Here I am! From the Cross to the Resurrection
Photo by Marcus Ganahl on Unsplash
A new column to host the "Word of Mouth" of Father Nino Carta, a priest in Brazil for several years: thoughts after the Easter Triduum
The word “Here I am” is beautiful and moving, the word of mouth that introduced us to the mysteries of the Easter Triduum, the three days in which we celebrated the most heartbreaking and painful “Here I am” in history, but also the most fascinating, the most victorious and the most glorious: the Here I am of the passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus!
A Here I Am that seemed destined for total failure, like (remember?) that barren fig tree in the Gospel parable that the owner of the vineyard, tired and discouraged, wanted to cut down, but instead decided to wait another year, moved by the goodwill of the winemaker who wanted to try again, hoeing the soil and fertilizing it with patience and tenderness.
On Good Friday, as with the fig tree, the axe of death seems to cut short the life of the Son of God but, thanks to Jesus' "Here I am," the cross becomes the root of true Life, the maximum expression of the Father's plan of love for us "vinedressers."
I like to look at the times we are living in, a terrible winter of hearts, strewn with hatred, walls, fences and bloody wars that make our faith waver, without a glimmer of hope and with cries of lament and almost of defiance towards God:
“But You, O God, You who can do everything: why do You do nothing in this terrible situation?”
Where are You, O God, in the fratricidal strife in Sudan and almost all of Africa; where were You when Ukraine was invaded, when Palestinian terrorists massacred Israelis, and even more so in the terrible response of hatred and death in the Gaza Strip?
Where were you during the massacres in Iran and the escalation of a war that, by also destroying Lebanon, risks leading us to the Third World War?
“Yes, you who can: where were you and where are you, Jesus?”
A cry from the entire world in the face of the many tragedies of our time, tragedies that seem senseless and that only find meaning when contemplated in the light of the Gospel, aided by the mysteries of Holy Week that we are experiencing right now.
And so we discover that, if Jesus died more than two thousand years ago to purify our world from suffering, hatred and wars, He continues to suffer and die even today. in the barbarity of our wars, of death and destruction, in the deafening cry of thousands of children deported, killed and massacred, innocent victims of the madness of war.
Yes, because Jesus is always present in history, suffering and dying alongside those who die as victims of our tragedies and wars. Jesus still dies today, in the wars and sufferings of our time, always the first to suffer violence and be crucified again.
He suffers and dies with us today too, to give us strength and hope, but also to warn us: "Beware! Unless you repent, you will all perish!"
Words full of pain, blood, and love, which are not meant to be a threat to us and to humanity, no!
Jesus does not want to use any axe, as the owner of the vineyard thought he would do with the fig tree in the Gospel; His presence in the tragedies and violence of history is indeed a lament, a supplication, but above all it is an encouragement:
Courage, convert, change; reverse the direction of history! Transform your politics of domination into a politics of service! Transform your "throwaway" consumerist economy, which exploits the earth and accumulates ever more wealth in the hands of a few who control the course of history at will, into an economy that aims at the well-being of all.
“Convert!”
A typically Christian verb that invites us to return to being human, as He created us, and to live among ourselves in mutual love, because our destiny is not death but life, the Resurrection!
Maybe, the word convert yourselves It may seem austere and severe to us, but in the mouth of God-Love it takes on another tone and another meaning:
“Be new, be beautiful, be brothers and sisters, and never stop walking together, letting yourselves be enchanted by the blue sky of forgiveness and the fresh, clear air of mutual love.”
And since we know that alone it is not so simple, why don't we take courage and transform Jesus' cry on the cross—"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"—into the "Here I am" of the Risen One, a "Here I am" that is always a journey "together," choral and synodal, truly divine!
Pig iron
- “Word of Mouth” – Don Nino Carta's Facebook Profile (April 3, 2026)
Image
- Picture of Marcus Ganahl su Unsplash
A new column to host the "Word of Mouth" of Father Nino Carta, a priest in Brazil for several years: thoughts after the Easter Triduum
The word “Here I am” is beautiful and moving, the word of mouth that introduced us to the mysteries of the Easter Triduum, the three days in which we celebrated the most heartbreaking and painful “Here I am” in history, but also the most fascinating, the most victorious and the most glorious: the Here I am of the passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus!
A Here I Am that seemed destined for total failure, like (remember?) that barren fig tree in the Gospel parable that the owner of the vineyard, tired and discouraged, wanted to cut down, but instead decided to wait another year, moved by the goodwill of the winemaker who wanted to try again, hoeing the soil and fertilizing it with patience and tenderness.
On Good Friday, as with the fig tree, the axe of death seems to cut short the life of the Son of God but, thanks to Jesus' "Here I am," the cross becomes the root of true Life, the maximum expression of the Father's plan of love for us "vinedressers."
I like to look at the times we are living in, a terrible winter of hearts, strewn with hatred, walls, fences and bloody wars that make our faith waver, without a glimmer of hope and with cries of lament and almost of defiance towards God:
“But You, O God, You who can do everything: why do You do nothing in this terrible situation?”
Where are You, O God, in the fratricidal strife in Sudan and almost all of Africa; where were You when Ukraine was invaded, when Palestinian terrorists massacred Israelis, and even more so in the terrible response of hatred and death in the Gaza Strip?
Where were you during the massacres in Iran and the escalation of a war that, by also destroying Lebanon, risks leading us to the Third World War?
“Yes, you who can: where were you and where are you, Jesus?”
A cry from the entire world in the face of the many tragedies of our time, tragedies that seem senseless and that only find meaning when contemplated in the light of the Gospel, aided by the mysteries of Holy Week that we are experiencing right now.
And so we discover that, if Jesus died more than two thousand years ago to purify our world from suffering, hatred and wars, He continues to suffer and die even today. in the barbarity of our wars, of death and destruction, in the deafening cry of thousands of children deported, killed and massacred, innocent victims of the madness of war.
Yes, because Jesus is always present in history, suffering and dying alongside those who die as victims of our tragedies and wars. Jesus still dies today, in the wars and sufferings of our time, always the first to suffer violence and be crucified again.
He suffers and dies with us today too, to give us strength and hope, but also to warn us: "Beware! Unless you repent, you will all perish!"
Words full of pain, blood, and love, which are not meant to be a threat to us and to humanity, no!
Jesus does not want to use any axe, as the owner of the vineyard thought he would do with the fig tree in the Gospel; His presence in the tragedies and violence of history is indeed a lament, a supplication, but above all it is an encouragement:
Courage, convert, change; reverse the direction of history! Transform your politics of domination into a politics of service! Transform your "throwaway" consumerist economy, which exploits the earth and accumulates ever more wealth in the hands of a few who control the course of history at will, into an economy that aims at the well-being of all.
“Convert!”
A typically Christian verb that invites us to return to being human, as He created us, and to live among ourselves in mutual love, because our destiny is not death but life, the Resurrection!
Maybe, the word convert yourselves It may seem austere and severe to us, but in the mouth of God-Love it takes on another tone and another meaning:
“Be new, be beautiful, be brothers and sisters, and never stop walking together, letting yourselves be enchanted by the blue sky of forgiveness and the fresh, clear air of mutual love.”
And since we know that alone it is not so simple, why don't we take courage and transform Jesus' cry on the cross—"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"—into the "Here I am" of the Risen One, a "Here I am" that is always a journey "together," choral and synodal, truly divine!
Pig iron
- “Word of Mouth” – Don Nino Carta's Facebook Profile (April 3, 2026)
Image
- Picture of Marcus Ganahl su Unsplash
Photo by Marcus Ganahl on Unsplash
