Holy Week: Viae crucis and resurrection!

 Holy Week: Viae crucis and resurrection!

Wednesday I left for the East: From Bangassou to Obo is 500 km, of bad roads. An average of 25 km per hour, and that's more than 20 hours of driving....

I leave together with Fr. Jerome, a Polish Franciscan. Fifty kilometers from Bangassou he asks me a favor: if we can stop by and say hello to a sick woman. I gladly agree. The woman, Marie, has been bedridden for almost 4 years, with an unknown disease that is paralyzing her lower limbs and partly her hands. Brother Jerome tells me that when he passes by, he asks her if she needs anything, and Marie always replies, "bring me the blessing," or "bring me the Eucharist." She is young, and has 10 children.

When we get to the village, her children arrive, greeting me with a joy full of dignity and love (I can't define it any better!).

We enter the house, and Marie greets us with a big smile: the kota bwa (bishop) has come to bring me a blessing! We chat for a while, and then I bless her and her children, who surround her beaming!

I leave-almost mortified for so much faith and so much love and so much joy! I take Marie with me on this journey, and on Holy Saturday, at the vigil, I speak about her to the Christians of Obo: a woman who allows herself to be resurrected by the Risen Christ!

On Friday we leave Zemio at 5:15 a.m. The first stop is Mboki, 130 km away. We arrive there at 10:15. With me is Abbé Brice, who returns here after two years. He had left in 2023, wounded in the arm by rebels who shot to kill him!

He returns to Mboki today for the first time!

And for the people of Mboki it is a moment of great joy and emotion.

This village has suffered violence and killings, and they have been carrying a heavy cross for years!

The rectory and the church were occupied by the blue helmets and the army military (FACA), and only now the church has been liberated.

I had sent a lot of cement, and the community repaired the altar and some pieces of the floor. And people cleaned up the church, and even gave a coat of lime (I didn't dare ask how they bought it!).

Abbé Brice is staying here for the triduum, and in view of the celebrations people have asked to bless and rededicate the church.

On Friday we do the blessing (and I will reconsecrate it on Tuesday when I return here to celebrate baptisms).

There are altar boys with the cross. And before blessing the church I ask those present to pass by, touch the cross and enter the church. It is a very intense moment: the Cross has remained the only hope that has sustained them during these very hard years, an example but also a companion of so many days and nights. And it is a lesson of Love and faith!

I leave Mboki moved and touched deeply.

Today is Good Friday, and I spend it in the car, but I am in good company!

I arrive at 2:30 p.m. in Obo, the furthest parish in the diocese.

And at 4 p.m. I celebrate the Good Friday service, in a church full of people.

And I watch as children jostle each other, young people, adults and the elderly proceed to the Cross, touch it, kiss it. It is a small cross of 25 cm... but it is so big! The greatest Sign of God's Love for us.

Among the last, comes dragging on his knees a woman who cannot walk. And last is a blind woman.

For everyone, the Christ on the Cross is a brother, a companion in Life.

Who did not go to the Cross by accident, but willed it for each of us.

On Saturday night, Holy Saturday, I celebrate the Great Vigil in the parish of Obo. And on Sunday morning I give baptism to more than 70 boys and girls, and 30 First Communions.

Happy Easter!