St. Joseph Catholic Church

Dr. Kody W. Cooper

We cling to a hope for the coming light precisely when the night is darkest.

Bishop Robert Barron

Friends, on this Holy Saturday, in our Gospel we hear St. Matthew’s account of the resurrection.

ROME (CNS) -- Life must be lived as a journey seeking to follow in Jesus' footsteps, Pope Leo XIV said after completing the Stations of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum.

"Let us make our own the prayer by which St. Francis invites us to live our lives as a journey of ever-deepening participation in the communion of love that unites the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," he said at the conclusion of the nighttime service April 3.

It was the first time since 2022 that a pope presided in person at the candlelit ceremony; several bouts of poor health had prevented Pope Francis from attending the ceremony in his final years. It was also the first time since 1994 a pope carried the cross for all 14 stations -- something St. John Paul II had started at the beginning of his pontificate.

Pope Leo told reporters March 31 that carrying the cross for the entire route would be "an important sign because of what the pope represents -- the spiritual leader of the world today -- and because of this message that everyone wants to hear and say: that Christ still suffers." 

"I, too, carry all this suffering in my prayers, and I would like to invite all people of goodwill, people of faith, all Christians, to walk together, to walk with Christ who suffered for us to give us salvation and life, and to seek how we, too, can be bearers of peace and not of hatred," he had said.

Because 2026 marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo asked Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, who served as custos of the Holy Land from 2016 to 2025, to write the meditations for this year's Good Friday service.

St. Francis always invited the faithful to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the Franciscan priest wrote in his introduction. May walking the Way of the Cross "be more than a mere ritual or intellectual journey, but one that transforms our entire person and life."

The readings, prayers and reflections touched on the many forms of suffering and pain afflicting the world today, and implored deliverance from evil, temptations and fear.

"Every person in authority will have to answer to God for the way they exercise their power," he wrote for the first station, "Jesus is condemned to death." 

People have the power to: judge; start or end a war; instill violence or peace; fuel the desire for revenge or for reconciliation; use the economy to oppress people or to liberate them from misery; trample on human dignity or to uphold it; and the power to promote and defend life, or reject and stifle it, he wrote.

But Jesus says, "whatever you do to another human being, especially to the small and vulnerable, you do unto me. And it is to me that you will one day give an account," he wrote.

True power, he wrote for the 11th station, "Jesus is nailed to the cross," is rooted in learning how to forgive "and to bear the difficulties of life in peace, because it is not love of power that conquers, but the power of love."

For the eighth station, "Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem," Father Patton wrote about the women who weep throughout history. "For centuries, they have wept for themselves and for their children, children taken away and imprisoned during protests, deported by policies devoid of compassion, shipwrecked on desperate journeys of hope, killed in war zones, and wiped out in death camps."

"Give us tears once more, Lord, lest our conscience fade into the fog of indifference and we cease to be fully human," he wrote.  

For the 10th station, "Jesus is stripped of his garments," the priest wrote about the many forms of violation repeated today, such as torture, intrusive surveillance, rape and abuse. It also includes "when the entertainment industry exploits nudity for the sake of profit; when the media exposes individuals to public opinion; and even when we ourselves, through our curiosity, fail to respect the modesty, intimacy and privacy of others."

"Remind us, Lord, that each time we fail to recognize the dignity of others, our own dignity is diminished. And whenever we condone or take part in inhuman behavior toward any person, we ourselves become less human," he wrote.

At the conclusion of the Way of the Cross, Pope Leo gave his blessing and recited a prayer written by St. Francis, asking that "God give us miserable ones the grace to do for you alone what we know you want us to do and always to desire what pleases you."

"Inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, may we be able to follow in the footprints of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and, by your grace alone, may we make our way to you," he prayed.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A message of nonviolence and quiet endurance marked the Good Friday liturgy at the Vatican, during which the Passion of Christ offers an example of breaking the cycle of violence that continues today.

Delivering the homily during the solemn Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion ahead of the evening Via Crucis, Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, the preacher of the papal household, urged the faithful not to give in to violence, but rather find the "discreet and stubborn song that invites (us) to love."

"We are all constantly tempted to use a little bit of aggressiveness, a little bit of violence, thinking that without these means things will never be resolved," he said April 3 in St. Peter's Basilica. "The servant of the Lord cannot give in to this instinct."

The rite began with Pope Leo XIV's silent procession down the central nave. Dressed in red vestments, symbolizing the blood of Christ’s Passion, he somberly lay prostrate before the altar, a sign of adoration and penance. The readings recounted Christ's passion and death on the cross.

At the moment of the veneration of the cross, the pope removed his chasuble and shoes and knelt before the crucifix in a gesture of humility. Clergy followed one by one, venerating the crucifix on bended knee and with a kiss.

Father Pasolini’s homily echoed Pope Leo's repeated calls for an end to war, warning that "in a time like ours, still so lacerated by hatred and violence, where even the name of God is invoked to justify wars and decisions of death…."

He said this evil continues "to circulate because it always finds someone willing to return it and multiply it."

The homily emphasized that resisting this evil of violence is neither easy nor instinctive. Faced with injustice, the natural human reaction is to retaliate or "even the scores." Yet Jesus refused that instinct entirely.

"He accepts everything without returning violence," Father Pasolini said. 

Jesus "broke this chain," not through superior force, but by embracing suffering and responding with forgiveness, silence and compassion, the papal preacher said.

Father Pasolini pointed to what he called a "silent line of people," ordinary men and women who, often unnoticed, choose to resist hatred in their daily lives.

"They get up every day and try to make their life something that is not only for them, but also for others," he said. "They carry burdens that they have not chosen, they receive wounds without becoming bitter, they don't stop looking for the good, even when it seems useless."

Evan Nohara

I was no longer simply a police officer performing first aid but rather a character in a cosmic drama where heaven meets earth.

Dr. Richard DeClue

How does the death of God Incarnate redeem others? We can from St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas to help us comprehend this profound mystery.

Bishop Robert Barron

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples to go into Jerusalem and prepare a Passover supper.

ROME (CNS) -- God doesn't exist to grant victories or to be useful by providing wealth or power, Pope Leo XIV said.

Through Jesus, he serves humanity by offering himself in a way that transforms human hearts so that they may then be inspired to love others unconditionally, in turn, he said in his homily during Mass of the Lord's Supper in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

"Jesus purifies not only our image of God -- from the idolatry and blasphemy that have distorted it -- but also our image of humanity," he said April 2, Holy Thursday. "For we tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared." 

However, he said, "Christ offers us the example of self-giving, service and love" so that humankind can learn how to love according to what true love is.

In fact, he said, learning to act like Jesus "is the work of a lifetime."

The Lord loves not because those he reaches out to are good or pure, Pope Leo said, but simply because "he loves us first."

"His love is not a reward for our acceptance of his mercy; instead, he loves us, and therefore cleanses us, thereby enabling us to respond to his love," he said. "He does not ask us to repay him, but to share his gift among ourselves."

"In him, God has given us an example -- not of how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how to give it," Pope Leo said. 

"As humanity is brought to its knees by so many acts of brutality, let us too kneel down as brothers and sisters alongside the oppressed," he said. "In this way, we seek to follow the Lord's example."

The pope's words came during a Mass that commemorates Jesus' institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood, and includes the traditional foot-washing ritual, which reflects the call to imitate Christ by serving one another. 

Pope Leo returned to an earlier practice of washing the feet of 12 priests from the Diocese of Rome in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. The pope poured water from a golden pitcher onto the foot of each priest, wiped each foot dry with a towel and then gently kissed each foot.

Pope Francis had departed from the norm after his election in 2013 by celebrating the Mass in one of Rome's "peripheries," such as prisons or nursing homes, and by washing the feet of men, women and their infants, Muslims or people of no faith, as a sign of his dedication to serve everyone unconditionally. 

Pope Francis' predecessors had always chosen either 12 priests, laymen or boys from the diocese for the ritual held either in the Basilicas of St. John Lateran or of St. Peter.

By choosing 12 priests, 11 of whom he ordained last year, Pope Leo highlighted the Mass' commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist and of holy orders.

"The intrinsic bond between these two sacraments reveals the perfect self-gift of Jesus, the high Priest and living, eternal Eucharist," he said in his homily. 

"Beloved brothers in the priesthood, we are called to serve the people of God with our whole lives," he said.

Jesus' disciples were astonished by their master's gesture and, like Peter, "we too must 'learn repeatedly that God's greatness is different from our idea of greatness … because we systematically desire a God of success and not of the Passion,'" he said, quoting Pope Benedict XVI.

"We are always tempted to seek a God who 'serves' us, who grants us victory, who proves useful like wealth or power. Yet we fail to perceive that God does indeed serve us through the gratuitous and humble gesture of washing feet," he said. "This is the true omnipotence of God."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to reject comfort, power and domination and instead embrace a mission rooted in self-giving love, even when it requires risk, vulnerability and suffering.

As Catholics prepare for Easter on Holy Thursday, Pope Leo also called on the faithful in his homily to overcome fear and a sense of powerlessness in responding to the world’s crises. 

"In this dark hour of history, it has pleased God to send us to spread the fragrance of Christ where the stench of death reigns," he said April 2 at St. Peter's Basilica during Mass. "Let us renew our 'yes' to this mission that calls for unity and brings peace."

While grounding his remarks in the teaching of his predecessors, saints and clergy, the pope in this homily placed particular emphasis on the Church’s mission through his own eyes as a missionary. 

The first step of accepting the Christian mission, he said, is to risk leaving behind what is familiar and certain, in order to venture into something new.

"Every mission begins with that kind of self-emptying in which everything is reborn," he said. 

It is through this self-emptying that Christians encounter the love of Christ, the pope said. 

At the heart of his first Holy Thursday homily as pope, he reflected on the nature of Christian love, saying it is rooted not in power, but in self-giving.

"Jesus’ journey reveals to us that the willingness to lose oneself, to empty oneself, is not an end in itself, but a condition for encounter and intimacy," Pope Leo said. "Love is true only when it is unguarded."

He said true peace is not found in remaining comfortable, but in embracing the risk and detachment that mission requires. Calling it a “fundamental secret of mission,” the pope said “everything is restored and multiplied if it is first let go, without fear,” a process repeated “in every new beginning, in every new sending forth.”

God calls upon the faithful to take risks, so "no place becomes a prison, no identity a hiding place," he said. Every mission requires reconciliation with the past, with the "gifts and limitations of the upbringing we have received," the pope said.

Once the faithful are able to detach from what is familiar and comfortable, Pope Leo said they must then "encounter" the other through selfless service and the sharing of life. This detachment, he said, creates the conditions for authentic encounter rather than control.

He emphasized that it is a priority that "neither in the pastoral sphere nor in the social and political spheres can good come from abuse of power."

He pointed to the example of missionaries, a role he held as an Augustinian in Peru, whose work must be rooted in service, dialogue and respect.

"The great missionaries bear witnesses to quiet, unobtrusive approaches, whose method is the sharing of life, selfless service, the renunciation of any calculated strategy, dialogue and respect," Pope Leo said.

Rather than seeking to "reconquer" increasingly secular societies, the pope said Catholics must approach as guests, not to impose, but to listen and accompany.

The Church’s mission, the pope said, is guided by the Holy Spirit, and the faithful must not try to control it but instead follow its lead, entering each culture with humility and "respecting the mystery that every person and every community carries within them."

In his third point, the pope explained that this mission is not a "heroic adventure" reserved only for a few, but rather the "living witness of a Body with many members," and every mission includes rejection and suffering. 

He recalled that the people of Nazareth were filled with rage when they heard Jesus' words and drove him out of the town. Every Christian must "pass through" a trial just as Jesus did, the pope said.

"The cross is part of the mission: the sending becomes more bitter and frightening, but also more freeing and transformative," he said.

Throughout life, Pope Leo said the faithful may be called to experience many "resurrections," as they immerse themselves in service. He pointed to the hope of many witnesses, one of whom "is particularly dear to me."

That witness is St. Óscar Romero of San Salvador, El Salvador, who wrote a month before his assassination that Jesus helped martyrs and if the need arose, "I entrust my last breath to him." 

"But, more than the final moment of life, what matters is to give him one’s whole life and to live for him," he wrote. 

He continued, saying that "despite my sins, I have placed my trust in him and I shall not be disheartened." St. Romero, remembered as a martyr for defending the poor and speaking out against injustice, was canonized by Pope Francis in 2018.

A successful mission is not about the results, but rather about the disciple's faithfulness and hope in God. Jesus embarked on a journey "in a world torn apart by the powers that ravage it," Pope Leo said.

"Within it arises a new people, not of victims, but of witnesses," he said.

Pope Leo is expected to wash the feet of 12 priests and celebrate Mass Thursday evening, commemorating Jesus' institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. 

Fr. Stephen Gadberry

The Lord invites us into love and service on this day of the Sacred Meal that instituted both the Eucharist and priesthood.