The Papal Preacher, Father Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap, has urged Christians to choose good, not to return evil and to be patient in the face of trials in imitation of the Lord Jesus.
He gave the charge while delivering his homily on Good Friday, 3 April 2026, during the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
“Christians are called to approach the Cross of the Lord.”
“There is only us, who—by choosing not to return evil, by remaining patient in trials, by believing in the good even when darkness seems to swallow everything, can become those servants whom the Lord wishes to use to bring salvation to the world,” he said.
Amid conflicts in the Middle East and violence across Africa, the papal preacher stated, “In a time like ours, so torn by hatred and violence, where even the name of God is invoked to justify wars and decisions of death,” stressing that “we Christians are called to approach the Cross of the Lord.”
The 54-year-old priest decried that where “Wars do not cease, injustices multiply, and the most vulnerable bear the cost.”
Putting wars and conflicts in the context of the paschal mysteries, the preacher highlighted that “The Lord transformed His crucifixion into an event of salvation.”
Some Cardinals at the Liturgy of the Passion. Credit: Vatican Media
Speaking further, he stressed that “We see this continually: in wars, in divisions, in the wounds that mark our relationships.”
He urged Christians to be emboldened by Christ, whose passion teaches us to place “our lives at the service of others.”
Fr. Pasolini counseled that “If we hold fast to ‘our confession of faith,’ our days will give voice to songs of both joy and suffering—that mysterious ‘score’ of the Cross in which the notes of the greatest love can be recognized.”
The Capuchin priest maintained that the world needs to be purged of violence, injustices, and divisiveness, which ruin and humiliate humanity.
Salvation cannot “be guaranteed by political, economic, or military decisions.”
He stated that the salvation which Jesus offers “will not descend from above, nor can it be guaranteed by political, economic, or military decisions.”
However, Fr. Pasolini submitted that “the world is continually saved by those who are willing to embrace the songs of the Servant of the Lord as the way they live their lives.”
Stressing that the “score of the Cross is entrusted to us as well,” he maintained that we need to carry that “score with loud cries and tears,” to the end of our lives.
He urged the people of God to imitate Jesus, who did the will of the Father and left us an everlasting memorial.
Papal Preacher noted that “We can receive it freely if we accept that there is no difficult circumstance that cannot be faced, no guilty person at whom we must point the finger, no enemy who can prevent us from loving and serving,” God and neighbour.
“Normal men and women [ walk] the same path as the Servant of the Lord.”
He decried that the world seems to be contending with “a silent multitude of people who choose to listen to a different voice, which some recognize clearly as the will of God,” plus “others perceive it as a deep and inescapable call of conscience.”
Fr. Pasolini, however, was optimistic about others who “are normal men and women who walk, sometimes without even realizing it, the same path as the Servant of the Lord,” suggesting that these good and faithful servants “do not perform extraordinary deeds.”
The Italian biblical scholar and theologian underscored that “They simply rise each day and try to make their lives something that serves not only themselves but others.”
Again touching on the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness, peace over violence, the cleric clarified that “This multitude bears witness that the songs of that Servant, in whom God delights.”
According to him, they “continue to resound in the human heart, waiting only for someone willing to translate them into the concrete ‘score’ of one’s own life, even when this means carrying the cross.”
“The Lord transformed His crucifixion into an event of salvation.”
The member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin disclosed that “Jesus broke this chain not by imposing himself with greater force,” but through his passion “by walking the Way of the Cross.”
According to him, Jesus “learned the most difficult obedience: that of love for the other, even when the other appears as an enemy.”
Highpoints of service included the Liturgy of the Word during which the Papal Preacher delivered the homily, the Adoration of the Cross, and the reception of Holy Communion.
The Way of the Cross (Via Crucis) is slated for 9:15 pm at the Colosseum, where Pope Leo XIV leads this devotion and meditation on the 14 stations of Christ’s journey to Calvary.
