VATICAN CITY — During this year dedicated to the younger
generations, Pope Francis asked that the meditations for his Good Friday
service be written by young people.
Twelve young women and three young men between the ages of 16 and
28 wrote the reflections and prayers that will be read March 30 during the
Stations of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum — an event attended by the pope and
thousands of pilgrims, and one seen by potentially millions of television and
online viewers.
The pope is giving more than a voice to the voiceless; he's
giving them an actual world stage.
The man coordinating the unusual papal assignment was Andrea
Monda, a high school religion teacher in Rome, who tries to bring the
existential periphery of religion class to the fore with his docu-style reality
series, "Good morning, professor!" which is broadcast on the Italian
bishops' television channel, TV2000.
Monda looked for volunteers among his current and former
students, and it just unintentionally happened that more women than men wanted
to take the challenge, he told Credere, an
Italian weekly magazine run by the Pauline Fathers.
"Perhaps it's because we are more apt to get involved; new
things don't scare us. Boys overthink it too much," said Cecilia Nardini,
one of the many students who spoke to the magazine.
This unique opportunity shows just how much importance the pope
places on having young people's voices be heard, said Agnese Brunetti, 17.
Usually, she told Credere, "in
our everyday life, we are given the cold shoulder a bit. In a conversation with
adults, we know that our point of view won't be considered very much."
Sofia Russo, 18, said they had never written a meditation for
prayerful reflection before and "there are people much more qualified to
do it."
"But," she said, "perhaps the pope wanted to show
that the church is also made up of simple people like us" and that it
isn't always necessary to be a theologian, rather, "it's enough to have
experienced Jesus' love."
Monda had the group sit down together and read all four Gospel
accounts of Christ's passion. He then asked them to visualize and feel part of
each scene, and whichever of the 14 stations affected them the most would be
the one they were assigned.
Greta Sandri, 18, said she was struck by the 11th station — Jesus
is crucified — because an infuriated crowd had condemned Him. Today's social
networks often see similar tragedies play out, she said in her mediation, with
people "nailing other people's every mistake without a chance of being
pardoned."
She prayed, in her meditation, for God to help "to free me
from all the fears that, like nails, paralyze me and keep me away from the life
that you wished and prepared for us."
Maria Tagliaferri, who is studying nursing, and Margherita Di
Marco, a sophomore philosophy major in college, wrote the second station
together — Jesus takes up his cross.
They said they were only a few years younger than Jesus, who
today, they wrote, would still be considered a young man. And yet, He was able
to take what life had to offer seriously and stick things out, knowing there
was a "hidden and surprising" meaning behind it all, they wrote.
For them, on the other hand, "how many times have I rebelled
against and gotten angry at the responsibilities I received, that I felt were
burdensome or unjust? You don't do that," they wrote, praying they, like
Jesus, could learn to embrace their crosses and discover resurrection and glory
in pain and suffering.
Russo, who wrote the eighth station — Jesus meets the women of
Jerusalem — said Jesus interacting with the least, the marginalized and those,
like women at the time, not deemed worthy of being addressed, made Him
"truly revolutionary."
Jesus knew what suffering awaited the world, and His frank and
direct warning to the women "hit me," she wrote.
Today, so much effort is put into twisting words with a "a
cold hypocrisy that hides and filters what we really want to say. Warnings are
increasingly avoided and one prefers to leave others to their fate, not taking
care to urge their well-being," Russo wrote.
Jesus, she added, speaks like a father whose intention is
"correction, not judgment."
For the 10th station — Jesus is stripped of His garments — Greta
Giglio saw in Jesus, "a young migrant, his body destroyed, arriving in a
too often cruel place," exploited by people ready to strip away everything
he has for their own benefit.
Francesco Porceddu, 17, who wrote the seventh station, said that
when Jesus falls for the second time, he gets back up with love, not haughty
pride.
Jesus knows "that at the end of the struggle there is
paradise; you get back up to guide us there, to open the doors to your
kingdom," he wrote. His prayer was for all young people to hear Jesus'
message of humility and be guided by Jesus and His love.
"Teach us to help those who suffer and fall near us, to dry
their sweat and put out our hand to pick them back up," he wrote.