“It is a very old tradition that the friars of the Custody relive every second Sunday of Lent.” This is how Br. Sebastiano Eclimes, the superior of Dominus Flevit, described the mass celebrated on March 15. This liturgy kicked off the pilgrimages that take place every Wednesday of Lent to retrace Jesus' passion in the places where it actually took place. At 4 p.m., the small church of Dominus Flevit, which is located on the slopes of the Mount of Olives was filled with friars and faithful. Dominus Flevit means “the Lord wept,” and it recalls the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying, “If you only knew, on this day, the way of peace. [...] You did not recognize the time of your visitation” (Luke 19: 41-44). During his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the [very] first Palm Sunday, Jesus looked down on the city and predicted its downfall.
“This cry of Jesus is the cry of God in regards to the human misery that comes from rejecting God,” said Fr. Matteo Munari, a professor at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, in his homily. Every pain, every suffering, every sadness comes from man's distance from God and therefore not only does man suffer but so does God. Fr. Munari continued: “We also remember those who have chosen to cry because they know that those who weep will one day laugh. Among those who have chosen to cry, we want to remember St. Francis of Assisi,” said the professor of the Studium Biblicum, after seeing the San Damiano Cross, since Jesus' passion had been deeply ingrained in Saint Francis' heart, so as to push him to live as crucified. “The greatest problem of the world is that God is not loved: this is the source of all other problems,” added Fr.Munari. “We want to unite ourselves to the cry of Jesus and St. Francis, knowing that God is still unappreciated, blasphemed, denied, misrepresented, misunderstood, betrayed by our sin.”
Fr. Stéphane Milovitch celebrated mass and other friars of the Custody of the Holy Land were also present.
The sanctuary of the Dominus Flevit was built by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi in 1956 on the remains of a fifth-century Byzantine church. The roof of the church has the shape of a tear, so as to recall Jesus' cry. Before Easter, Fr. Matteo Munari concluded: “Jesus knows that this cry is not the last word. There is joy; there is something big that awaits us, when we see the risen Jesus that will comfort us and wipe away all of the tears from our faces.”
After the mass, Br. Sebastiano Eclimes did the honors of offering all of the guests a small buffet, along with the natural beauty of the view of Jerusalem at sunset.
Beatrice Guarrera
The next pilgrimages for Lent 2017 will be held according to the following schedule:
Wednesday, March 22: Gethsemane, 4:00 p.m.mass
Wednesday, March 29: Flagellation, at 5:00 p.m. high mass.
Thursday, March 30: Bethany, 6:30 a.m. mass at the tomb, 7:30 a.m. mass at the church
Wednesday, April 5: Lithostrotos, at 5:00 p.m. high mass.
