Thirteenth station
Waiting with Mary the Holy Spirit
C. We adore you, Christ risen, and we bless you.
T. For with your Easter you have given life to the world.
1L. From the Acts of the Apostles
Then the apostles went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is about half a mile away from the city. They entered the city and went up to the room where they were staying: Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Patriot, and Judas son of James. They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers (1,12-14).
2L. A supper, a mother
It's all about being ready, Shakespeare says. And the Risen tells his followers to get ready for the promised event that completes the events: Pentecost. Jesus' mother, there from the beginning, cannot miss the climax. Mary, the woman of Easter, God's non-obfuscated beauty. In the Magnificat she had sung to the God of Easter that now gave history a human face: "He sent the rich away, He has brought down the mighty, He has filled the hungry with good things, He lifted up the lowly." Isn't this the God that is doing great things?
This young woman, singer of the young song, the Magnificat, vigils now with Jesus' friends for the beginning of the new dawn. Vigil of prayer. Dawns are awaited in prayer: here is the vigil, the ancient Eve.
The youth are in vigil too, with Mary, the eternal youth. A younger world must dawn, a more just, warmer, more beautiful world. The place of the gathering is always the Supper, that needs the mother: Maria, the eternal youth. She educates us to keep our hands joined to know how to keep our hands open, our hands offered, clean, hurt by love, like those of the Risen.
Hands joined: the youth that pray are the youth that save themselves. And that save. They save themselves from the decrepit that is lack of enthusiasm. "How beautiful youth is/ that is still escaped, / who wants to be happy may be / there is no certainty for tomorrow." No, happiness without certainty is not possible. In the Supper the beauty of youth is affirmed, but is it proved that who wants to be young can be joyful. On one condition: that of the certainty of the future. And the future, however, will be - is - offered by the Risen. Today's youth, like the psalmist, hold vigil in the Supper preventing the future. "Awaken, harp and zither, I want to wake the dawn." We are Easter people. And joy is our song.
T. Rejoice, Virgin Mother: Christ is risen. Hallelujah!
C. Let us pray. Jesus risen from death, always present in your Easter community, shed on us, through Mary's intercession, still today, your Holy Spirit and that of the Father: the Spirit of life, the Spirit of joy, the Spirit of peace, the Spirit of strength, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of Easter.
T. Amen.
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