admit this themselves later on. Their
hearts burn because they see that it is not a matter of a word being understood, but of a word that is
savored, experienced. They see that the Lord, whom they have not yet recognized, is not just giving
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them a message from rote, but rather is communicating to them a real experience. In short, He is
explaining to them His own history, His own life. For this reason, they feel their hearts catching fire.
It is this second quality or attribute that we must assume vis--vis our brothers who live in
spiritual darkness, suffering. To interpret their pain, their problems, their poverty, their cross in the light
of Gods Word, in the light of faith. But not in the light of a word studiously learned or technically
memorized! For example, how many Scripture phrases do we know from memory? Or, how
stupendously have we mastered the catechism? No, this is not enough! We must address others from
the vantage point of an experience of God, of the cross, and in God. Only the person who has
experienced God within, tasted the cross, can speak to his brother, tell him who God is and what the
cross is.
Or rather, only Jesus can speak about Jesus. Only when we allow ourselves to be completely
permeated by the Lord and begin to change within, will the word begin to emerge from us, not as a
doctrine but as a life, a message, a witness.
Why are there some priests (youve experienced this in the confessional or in personal
encounters), or without being priests some persons who, by uttering simply a word, illumine
everything and spread peace abroad? Simple because that word of theirs, more than an expression or
statement, is a life; more than a teaching, it is a Person a Person with a name and that name is Christ.
Hence, a second attribute to bring to those who are discouraged, pessimistic, or sad is this: to be
able, in the light of Gods Word meditated upon and experienced within, to cast light on anothers
cross, to locate the cross in Gods plan from him or her.
A third quality is this: to break bread. To share the bread is to symbolize the Eucharist. And in
the Eucharist is Jesus who gives Himself and remains. When Christ distributes the bread, the two
disciples recognize Him immediately; and they recognize Him not through the physical act of
distributing bread, but because they recall the liturgical celebration. They remember that breaking bread
means Eucharist. And so they say, This is Jesus. The encounter in the Eucharist is a sign of giving
ones life. Hence they say to one another, This is the One who gave Himself. This is the One who
sacrificed Himself. Breaking bread means to give oneself, to sacrifice oneself. Jesus is He who breaks
bread. There is only one Person who breaks and distributes bread, who truly gives Himself and
sacrifices Himself, and that Person is Jesus. They recognize Him immediately.
This is our third attribute then: the capacity to break bread. To share the bread is equivalent to
entering into communion with ones brothers in the Eucharist, to experience ourselves as Gods family
in worship. This is why the Liturgy is so hope-filled and so great a source of hope for Christians
everywhere. But breaking bread in the Liturgy means to sacrifice ourselves; to give our friendship;
love; affection; understanding; everything we are, can be, and wish to be. Ive said it many times: we
havent learned to love, even when we may have given all our possessions, if we havent given
ourselves. Given ourselves in the simple things of daily living and not just on great occasions. Given
ourselves even when it costs us so much to smile, not an artificial or superficial smile, but a smile that
comes from a very profound understanding and from the certainty that the Lord exists. A smile that
arises from within and is a sign of Gods existence, that He is love and gives us His peace.
To give to others means, when one is fatigued and cant do any more, to think in this fashion:
Surely there is someone who can do even less than I at this point. Here I feel weak and ready to stop
giving; but might I not just have a little energy to go and visit someone who is weaker than I? This is
when I live and experience the cross. Isnt this the moment and the way that hope enters in to inspire
me to approach my brother, who also is discouraged, and to speak to him a word that might encourage
him, strengthen him in hope?
This is what giving ourselves means: breaking the bread.
And so, my brothers, this is Lukes Gospel, the revelations of Jesus. By way of finishing, Id
like to relate this whole mystery of Jesus encounter with the two exhausted disciples on the way to

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Emmaus (of the encounter of the Word which illumines the cross and of the bread which is broken and
shared) to the Eucharist we celebrate each day.
On Thursday, we are going to celebrate the Eucharist in a special way: in the morning, the Mass
of Unity or Chrism Mass, when all the priests concelebrate with their bishop. It is the Eucharist of
Unity. And in the evening, we will have the Eucharist of the Lords Supper. It is the Day of the
Eucharist.
But what does the Eucharist signify? The Eucharist is a Word of God that enlightens and a bread
which is offered. The Eucharist is an encounter with my brother. After all, dont we form Gods
assembly, a community? In order to celebrate the Eucharist, then, isnt it obvious that we should be
brothers? Isnt it obvious that it is not enough to be a mass of people who happen to come together in
the same temple, and sing the same psalms and make the same gestures, but, instead, that we should
feel that we truly are brothers?
To celebrate the Eucharist, we must approach our brothers as Jesus approached the disciples on
the way to Emmaus. To enter into communion.
The Eucharist comes after the Word. What special attention, appreciation and appropriate
receptivity we must possess vis--vis the Word that is read and proclaimed to us, explained to us by the
priest! The Word that illumines our lifes path and our cross, that sows our path with hope!
Then comes the bread. The priest distributes It in the name of Jesus. That self-gift of Jesus to us
in the Eucharist! There we recognize Him and we believe. Lord, Ive encountered You; but Im not
going to remain here in this spot. Since Ive encountered You, Lord, I feel immensely joyful and I see
that my life is changed. Since Ive met You, Lord, and You are now my hope, I sense that, in my heart,
once full of sadness, pessimism, fatigue and despair, hope has shone once again. But, most of all, Lord,
since Ive met You and You are my Brother and Friend and offer Yourself to me in the breaking of
bread, Im aware that I cant keep You to myself alone. I must venture forth, share the bread with my
brothers, and proclaim to these men and women of 1974, in my city and barrio, in my house and office,
that its true: You have risen and are walking with us in our way; You give us the Word and You explain
the cross and share the bread!
May our Lady of Hope, our Lady of the Way, of Poverty and of Service, accompany us, make
luminous our path, joyful our meeting and steadfast our hope. Amen.

WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

Dear brothers in Christ,

We are about to begin the Easter TriduumThursday, Friday and Saturday. Three intensive days
during which w must live the death and Resurrection of Jesus, awaiting the Easter Vigil. The great
night, which should make us a totally new people and commit us to building a new world; that should
leave us with an awareness that the Easter Christ has been born again in our hearts, has lit the light of
hope and inflamed our hearts with the fire of love, and has transformed us into ardent, serene and
luminous witnesses of New Passover.
During these evenings, we have prayed to receive Jesus Christ in faith and to walk with Him in
hope. Today we pray to be witnesses of love, to be witnesses of God who is essentially Love and has
shown Himself to us in Jesus at Bethlehem in the littleness, fragility and poverty of an infant out of
love; and who now reveals Himself to us in the solemnity, grandeur and fruitfulness of the cross as
Love. To be witnesses of Love! But, at the same time, we must be men and women who allow
themselves to be loved and to be transformed in their deepest selves; for love does change and
transform. Changed into witnesses of love before all peoples! To be the ones who proclaim to nations
that God is essentially Love.

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 Tonight Id like us to dwell briefly on another appearance of our Lord, on the very first one of
which the Gospel speaks: the appearance of the Risen Jesus to Mary Magdalene. She is the person
selected by the Lord to be a special witness to the Resurrection, the woman who lovingly searches for
the Lord, encounters Him and allows herself in love to be transformed by Him; the woman who
ventures forth to proclaim to the men: I have seen the Lord and he has told me these things (cf. Jn.
20,18).
Basically a Christian as a new man (or woman) is a person who has searched for the Lord with a
serene persistence and has encountered Him in a substantial way, or rather, has permitted himself or
herself to be encountered by the Lord, and afterwards goes forth to inform the whole world: I have
seen the Lord and He has told me such marvels.
We read in Johns Gospel, 20, 1-18, the following:
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene
came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away, so she ran off to Simon Peter and the
other disciple (the one Jesus loved) and told them, The Lord has been taken from the tomb! We dont
know where they have put him! At that, Peter and the other disciple started out on their way toward the
tomb. They were running side by side, but then the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb
first. He did not enter but bent down to peer in, and saw the wrappings lying on the ground. Presently,
Simon Peter came along behind him and entered the tomb. He observed the wrappings on the ground
and saw the piece of cloth which had covered the head not lying with the wrappings, but rolled up in a
place by itself. Then the disciple who had arrived first at the tomb went in. he saw and believed.
(Remember, as yet they did not understand the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from dead). With this,
the disciples went back home.
Meanwhile, Mary stood weeping beside the tomb. Even as she wept, she stooped to peer inside,
and there she saw two angels in dazzling robes. One was seated at the head and the other at the foot of
the place where Jesus body had lain.
Woman, they asked her, why are you weeping? She answered them, Because the Lord has
been taken away, and I do not know where they have put him. She has no sooner said this than she
turned around and caught sight of Jesus standing there. But she did not know him. Woman, she asked
her, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for? She supposed he was the gardener, so she
said, Sir, if you are the one who carried him off, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him
away. Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned to him and said [in Hebrew], Rabbouni (meaning
teacher). Jesus then said, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Rather go to
my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples. I have seen the Lord! she announced. Then she reported what
he had said to her.
The whole of Christian life consists, my dear brothers, in searching for the Lord with the most
peaceful ardor, and in meeting Him, or better yet, in allowing oneself to be met by the Lord and to be
transformed by Him; and later, to return to ones life routine, committed in faith each day to
announcing to men and women, to the world, that Christ has truly risen, that we have seen Him and He
has told us many things.
The Christian life is a continual search for the Lord, but a loving search. Mary Magdalene can
endure loneliness no longer; she senses the need for a deep, intense encounter with Jesus. She doesnt
yet believe in the Resurrection, but she does feel the need (for she has been with Jesus through much of
His public life) of being with Him and experiencing His very presence, even though Jesus may be dead.
She senses the need to be with the Lord, and love moves her to a ready search, even in the dark of
night. That very search is what makes possible for Mary her encounter with the Lordan encounter that
is going to change her life completely, give her abundant peace and joy, and convert her into a witness
to the Lords Resurrection.

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 I would say that is the first requisite for a Christianthat he or she must be caught up in loves
dynamism and must seek the Lord each day, in darkness like Mary Magdalene, in solitude where we
most acutely sense our aloneness. We all must seek out the Lord because we need Him. He is the only
one who ca give meaning to our lives and joyous fulfillment to our solitude. He is the only one who can
utter a word deep inside us through our silence. How much we need the Lord! How often we enter into
the Church and seek the Lord in silent prayer! How many times we look for the Lord in song and in
community that celebrates the Eucharist! How often we seek Jesus in our visit to someone in whom
Jesus is reflected in a very special way, e.g., in the infirm, poor, suffering and abandoned!
We need the Lord because we sense that we are very much alone, in darkness, and we
experience within us, profoundly, the cross and suffering. How our lives are illumined through an
encounter with the Lord!
A Christian then is a person who looks for the Lord. But this search, as we said on the first day,
must be an intense search for the faith. Hence Easter, which transforms us into a new creature, into a
new people, must make us men and women shining in faith, capable of encountering the Lordat the
least, capable of experiencing a longing for His presence.
How terrible it is when a Christian becomes too comfortable and secure, too satisfied with the
status quo, with his possessions. How good it is, on the other hand, when a Christian experiences a
serene longing for a deeper union with the Lorda longing arising out of a lack of satisfaction, yet a
serenity, too, from possessing already a kind of tranquility.
This search for the Lord moves the Christian to look at each event, person, word and silence of
each day from a faith-perspective, and to see how the Lord manifests Himself to him or her: to seek the
Lord continually!
Does it not happen at times that we Christians are extremely insensitive to the signs of Gods
love? Too closed off, perhaps, to the love by which God loves us? And thus we dont experience the
need for a more vital, deeper, more intimate, personal and transforming union with Jesus? Mary
Magdalene starts out, even when it is still dark, to search the Lord, because she needs Him.
The poor Christian who feels very smug and satisfied with self and doesnt sense a need for the
Lord to speak to him or her via His revealed Word in Scripture or via the homily on the Word by a
priest at Mass. He or she knows, sees and understand everything, feels satisfied and satiated. The poor
Christian who possesses too great a sense of security and feels no need for Gods coming to him in a
new way! Who selfishly shuts himself off and doesnt experience a restlessness to encounter Jesus, who
lives in each one of His brothers. For, in the newspaper hawker at the corner, in the bus driver or in the
pharmacist who sells me my prescription, Jesus is present. Christ lives in each one of my brothers and
sisters.
This then is what I must do in my search for faith and my desire to encounter the Lord: namely,
possess that restlessness, anxiety to recognize Jesus in each one of my brothers, especially in the person
who is suffering more, crying more; who is caught up, embraced more than others, by the arms of the
cross. Lord, help me to know how to meet You; but give me especially now a serene and profound
longing for the search.
Love is a search for the Lord. But it is also (afterwards) an encounter. Mary Magdalene searches
in sadness; hence, the angels ask, Woman, why do you weep? And Jesus, when He appears to her
suddenly in the garden, will also ask Mary, Woman, why are you weeping? Christ reveals Himself in
signs and persons, and asks of us only a serenity, a calm. When He comes to a soul, Christ requires
only a tranquility, peace and joy. Woman, why do you weep? Magdalene hasnt recognized the Lord!
Why? Because her eyes are extremely sad and turned in upon herself. As we saw yesterday, with the
discouraged disciples on the way to Emmaustheir eyes too were closed or directed only upon
themselves. Thus they didnt know how to recognize the Lord.
Woman, why are you weeping? One of the attitudes forbidden to the Christian at Easter, to the
Christian who lives a life of real faith, fortified by hope and inspired by love, is precisely this one of
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being closed in on oneself in sadness and weeping. Woman, why are you crying? The very attitude
which impedes our recognizing the Lord!
But here is where the Lord reveals Himself to her and utters her name: Mary! At the very
moment when the Magdalene senses herself touched or recognized by the Lord, she discovers that it is
Jesus and she says to Him, Master.
How often in our lives, in our serene, sincere, very confused perhaps but completely loving life-
search, do we also sense ourselves recognized and addressed by the Lord! That is what I want more
than anything tonight, but I dont know how to convey it. Id like us tonight to sense that we too have
been addressed personally by Jesus, recognized by Him as we arein our fragility, finitude, obscurity,
poverty and suffering. Would that we might sense ourselves addressed as Mary felt herself called and
named by the Lord; for it is in that very acknowledgment or recognition that our eyes too will be
opened and we will truly meet the Lord.
That very act of being addressed by the Lord is taking place now within each and every one of
us through a suffering and pain we might have, or through a loneliness we might be experiencing, or
via the darkness in which we perhaps find ourselves. The Lord calls us by name and addresses us:
John, Charles, James, Mary or Elizabeth, and so on What we need when this happens is a
sensitivity so fine, a silence so deep and a predisposition so open as to enable us to recognize the fact of
the Lords call to us, the fact that the Lord himself has found us, the fact that, in our search for Him, it
was really He who was approaching us to encounter us.
My brothers, how hard it is for a person to be always searching! How hard, when someone I
traveling about, groping in the dark without meeting anyone! Or when someone is searching for
happiness while surrounded by sadness, or when one yearns for the light but continues on in darkness.
On the other hand, how good it is when the Lord suddenly appears to us, accompanied by a very
profound peace, a clear and inextinguishable light, a permanent happiness and an unshakable hope!
How wonderful it is!
In a while, the same thing will be happening to us men and women of today. We are en route
now through our history, in this year of 1974 and in this city (Mar del Plata). We are on the road
looking for light. Perhaps we dont know how to address it, but we Christians do know that Light does
have a name and that name is Christ. We are all searching for that Light, because we need it, we desire
it. We are searching, too, for a Peace. We Christians know how to label that also. For that Peace has a
name and that name is Christ. Perhaps we all might not know how to label hope. But we Christians
know that Jesus is our Hope.
We walk then in the search of a light, a joy and a hope. How wonderful it would be, if, in
friendship, in the deepest area of our affection, this light is lit up for us, this happiness is brought closer
and this hope becomes palpable! How our lives would change! That is what I want for you, for all
Christians, my brothers and my friends, for all men and women of good will, for those who search for
light in the darkness, joy in sadness, for hope in despair. I want us to open ourselves to be encountered,
discovered and named by the Lord.
Mary is the name Jesus gives to that woman moved by love and involved in a search, who
lives in sadness and cries, but who possesses a restlessness because she cannot endure being alone, who
needs the Lord. Each one of us has a name and has a need to leave himself open to be encountered by
the Lord. But to allow oneself to be named by the Lord is to permit oneself to be recognized for what
one is, for what one possesses of weakness and misery, and (Ill add even more) for what one owns of
suffering, of pain, of the cross. And especially for what one has of sin! For it is the Lord who is
searching for us even in our fragility and in the misery of our sin. How good it is the to leave oneself
open to be encountered, to be illumined, to be changed by the Lord!
A love that searches, a love that encounters!
Finally, a love that transmits, spreads and radiates to others. When Mary Magdalene first meets
the risen Lord, she is tempted to fall on her knees and embrace His feet and say, Lord, Master. She
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experiences a real joy in this meeting. Her life has changed. She who ones lived in solitude now meets
the Lord. She was sorrowful and weeping but now sadness is dispelled. Everything has changed in her
life, has been cast aside and he has fallen to embrace the Lords feet. But the Lord addresses her, No,
that is not what you should do; dont stay there embracing my feet; go and tell my brothers (what you
have seen). How intriguing is that expression of Jesus! Tell my brothers! Jesus has died on the cross
to make us His brothers and sisters. For the first time here, He addresses His disciples as brothers.
Now indeed, after having died on the cross and offered His Eucharist for us, Jesus calls us brothers.
Go and tell my brothers. Mary rises and announces to Peter, John and all the disciples, I have seen
the Lord and he has told me these things. Marys life is utterly changed not only because she has met
the Lord, but also because she has now begun to feel responsible for transmitting to others a hope.
Last night, we spoke much about this and said it wasnt enough for us to have met the Lord and
changed our lifestyle; that is wasnt enough for us to be content, if we had not yet learned how to make
our brothers and sisters a little happier. Now we see the same situation in the case of this woman to
whom Jesus says, Dont stay here; go, the world need you. Go and proclaim to others what you have
seenthat the Lord is risen. Tell them what I have told you.
What is a Christian, my brothers? He is one who has looked for the Lord with the serene
intensity of a real faith; one who has encountered Him in the bright light of hope; one who now
radiates, spreads, communicates Him through his generous love. That is why the Christians cannot
stay here with arms crossed.
The Christian is a person who lives with real conviction the Passover, which tells him: Yes,
Christ has risen; Christ my hope has risen. But now, what to do? I cant continue as before. I have to
change the worldof my office, my home, my school, my profession. This world must experience the
nearness of the Risen Christ who has been born in me. It must take notice that in me there is a new light
that shines forth; a new happiness that touches everyone; a firm, very firm, hope that radiates to all
around.
A Christian then is simple a witness of the Lords Resurrection; a person of faith who
spontaneously radiates the Christ of Easter! How we you and I complicate matters! How we tend to
assume that a Christian is a person who possesses many talents and very beautiful expressions in order
to convince others! A Christian is a person who, in love with Jesus, has encountered himself in Him,
has changed his life, is generously and wholeheartedly in love and now communicates to others the joy
of the encounter!
However, all this is only realized when we truly live in our very person the generous gift of
love, the generous and happy gift of service. And with that idea I want to end this talk. How many of
our brethren need our presence! How many brethren who live in darkness need our light! How many
simply need a sign of our understanding, friendship, true love! My brothers, it is useless for us to try to
preach and speak to others if we are not determined to build a community that loves. It is not enough to
proclaim love to people; we must express in simply daily acts of comprehension and service, of dying
to self and of giving to others, that we are truly capable of loving. And even this isnt enough! We must
plant, sow love in mens hearts, that are now cold and insensitive, perhaps closed in on themselves and
at war with others, divided and broken, embittered by hate and violence.
O Lord, tomorrow is Holy Thursday. It is the day of the Mystery of Love, the day on which
You chose out of love to remain with us, the day on which You announced Your everlasting presence
among us out of love; the day on which You established a very intimate communion with Your
disciples whom You called friends. Tomorrow, Holy Thursday, I will begin to live the Mystery of Love;
then, the day after tomorrow, on Good Friday, You will open Your arms on the cross, Lord, and teach
me what it means to love, that theres no greater love than that of a person who gives his or her life for
others; that, if You are lifted up above the earth, it is in order to show that You have no preferences
except as regards the poor, the suffering, the afflicted; and that You embrace everyone out of love, that
You long for us all to be brothers and sisters.
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 Friday, Lord, will witness the mystery of Your self-gift, in order that we, all mankind, might
learn what love means.
And Saturday, Lord, will see the great night, the great light, the great hope of the Resurrection,
the new man who arises! How I yearn, O Jesus, new Man, how I desire that this year You make us truly
into a new people, free and generous, sincere and truthful, fraternal and disinterestedmen and women
on whose lips, in whose person and heart there may reside naught else but this one word: love! For
love, Lord, is the only thing that can change the world, that can light up the darkness, give us peace and
truly build up history. O Lord, may I learn to love and to sow love in my brothers and sisters!
Tonight, I beseech You, Lord, for myself and for my brothers and sisters, through the
intercession of Mary, our Mother, who lived that intense love become contemplation, service and
redemption. May she, Lord, teach us to be witnesses of Your love. Amen.

HOLY THURSDAY

CHRISM MASS

Dear brothers, all in the one priesthood of Jesus:

Today is the feast of our diocesan unity, of our diocesan priesthood! Hence this celebration with
all of our priests, who have come from different areas drawn by a common sense of responsibility for
being present. If there is one day on which a priest cannot not keep an appointment with his bishop, it is
this oneHoly Thursday.
For this reason, I would wish to say to you priests present, with all my brotherly affection, how
grateful I am that you have come today to bless the Oils and to consecrate the Bread of Gods People in
this Eucharist. It is as a sign that together we will continue to build up this diocesan unity of ours, this
priestly unity, and from this very place, from this altar and from this mystery of Jesus death and
Resurrection that is shown forth in our lives. And we will continue to proclaim both through word and
realize both through the Eucharist, and, too, we will celebrate both in our lifes daily routine.
My dear brother priests, with all my heart I say to youHappy feast of your priesthood! And
many, many thanks, in the name of the whole Church, for this expression of the unity of the
presbyterate with their bishop in the celebration of the Eucharist.
For today is the feast of our diocesan unity, the feast of the presbyterate in communion with the
bishop, and of the bishop and his presbyterate in communion with the whole People of God, and of the
whole People of God in fruitful communion with the world.
In addition, today is the feast of priestly fidelity. In a few moments we priests are going to
renew the promises we made to the Lord. In brief, this will amount to the renewal of a deep, joyful and
a total fidelity to the Lord, the Servant of Yahweh; and to the Church, the universal sacrament of
salvation; and to the people, who await our ministry.
It is the feast of the blessing of the holy Oils by means of which the celebration of the
sacraments will continue to build up our diocesan unity, and the celebration of the Eucharist will
continue to be the root and hinge of the whole Christian community.
But first, my dear brothers, before proceeding, permit me to say a few words to you regarding
priestly fidelity. With utter sincerity and affection, through Christ who lives in you and me, Id like to
speak to you, my dear brothers and friends, very simply about this threefold fidelityfidelity to the
Lord, fidelity to the Church and fidelity to the people.
Today is the day for dedicating ourselves; for, on this day, the Church speaks of the faithful
witness. It is the day on which Jesus, out of fidelity to the Father, is about to give His life, first under
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the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist and later, joyfully, on the cross. It is the day on
which Jesus opens His heart to authentic love, to profound friendship. Christ, faithful to the Father and
to humankind, through the Eucharist builds up the Church.
a) Fidelity to the Lord, the Servant of Yahweh. These days, dear brother priests, you have been
reading and proclaiming to Gods people the prophecy of Isaiah about Yahwehs Servant. You have
read it, meditated upon it, made it your own. This Servant of Yahweh, who has been chosen, formed,
consecrated in His mothers womb and has a special place in the palm of His Fathers hand, who does
not fear the cross and experiences for some few moments the sensation of fatigue, but who nonetheless
embraces the cross and deathHe is the man of sorrows who takes upon Himself the sins of all
mankind.
My brothers, we have been consecrated by the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, has
anointed me. We heard this in the first reading from the lips of Isaiah; we read it in Lukes Gospel.
Christ applied the words to Himself. Like our Lord, we too are anointed by the same Spirit and sent to
announce the Good News to the poor and proclaim freedom to prisoners. But all this implies, presumes
in us, a fidelity to the Lord.
What does this fidelity to the Lord mean? It means moving and living constantly in a real
relationship with God the Father. Yes, Father, because this has ever been Your will. I come to do
Your will. Even though it may bring me to the cross, I want to live close to the Father.
Fidelity to the Lord means to live in an atmosphere of deep prayer and in the luminous radiance
of contemplation. It means to take up ones cross in serenity.
My dear brother priests, I beseech you that we might commit ourselves together to live
exclusively in relationship with the Father. May we joyfully realize His plan and live always in the
luminous power of contemplation. May we always be men of prayer, able to teach others how to pray,
how to encounter the Lord at varying times, how to recognize Him even in the difficult and adverse
circumstances of history. Together let us dedicate ourselves to being men of the crossserene, happy,
courageous on the cross, because the cross is the Fathers great gift, the seal of our priesthood, the path
to success in our ministry.
Faithful to the Lord, we will renew this priestly fidelity, obedient to death, even to death on the
cross, as the Lord. Consecrated by the Spirit, we will feel well up within us a living water that, from
our inmost being, will cry out (as St. Ignatius of Antioch used to say): Come to the Father. And this
living water is Gods Spirit in whom we have been consecrated by the priestly anointing.
b) Fidelity to the Churchto this our Church, more specifically, to this diocesan Church of Mar del
Plata that enjoys deep communion with the Universal Church. The Church of 1974. The Church such
as it is in the concretewith the limited, imperfect men that we are, with a challenge that is very distinct
and different from the challenges of five and ten years ago. A Church that offers herself to the world as
the universal sacrament of salvation. A Church that is essentially a communion, a communion presided
over by our Holy Father. Today, Holy Thursday, we sense that we are in profound communion with
him. Especially this year, I believe that we must make this communion more concrete and more vital.
For the Lord has given us a grace, through the humble person of your bishop, to share in the paschal
prayer and preparation of Pope Paul VI during the recent retreat in the Vatican.
This year we feel ourselves in real communion with him, with the Church in Latin America and
with the Church that is on pilgrimage and suffers in the Middle East, in Asia, Africa, Europe,
throughout the world, wherever there exists a sorrow for the Church, a hope for the Church.
My brothers, this fidelity to the Church demands of us priests of me, your bishop that we live
in communion, that we be men of communion. This participation in the Eucharist is a sign of
communion, but precisely in order that we may live it! That we may be men of communion ourselvesa
communion of priests with their bishop, of priests among themselves.
The bishop has no meaning alone, without his priests. The priesthood is absurd without a
fruitful relationship with the bishop, who is the head, the pastor, in the name and as an expression of
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Christ the Head and Chief Shepherd. May we then live the sacramental fraternity that is the product of
the same consecration and of the same mission! And may there be later a communion with the whole
priestly People which today shares in the Eucharist, sensing the profound joy and responsibility of
having also been anointed by the Spirit and invited to share, in a special way and on a different level, in
the same consecration of Christ, the unique Priest. May we all live in communion with Jesus, listening
to His anguishings, assuming all His sufferings and aspirations, living simply in an attitude of service,
not as one who rules but as one who serves, as brothers and friends.
Finally, may ours be a communion with the whole world that is waiting: a communion that is a
saving presence of the Lord among peoples, alight that illumines, a salt that preserves and nourishes, a
yeast that transforms. May we be as authentic servants and friends of God for all men and women.
c) Fidelity to man as he is in realityto this man who is grieving and sorrowful; to that one, broken and
sad, wandering aimlessly; to that other, full of misery but also of potential. May we be faithful to this
man (or woman) who lives in Mar del Plat or in Maipu or in Necochea or in Balcarce; to this new man
as he presents himself to meapproaching me in the sacred intimacy of the confessional, coming to my
office for counsel, meeting me on the street and awaiting from me the testimony of the Christ who lives
in me.
Today, we prayed in the Oration to be witnesses of the Lords redemption, witnesses in faith
and love. It is to this person in the concrete that we must respond, whom we must serveserve with the
Word; with the Eucharist; with simple, generous and daily acts of unselfishness and giving. Just as
Jesus did on a Holy Thursday like today, when He spoke to His own, discoursed about the Father and
communicated the Spirit to them, and, afterwards, when He instituted the Eucharist in order that they
might truly become brothers and friends; also, later, when he washed their feet.
This is our stance, our attitude, toward the men and women who are awaiting us! Via de Word,
to cast light on their crosses and to open up to them a hope, to show them the way. Through the
Eucharist, to enable them to be strong and, in particular, brotherly towards all. To live daily in a simple
posture of availability and gift! We were not chosen or consecrated to be served but rather to serve, to
give our lives as a redemption.
I want to ask you, my priests, to join me now in renewing our fidelity to the promise made at
our ordination. In brief, dear brothers and sisters, all of the People of God, it will be a promise of
fidelity to the Lord who is, who was and who will come; a vow of fidelity to the Church as the
universal sacrament of salvation; and a vow of fidelity to mankind, to people who are suffering and
hoping.
May the Faithful Virgin, our Lady, who was constrained to live with such intense priestly fervor
that first Holy Thursday in history, renew us priests during this year of Reconciliation, of interior
renewal and reconciliation. May she help us to be truly faithful. Amen.

Homily at the Liturgy of the Lords Supper

My dear brothers:
Again we celebrate the Lords Supper. Jesus is, in a special way, among us. Tonight we sense
that we are His brothers and friends. We feel the need of this fraternal fellowship with Christ and with
all men. This is the evening for encounter, love and friendship.
Before the feast of the Passover, on the vigil, knowing that His hour had come, the hour decided
upon by the Father, the hour of the ultimate sacrifice and of self-giving to His friends, having loved
those who were with Him in the world, whom He had chosen from the people, Jesus loved them to the
end, that is, He loved them absolutely, even to the madness of the cross.
My dear brothers and friends, what gives meaning to todays feast is precisely this dimension of
love which leads Jesus to establish an unbreakable communion with His people, and to assure them of a
loving, fruitful presence to the very end. The reality that gives meaning to all this is precisely that
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mysterious experience of love and friendship which we today are looking for desperately because we
cant find it anywhere and we need it so.
This is the evening of love, the evening on which Jesus institutes the Eucharist as a sacrament of
love and the priestly Order as a service of love. This is the evening on which Jesus leaves us a unique
message of love that is very simple and deep, easily understandable but very difficult to put into
practice: Love one another, for I have loved you; Love one another as I have loved you.
Tonight we recall these three mysteries: the Eucharist, the priesthood, the new commandment.
All are related to love. I want now to say a few words about how this love lights up our solitude,
removes our antipathies and propensities to violence, and opens up our hearts to service.
My brothers, love lights up our solitude and immerses us in communion. The Eucharist is
communion. How tremendous is human loneliness today: the loneliness of the person who lives in a
mass society, who senses that he is surrounded on the outside but is so alone on the inside. There is no
worse loneliness than that of the person who walks among the crowd but feels he or she is passing
alone through the darkness, devoid of the light of love and friendship. The Christ of the Eucharist says
to us: Im your friend; Ill be with you to the end, accompanying you on your waywith you, with the
people of the earth and with history, up to the moment when everything flows into the eternal light of
the Father.
You and I also have been transformed into inseparable friends of all people everywhere. I dont
know your name, sir, but you need me and I need you. Youre not just a neighbor for me, you are my
brother. Christianitys original contribution lies in the fact that the word neighbor is now to mean
brother. It says, too, that there is a person chosen by the Lord and consecrated by the Spirit, a person
who s very fragile and very poor but nonetheless sealed by God, who is entrusted with building this
communion, with engendering this love in the hearts of his brothers and sisters, with proclaiming this
love. And that person is the priest, whose life has no meaning if it is not characterized by a generous,
simple and joyful attitude of self-giving. More than anyone else, this person, this priests, must be the
personification of Jesusthe visible, palpable, inseparable friend of others.
Lord, how alone we feel and how much we suffer when were locked up within ourselves.
How we need You to accompany us. How we also need to approach our brothers to tell them: Dont
feel lonely; Ill go with you, Im your brothers. Christ is alive.
Love overcomes hate and violence. What a difficult moment we are living (here in Argentina)!
During these days, the number of dead has multiplied. How we sense within us our weakness and
powerlessness! What can we do to sow the seeds of peace? Lord, You are the Prince of Peace; You
desired to place Yourself, on an evening like this, among us to assure us of the unity of mankind. Yet,
this unity is broken every day. We live ignoring one another, hating ourselves and others, killing one
another. Help us truly to be brothers, and may we commit ourselves to the work of establishing peace.
There is a man who has been consecrated by the Lord to preach peace, a man who belongs to no
political party, who belongs to no particular human faction because he belongs to all; he is the servant
of God on behalf of men. He is a man whose presence alone must bring peace; a man whose word must
always constitute a call to the harvest of the peace that is born in freedom, justice and love.
Finally, love opens our hearts for service to our brothers. How many times, Lord, have I
walked beside my brother and not recognized his plight! How many times, Lord, have I failed to notice
that You were weeping in the person of my neighbor! How many times have You extended Your hands
to me through a poor person who was suffering, a starving or naked man who was seeking my
attention, my understanding or my gesture of friendship! And I passed by at a distance because I was
attending to many problems, had a lot on my mind and had to dedicate myself to the task at hand. Yet,
Lord, You were there. This very moment I must break out of my self-centeredness and venture forth to
the encounter.
My life must be a service, a gift, an expression of love.

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 Today we recall Your expression of Your gift. This is my body that is given up; this is my
blood which is shed. To surrender oneself, to shed or spill, are manifestations of giving. To forget
ourselves in order to serve our brother or sister! How happy we would be, if we lived in this wayin a
simple and joyful attitude of sharing and service!
Love lights up our solitude and facilitates communion. That is the Eucharist; that is the
priesthood. The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity. The priest is the person who communicates peace
in justice and love. The Eucharist opens mens hearts to the simplicity of service, to that service which
the priest or bishop during these very moments in imitation of Jesus action, is about to signal by
washing the feet of twelve members of our community. This action is nothing more than a symbol of
what must be his life, the life of his brothers priests, the life of the whole Church that serves all peoples
through the Word, the Eucharist and total self-giving.
My brothers: may this feast of love signify for us the joy of a new birth. May we, on leaving
here, go to a waiting world, bearing this simple message and gift. Tonight Ive learned what love is.
My heart has changed; I open wide my soul to embrace all people in this year of Reconciliation, of
encounter, of friendship.
Mary accompanies us our Mother, the Virgin of love and of the Covenant, of self-giving and
service she who gave us the Bread through the virginal flesh of the Eucharist, and the priesthood
through the life of Jesus, the Savior of all mankind.

GOOD FRIDAY

My dear brothers and sisters,

How many times have we gathered to celebrate Good Friday! From childhood we have viewed
the image of the Lordas sacrifice and offering to reconcile the world to the Father, to effect unity
among peoples who are hostile, divided, separated. Today we assemble once more, very simply and as
a family, in order to pray. We have not come to weep, nor simply to remember, but rather to make our
very own the passion of Jesus, to celebrate with joy this Christ-gift which brings unity to our brothers
and sisters.
The dispositions which should predominate today in this Good Friday celebration are love,
happiness and a sense of here-and-now realization.
Love: what gives meaning to Jesus passion and death is precisely His loving obedience to the
Father, in redeeming service to mankind. It is love for the fatherfor the world must know that I love
the Father and do as the Father has commanded me (Jn 14,31). Thus did Jesus announce His departure
for the crucifixion. Jesus passion is only understood from the depth of His loving obedience to the
Fathers plan. The Father wanted it this way.
God the Father loved us so much that He did not spare His own Son but gave Him over to
death. It is Christs love that cries to us in Pauls expression[he] loved me and gave himself for
me (Gal 2,20). Today there is no trace in us of rancor, hate, revenge or violence. There is room only
for love. Not even the memory of a Judas who betrayed the Lord remains in us; nor that of a Peter who,
out of weakness, denied Jesus. There is only the love of Christ, who says to the Father: Yes, Father,
because this is Your will. I must give myself to men in a saving way in order to set them free. It is
Christs love that frees us.
Joy! Today is not a day for sorrow or sadness. It is a day for profound recollection, reflection
and prayer, for very real participation in the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is not a day for mourning.
Today, the Passover begins. This is the hour for which Jesus had come into the world. It is the hour that
He suffers intensely as man, but which He lives providentially for the reconciliation of men and women
with the Father and among themselves. It is the hour He ardently desires: I have a baptism to receive.

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What anguish I feel till it is over! (Lk 12,50). Certainly it is the hour that He fears; yet it was for this
hour that He had come into the world.
Hence the Passover begins today and it is a day of celebration, of glory, of joybut of a very
deep, even austere joy, as the joy of the Christian should always be. Not that of a superficial or noisy
kind, of raucousness or waste, but rather the joy of forgiveness, of love and of reconciliation.
The passion realized in us! It is not enough merely to commemorate the passion today. We must
make it ours! Today Jesus passion must become my passion. Today I must begin to discern that the
Lords cross is truly prolonged in me, in my brethren, in peoples and in history. Today Christ continues
His passion among men and I also must proclaim as did St. Paul: Even now I find my joy in the
suffering I endure for you. In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ (Col
1,24).
For this reason, my brothers, my heartfelt wish, in this particular celebration of Jesus passion
on Good Friday, is that there be present among us an abundance of intense love, of deep joy and of
commitment to continual realization.
We have come here to pray, to meditate. But specially, Jesus, we have gathered to make Your
passion ours. I want my heart to change. I want to discover that You live in history; I want to commit
my faith to alleviating the sufferings of my brothers and sisters.
Hence it is, my brothers, that of the three parts that make up the solemn Liturgy of the Lords
Passion namely, a) the Word or the narration of the passion, b) the Veneration of the Cross, and c) the
reception of Jesus in Communion of these three parts, the second or Veneration of the Cross is surely
the most central. For all are adoring the cross of reconciliation, of glorification and of abundant
fruitfulness.
The crucial moment comes when the priest (or bishop in this case) uncovers the cross, presents
it to the people and they commence to adore Jesus Crucified in silence. This is not the adoration of one
who simple remembers something, but rather, of a person who yearns for it from the heart and relives
it. Lord, that is my cross. I place myself on it. I am responsible for that crossit heals me, regenerates
me, makes me strong and makes my life fruitful. It transforms my life. Lord, I am becoming more and
more aware that that is the cross which is prolonged daily in me, in my brethren, in nations, and in
history. I adore Your cross because I adore Your presence, Your sacrifice, Your love and Your friendship
which embrace all.
The Word prepares for this adoration. The Communion represents a participation in this cross
that becomes ours. Thus do we come to feel intensely that we are brothers, reconciled with the Father.
But, my brothers and sisters, may we reflect a bit more. We have just listened to a narration of
the passion according to John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved, the one who was able to understand more
about love because he had laid his head upon the merciful and tender heart of Jesus at the supper of
friendship.
I would like now simple to dwell on three aspects of the Lords passion. First, the prayer of
Jesus in the Garden of Olivesof Christ, who goes to that lonely retreat to pray. For, when one is
suffering, he or she needs to be alone, needs to pray, needs also the presence or spiritual support of
friends. Christ goes with His disciples to the Garden of Agony and there He suffers intensely. He
sweats blood because His grief is acute and He is profoundly human. Jesus cries out to the Father
simple, directly (notice how simple, complete, intense, and, at the same time, filial is His prayer):
Father, I can bear no more, give no more. Ive desired this hour, but now that its here, Im unable to
go on. If it is possible, let this cup pass. Yet, Father, not my will, but yours. This is Jesus prayer in that
harsh, difficult, hard moment of His passion. He needs to pray, to be alone, and He needs the spiritual
company of His friends. For this reason He is hurt when he returns to the Apostles and finds them
asleep.

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 My brothers, these are His gifts for when we have to suffer (when are we without suffering?),
for those more unbearable moments of our life, when sorrow or pain strikes deeply into our hearts,
when we too need solitude, prayer, the spiritual support of friends.
Later on, the unjust verdict! How awful it is! Pilate, who says three times, I find no guilt,
nonetheless washes his hands. Do what you will. And they condemn Jesus. They bring false
witnesses and some accuse Him before the civil tribunalThis is the man who has been stirring up the
crowd; he must be condemned And before the religious tribunal, they say He has called himself
Son of God; he is a blasphemer and must be put to death. However, they all wash their hands. The
Jews cannot enter into the praetorium, for fear of being contaminated. Let the Romans kill Jesus! But
the Romans retort, Let the Jews take care of it, for Jesus is a Jew! How easy it is to accuse a person
and later get lost in the crowd, wash ones hands! This is the second stage in the Jesus-mystery: the
Christ, unjustly accused. This, too, continues on in history and we relive it each day.
The third moment or stage in Jesus passion occurs when Christ takes up His cross, carries it on
His shoulders and walks toward Calvary. Just a few days ago, I relived all this in Jerusalem. Walking
along the Via Dolorosa of our Lord, I went up to the place of the crucifixion, celebrated Mass and later
descended to the Sepulcher. Today all this says so much to me about the Christ who dies, but who dies
having said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do (cf. Lk 23,34) about the Christ
who dies, but after having asserted, Today you will be with me in paradise (cf. Lk 23,43); about the
Christ who dies, but with a tranquil, serene conscience, uttering, The task is finished, everything has
been fulfilled (cf. Jn 19,30) about the Christ who dies, but who dies praying, Father, into your hands
I commend my spirit (cf. Lk 23,46); about the Christ who dies, but bestowing on us the greatest gift
He has, Son, here is your mother (cf. Jn 19,27). How serene, strong and fruitful is the death of Jesus!
This is the Lords passion that we are reliving today. This is the Word and the account of the
passion.
Immediately after the universal prayer for the Church and for the needy everywhere, we begin
the ceremony of the Veneration of the Cross. O Lord, humanly speaking, I do not understand the
mystery of the cross. You could have chosen an easier road for us humans who must follow Your path.
You could have elected another way more in accord with our weakness. Nonetheless, Lord, You did
choose the extreme route of the cross. And on the cross You give us Yourself; You offer Yourself to us.
Thank You, Jesus, for the cross!
For this cross signals the Fathers glorification. It is the supreme moment of Jesus life, in which
He glorifies the Father. For the world now stands redeemed, and a light burns in the hearts of men and
women. Grace enters the souls of people everywhere and humankind has come back to friendship with
the Father.
The cross! It is the cross of reconciliation. Once again, His people become friends of the Father.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world through his blood. Today we remember all this. Thus we
can no longer meditate on Jesus passion or venerate His cross without ourselves sensing a profound
desire to come back truly to the Father and to say to Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against You. I do not deserved to be called and treated as Your son or daughter; but receive me into
Your embrace, Lord, for Jesus has died to reconcile me to You.
Afterwards, there comes reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. Christ dies in order that we
might become members of the same family. At that very moment in which Jesus dies, the stone is split
in two. It is the equivalent of tearing down a wall dividing the Jewish people from the pagan. It is as if
God the Father were crying to His people everywhere, Why are you fighting and disputing among
yourselves? Why are you locked up tightly in your egoism and hostility? Dont you know that all are
sons and daughters of the same Father? Dont you realize that the very same blood has fallen upon you
all and made you brothers and sisters? Why do you live then in violence and omit grounding yourselves
in the love and justice that brings you true peace?

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 My brothers, the cross of Christ illumines our own crosses, the crosses that you and I are
bearing today. I dont know just what the nature of your cross is, but I am certain that we all have one,
whether we are teenagers, adults, elderly or even children! In this last respect, how often have we
sighed rather naively, Oh, to be a child again, free from suffering! As if even the very young dont
suffer! Is there anyone who cries more often, for example, than a child? Surely they too undergo a real
suffering, one that we adults find impossible to understand. Yes, for them, there is a cross. Whereas we
men and women adults know only too well what our suffering is, what our cross is.
Lord, we thank You for this cross; I thank You for my cross, for the one You have given my
brother priests, and for the one You have given my people. Lord, I thank You for this cross because,
without it, there would be no redemption, no grace, no Passover. Grant to me, Lord, as bishop, and to
my brothers, a heart serene and strong as that of our Lady. May this cross of ours become truly
luminous and productive for others.
Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat.
But if it dies,
it produces much fruit (Jn 12,24).
I thank You, Lord, for the moment that is approaching when You will bring about my
disappearance, my burial, as it were; for I am certain that in such manner does the Church grow and is
the Passover affected, out of which comes the reconciliation of peoples. How good it is to die as Jesus
did, if people everywhere are becoming more and more brothers and sisters, members of one family!
And finally, communion. The third part of our Liturgy involves today a participation in Jesus
Passover through receiving Communion. Today we will communicate; we will partake of the Blood of
Jesus; we will drink His cup; we will eat His Bread that makes us brothers and sisters. All this will
signal our commitment to bring to realization a familythe family of the redeemed, the family of the
reconciled.
O Jesus, we thank You because today, Good Friday, the day of Your self-gift (when You offer
Yourself as the first-born who gives His life for His friends), You call us to eat Your Bread, to partake
truly of Your Body. We thank You, Lord. Teach us to be brothers, that we might experience the rich
harvest of Your cross. May Your cross cast light also on our own suffering. Especially, Lord convert the
hearts of men and women everywhere. Change my heart and make it more fraternal.
Make me truly a brother to all peoples, especially to those who weep, to those who suffer, to
those who endure injustice, to those who are accused unjustly.
Lord, help me to walk with my brothers and sisters and participate in Your Body and Blood.
May we all proceed together toward tomorrows Passover, toward the Passover of history and toward
the final Passover, Jesus, when You will return. Then we will be a unique People, Body and Temple.
May Our Lady of the Cross, the Mother You gave us when dying, lighten our grief and open to
us the way in hope. Amen.

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Good Friday Night, 1974! Very different from that first night on which Jesus died, but yet also
identical. We live it together in intimate, fraternal communion. We sense ourselves united to Christ in
His death and in the hope of His Resurrection. As brothers, we pass along the route. Weve already
marched around the town square as a symbol of what life isa walking together in hope, sharing in the
passion and Resurrection of Jesus, aware of ourselves as brothers, committing our faith and the
generosity of our service to the positive building up of history.

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 A night different from that first night, yet somehow the same, of equal significance. The night of
a God-made-Man who offers Himself on the cross in order that men might truly become brothers.
Twenty centuries have passed. We humans have not yet learned the lesson. We continue to be
indifferent, divided, antagonistic.
My brothers, on this Good Friday eve, we gaze upon a woman who lived a very deep, but, at the
same time, very rich solitudea solitude of the greatest presence, of serene hope, of generous
communion with people. That woman is Mary. Tonight, without mentioning her name, we are mindful
of her presence. We bear her in our hearts. We will bring her with us when we return to our rectories
and homes. We will continue to think of her once Easter is over and we go back to our work-routine, to
confronting our problems and, especially, to the reality of pain, separation and of the indifference of
others.
That woman is Mary, our Mother, of whom Id like to speak tonight with all the fervor of a son
and to present to you as the symbol of what our lives must bea living of a new life in communion, a
building of a new world in love and a walking together in hope.
Christ dies on the cross in order to make us new. When Christ dies on the cross, everything in
history changes. The blood that flows from His hands and side falls upon those who are standing close
by, silent and sad. Is falls upon the Apostles who look on from afar, and upon the women who feel
devastated by the suffering. Christs blood falls upon them, but it is the blood of redemption, of harvest
and of hope. In addition, the Lords blood falls upon others who are closed to love, who walk in
vengeance, rancor, indifference, who are returning home with the satisfaction of having reaped a great
harvest, at finally having gotten rid of someone who was bothering them (for Jesus spoke of love,
preached about justice and tried to bring about union among brothers).
That blood of Jesus, my brothers, continues to be poured out in history. Today Good Friday,
1974 that blood mysteriously enters the heart of all of us who have accompanied Jesus.
It is poured out upon all who suffer and hope, who endure loneliness or do not know Jesus
name, who go about life perhaps indifferent or fearful. You and I have marched silently, thinking,
praying, singing, making our own the pain of Jesus. Meanwhile, many other persons, perhaps in their
homes or in bars or casinos, with indifference and without hope, were thinking about many other
things. Upon all these people, Jesus blood tonight has split, calling each and every one to a new life.
May this Good Friday, 1974, signify for us for me, as bishop, for my brother priests, for
religious and laity, for those who believe and for those who search a new stage, a stage illumined by
faith, dedicated to the building of a new world in unity, under the guidance of our Lady, of her who was
alone on this very night, but who knows that her solitude represents the greatest presence,
fruitfulness and hope.
Mary senses that all that is going on within her her self-abnegation, her solitude, her cross has
a meaning; that all that somehow implies a new life for all humans, then mutual reconciliation and
reconciliation with the Father. She knows that if, at the present moment, she experiences acute
aloneless, it is in order that men and women may eventually be able to cry outFather, I will come to
You; I will encounter You! In addition, Mary knows that the human heart has now been opened and
has embraced the Someone for whom it was searching for centuries in order to say, Thank You. You
are my brother. For Marys solitude signifies encounter with the Father, reconciliation and forgiveness
on the part of brothers and sisters.
I would ask you then, my dear brothers, before you return home tonight to your homes, Is there
not someone tonight from whom you need to ask pardon and forgiveness? Is there not someone with
whom we should share a sincere and fraternal embrace of reconciliation or, at least, with whom we
should commit ourselves this night of our Ladys solitude to promoting unity among all persons?
Surely there is someone who awaits our greeting, our peace, our smile, our friendship. Especially
tonight, because it is the night of our Ladys solitude, the night for unity.

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 It is also the night for us Christians to commit ourselves to the building up of a new world in
loveLord, I want Your death to mean the definitive establishment and exaltation of peace. You have
given us life, not that we should hate but rather love one another. Lord, You have given us one
command only, one law: that we should love one another as You have loved us. And we know very
well, Lord, how You have loved us, for here and now we see You crucified. Help us to build a world in
love this, our world, the one in which we are now living, this history of ours, full of sorrow and
suffering but at the same time so full al hope this, our hour, Lord, that we must all live in fidelity to
You. Help us to live it in love.
To this end, though, it will be necessary that I open my eyes to Your cross and come to discover
that here and now this man on his cross is my brother, that this situation or suffering, or misery, or
injustice is truly the pain, infirmity, poverty or cross of my very own brother or sister. Lord, until I
come to understand what this love is, until I understand that I too must help to build the world of love
with my brothers and sisters, then things arent really going to change.
This night of Good Friday, then, is the night when we resolve to live in unity. It is also the night
when we commit ourselves to build in love. I am speaking especially to young people, who are the ones
who must live loves heroic outpouring, who are the ones who understand that the world is not going to
be built up with hate or violence but rather with the daily outpouring of love.
Finally, let us walk in hope. We have just made the Stations of the Cross, have walked reflecting
on the Lord, have shared in His falls, have felt the love of the holy women who accompanied Jesus,
have seen how Jesus died serenely on the cross and have witnessed how they lowered His body into the
tomb. Now we await the fifteenth station of the Via Crucis, the Resurrection. Together we shall go
about living this station; walking in hope, we shall begin realizing it in our lives.
Today, the whole of Good Friday, has been a day of reflection and of inner recollection. It has
also been a day of assurance and joy, because the Passover has begun. It is like the grain of wheat that
is buried so that ears may grow. It is Jesus who has opened His arms to unite all peoples and enable
them to become brothers and sisters. Today the Pasch has begun. Even now we should live this festive,
contagious climate of hope.
My brothers, weve walked together and prayed, without perhaps even knowing each others
name, but still sensing that we are brothers and sisters. What it signifies is that this very night we must
commit ourselves to walking together in our daily lives. Each one of you will return to his town or city,
to work or school or office, hospital or home. But we will continue walking together in hope and we
will be united in the certainty that this Christ who has scarified His life is not dead; that this Christ who
has given His life for all men and women has risen; that He continues on pilgrimage with us, continues
offering us His strength, encouraging us through a deep felt serenity born of hope, and committing us
in love to the building of history.
We will walk together in hope towards that Easter which already approaches and which, I pray,
will be the most joyous of all for you; towards the Passover of history, when all nations will finally
arrive at that New City, that celestial Jerusalem where there will be no weeping, grief or sorrow, no
injustice or poverty, where there will be no darkness, for everything will be light.
My brothers, with Mary, the Virgin of Sorrows; with Mary, the Virgin of Solitude; with Our
Lady of Hope, who kept hoping when everyone else began to vacillate, we will continue to walk during
this year of 1974 A.D. I would like sincerely to accompany you in your sorrow, to remove your
anxieties and sufferings and give you the assurance of the Resurrection; of the fact that Christ lives; of
the fact that this Christ who lies entombed has been with us this evening and continues to suffer in
history, in our brothers and sisters who suffer and live in poverty; and of the fact that this Christ has
also risen and continues encouraging and strengthening us on the road of life.
My brothers and sisters, may you have a joyful Easter Season. But may this one be a new
Passover, the Passover of reconciliation and of unity. Before leaving, let us embrace one another as
brothers, as a sign of that love which we want so much to give to the waiting world. Let us truly resolve
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to construct this new world in love and walk together bearing the light of hope. Let us walk toward the
unity, the communion and the light.
May Mary accompany us on our way. Amen.

EASTER VIGIL

My dear brothers and sister,

Happy Easter! This is the night of the light! The truly happy night! The night that unites heaven
and earth, the divine and the human. The night that possesses more clarity than the day itself! The night
that makes us new! The night that makes us witnesses of Someone who arose and lives. The night that
makes us sons and daughters! The night that gives us the water that cries out from within us, Come to
the Father! The night that makes us brothers and sisters.
We began the ceremony by blessing the light. Through the darkened church, we marched in
procession with the lighted candle, symbol of the Risen Christ, the truly new Man. Christ is the light
that enlightens every man who comes into the world. Christ is the light; and we, who tonight are
reliving the mystery of our own Passover by Baptism, sense that we once were made light in the
Lord. We will soon renew the commitment of the light. What a beautiful opportunity to experience
ourselves as renewed and to dedicate ourselves to making the whole world new! There was a time
when you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, says the Apostle Paul. Light produces
every kind of goodness and justice and truth (Eph 5,8-9).
How I wish tonight, my brothers and sisters, that we might appreciate more the responsibility
and joy of radiating this light to the world!
Light, Water, Bread!
The Light that makes us witnesses! The water that makes us children! The Bread that makes us
brothers and sisters! These are the three parts of the solemn liturgy on this night without equal!
The Light! The world walks in darkness and awaits from us the simple and daily testimony of
this Light. All around us, men and women are walking immersed in uncertainty, in longing and in
loneliness. Light is lackingthe light that is joy, hope and love!
What is it to be a Christian? To be a person of light! To radiate a profound joy; an unshakable
hope; a serene, transforming, burning love! This is what I am asking of you tonight, and you from me.
Would that we all might commit ourselves to You, O Lord, who are the only true Light. Would that we
Christians on this solemn night of the Paschal Vigil might truly learn how to be light! The world
outside goes its own way, in circles, in sadness. Lord, upon leaving here tonight, may I communicate to
that world the joy of a personal encounter, of an encounter with You, Jesus, as Brother and Friend, and
of an encounter also with this other brother and friend who is walking on pilgrimage with me through
history.
To be lightto communicate to all people a new joy!
To be lightto communicate and announce to everyone a firm hope! The world is immersed in
the darkness of discouragement, fatigue, pessimism and despair. My brothers, tonight is the night of the
light, that is, of hope. When we held those lightened candles in our hands, I saw that history was once
again clarified, that the world outside, still immersed in darkness, was once again illumined by a new
Light which arose from the Risen Christ. And I sensed that Christians were experiencing within both
joy and hope! Yes, it is true, Christ has risen and He lives! We shall walk together in hope!
It is the light of love. To live in the light is to live in love. St. John tells us this:
The man who claims to be in light,
hating his brother all the while,
is in darkness even now.

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 [For] God is light (1 Jn 2,9; 1,5).
He does not live in God because he does not live in his brother.
To encounter God is to discover that He lives in our fellow humans. To love God is to serve
Him who lives in others. To live in the light is to live in fraternal union. Hence, my brothers, to be light
in the Lord is to dispose ourselves to embrace all peoples, knowing them to be our brothers and sisters.
Night of the Paschal Vigil! Night of light! The light of joy in a world that is dying of sadness;
the light of hope in a history that is paralyzed by pessimism; the light of love in a world that is cracking
and breaking because of selfishness, hatred and violence.
The water! But, my brothers, that light has a source, a font! And that font is the water that we
are about to bless now. The bishop will bless this water, out of which new creatures, new Christs, are
bornwater, which once cooled our foreheads, in which we were born as new Christs through the Spirit,
and which made us new men and women.
The whole world cries out for and awaits the new man. It longs for this new person. It speaks
often of the new society that precisely the new human is building. Such a great burden it places on us!
On this night of reconciliation and love, of light and hope, once more we shall sink our roots into the
fountain of living water: Lord, once again we shall be born in You through the power of the Spirit and
we shall become a new creation. Then we will be able to change the structures that oppress and
paralyze. And out of love, out of the Gospel and out of the resources of the beatitudes, we shall be able
to eliminate injustice and establish a social order that is the product of love.
Lord, I want to be a new person. I will be able to radiate everywhere the light of hope and love
in the measure that tonight I decide to truly die again to sin which is the injustice that oppresses me and
the egoism that encloses me within myself, and to really open myself to You through justice and love.
We have prayed in the third reading tonight that those of us who have been baptized into Jesus
death might begin to live a new life; that those of us who have stripped ourselves of the old man,
may now arise as new men. For, the new man is three thingshe is fraternal, sincere and free.
The free person, as distinguished from those of us who live under oppression and ourselves
oppress. The sincere man, as distinguished from those who do not trust one another and who
complicate life. The fraternal person, as distinguished from those who do not know how to approach
and address this person who walks at ones side, who suffers and needs assistance.
To be light in the Lord! But, in order to be light now, years later, through immersing our roots in
the water of the living font that has given us Baptism in the Spirit.
The Bread! Lastly, we will consume the Bread, the Host. We shall share the Eucharist. We will
be one and the same bodyall of us who partake of the same Christ. We shall form a community. It is
not enough tonight that we here have changed as individual persons. Nor it is sufficient that we have
wept for our sins and that our hearts have exploded into the Easter Alleluia. Nor is it enough to have
saidLord, indeed, I want to change, I want to fulfill my responsibilities to You and to my neighbor
better.
It is not enough. We must decide to form a new community; we must desire that the one
Christian community become truly an authentic communion of faith, hope and love. For what really
changes the world is not simply the isolated testimony of an individual person. What really changes the
world is the witness of a community that loves and is committed, through love, to changing history.
Today we are together to celebrate Jesus Passover, to sing Alleluia! Brothers and sisters who
have come from near or far; brothers and sisters whose names I know and dont know! Brothers and
sisters, all, a new creation in Jesus! We are about to sing the Alleluia. We are about to experience the
reality of the Risen Christ who has returned to immerse Himself in our lives, who continues on
pilgrimage with us. Also, however, we are about to commit ourselves to being a new community, to
being new people born in Christ through the Spirit.
Men and women, suffused with light, born of Jesus Passover! Communicators of happiness and
hope! Sowers of love! Men and women capable of breaking out of their individualism, of embracing
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fellow humans as brothers and sisters and of truly forming community, a community of deep prayer, of
fraternal charity and of generously dynamic mission.
May the Virgin of Easter, the Virgin of happiness and hope, of silence and of light, the Virgin of
the Alleluia, this night cause to shine in us, through us, once again the assurance of the Risen Christ.
May the Virgin of the New Man and New Woman make us also a new creation through the Spirit.
May the Virgin of charity and service enable us to see our brothers and sisters and lead us to truly
embrace the world, lighting it up through a joyous harvest of love! Alleluia! A happy Easter to all!

BIOGRAPHY

1920 December 3, born in the city of Nueve de Julio, Argentina

1943 December 5, ordained a priest
1964 Ordained Auxiliary Bishop of La Plata, Argentina
Named Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Avellaneda
Appointed peritus at the Second Vatican Council
Served as participant at the four Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops
1968 Chosen Secretary-General of the Latin American Bishops Conference (CELAM)
1972 Elected President of CELAM
Named member of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Pontifical
Commission for Latin America
Preached the Lenten Retreat for the Roman Curia and for the Holy Father, Pope Paul VI
1976 May 29, made Cardinal of Holy Church
Appointed Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes

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